Well, ladies and gents, here's a brand-spanking-new chapter fic for you all. Yes, it's another Zemyx. Shaddap, it's my OTP! The world needs more Zemyx!

Anyway! So. Yeah. About the fic. I don't really know how I came up with this idea, really, I just . . . . did. It popped into my head one morning, and I thought about it, and it just . . . . worked. And it was so cool that it just wouldn't leave me alone. Which is how I ended up here. Explaining how confusing and weird circumstances surrounding this fic are. Yeah.

Before you ask, yes, Evanescence fans, you may listen to the song while reading this. Do it with my blessing. No, the song did not inspire the fic. I was just trying to come up with a title for it, and the name popped into my head. And then I realized that it was actually a pretty good theme song for the fic.

So! I should explain here. Yes, this is a Zemyx. (You'll see.) But for most of the fic, they will be referred to as "Myde" and "Ienzo". Confusing? Don't worry. All shall be explained in time.

I'll shut up and let you read the chapter now.

Rating: T. For some . . . . er . . . . situations and themes to come. In fact, I might just up the rating to M. Not sure yet.

Disclaimer: It wouldn't be legal if I owned it. Obviously, it's still perfectly legal. So it must therefore logically follow that I don't own it. PUT TWO AND TWO TOGETHER.

For Celendiar. She really, REALLY deserves this one. Because she sat around listening to my fangirl squees and confusing explanations of this story. Here's to you, sweetheart. Enjoy.

On with the show!

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Imaginary

by ShadowAili

Chapter 1

Zexion and Myde were the best of friends. Always had been, as long as they'd known each other. Where one went, the other was sure to follow. They were inseparable.

Myde was always cheerful and upbeat to the point of stupidity. He wasn't very popular at school in his home world of Twilight Town. He was a little too goofy, too different. His friendship with Zexion made him even less popular. Kids would constantly tease him about it. But that didn't bother him. It didn't matter. As long as he and Zexion were friends, everything would be okay.

Zexion was Myde's opposite - calm, collected, intelligent. He was even less popular than Myde. Actually, Myde was the only person who knew Zexion at all.

See, the thing about Zexion was, he was invisible to everyone but Myde.

At first Myde's parents paid this new "friend" no mind. It was a perfectly natural stage of their son's development, they reasoned. So they'd smiled and nodded the day Myde had come home and "introduced" them.

The blonde six-year-old quickly realized something was up. "Can't you see him, mommy? He's right here!" he whined, pointing.

She smiled. "Sorry, honey, I can't. But I'm sure he's there. Hello, Zexion!" She waved at a spot three feet to the left of the slate-haired boy.

Myde scowled. "No, mommy, he's right here. See, I'll show you." He ruffled Zexion's hair.

His new friend slapped his hand away, scowling. "Stoppit, Myde."

He pulled the offending appendage back, ashamed. "Sorry."

Zexion shrugged. "'S okay."

He turned to his mother, beaming, but she just smiled uneasily. "That's nice, honey. Mommy has to go make dinner now."

"Make some for Zexion, too! And he's gonna sleep over tonight!" Myde called after her. Then he turned back to Zexion. "Sorry. I guess grownups have this weird blindness thing or something.

Zexion shrugged again. "Oh well. I'm your friend, Myde. You're the only person I need to see me."

---

Myde quickly learned that it wasn't just grownups who didn't know that Zexion was there. In fact, no one but Myde could see the slate-haired boy.

"I don't get it," he sniffled after a particularly cruel bout of teasing one day. "I can see you, hear you, touch you. You're real for me. Why aren't you real for them?"

Zexion hugged him consolingly. "They're just meanies anyway. How cares about them?"

"I know . . . . I just . . . ." Myde sniffled. "I just wish, sometimes, that you could be real for them. Maybe then they wouldn't be so mean . . . ."

Zexion leaned into him, burying his face in the blonde's shoulder. "Sorry, Myde. If I could be real for them . . . . and they'd stop being mean if I was . . . . then I'd do it. I'm sorry."

Myde hugged his friend tightly. "It's okay. You're still my friend. That's never going to change."

"Promise?"

"Yeah. I promise."

---

When Myde was eight, a new family moved in next door, the Hikaris. They were interesting because they were from another world - a peaceful little backwater called Destiny Islands. Since inter-world travel was so rare, everyone was clamoring to meet them, and curious about what strange customs they had. When Myde's parents learned that the Hikaris had twin boys about Myde's age, they immediately saw an opportunity for their son to have some real friends, and wean him from his "imaginary" one.

"Myde, why don't you go see the new neighbors?" his mother asked.

He grinned and nodded enthusiastically. "Mm'kay. C'mon, Zexy!" He waved to his slate-haired friend, who smiled and got up from the couch, where he was reading some book or another.

"Um, Myde," his mother said hurriedly. "Maybe it's a better idea to leave Zexion here. I mean, since the neighbors are going to be meeting you and, well . . . ."

Myde frowned. "Anyone who's friends with me can be friends with Zexy. He's my best friend, I'm not gonna leave him out." And with that, he skipped out the door gleefully, Zexion following with a smug little smirk on his face.

Mrs. Hikari opened the door and smiled. "Well, now, who's this? Hello there," she said kindly.

"Hello, ma'am. I'm Myde! I live next door. And this is Zexion, my best friend, only no one can see him," he said, gesturing to the other boy.

Mrs. Hikari looked to the boy intently. "Oh, really? I can't quite see him, but . . . . gray-ish hair, very pale, dark clothes?"

Myde gasped. "You can see him!"

"Not quite. But I can just make him out. Hello, Zexion, it's a pleasure to meet you. And of course, it's very nice to meet you as well, Myde," she said, smiling. "Come on in. Would you like to meet Roxas and Sora? I'm sure they'd love to meet you."

Myde nodded enthusiastically. "Can everyone from your world see him?"

She laughed. "No, I don't think so. I'm just . . . . sensitive, is all. I'm surprised you can. You're a very special person, Myde." She ruffled his blonde hair, earning a happy grin from the boy. "Now come in! I'll get you some of the cookies I just made. Boys! We have a guest!" she called.

Two boys came tumbling down the stairs, one blonde, one brunette, giggling madly as they fell over each other. Twin pairs of blue eyes looked up at Myde. "Hello," they chorused, giggling breathlessly.

"I'm Sora," the brunette said as he stumbled up.

"And I'm Roxas," the blonde said, brushing himself off.

"Hello! My name's Myde. And that's Zexion over there," he pointed to his friend, who was currently staring at the kitchen entrance Mrs. Hikari had disappeared into, "but I don't know whether or not you can see him. Because, well, I can, and your mom kinda can, but . . . ."

Both boys looked at each other, and slow smiles spread over their faces, as if they were sharing a secret.

"Sorry, we can't see him," Sora said, smiling regretfully.

"But we believe you," Roxas said solemnly, though also smiling. "Especially if mom can see him."

And then both boys bounded over to Zexion and waved enthusiastically.

"Hi there! I'm Sora and this is Roxas," the brunette reintroduced them. "We can't see or hear you, but we can kinda sense you. You must be Zexion! It's nice to meet you!"

Zexion jerked in surprise and gaped at them. "What . . . . what the . . . ."

Both tousled heads whipped around to look at Myde. "What's he say, what's he say?" they demanded.

Myde cleared his throat. "Umm . . . . well . . . . he's very surprised," the blonde said, confused. "We aren't used to people knowing he's there."

Roxas waved this concern aside. "Don't worry about it. We're just special. Nice to meet you, Myde. I think we're all going to be good friends." And he grinned.

---

From that day forward, the four boys were fast friends. Admittedly, Zexion was always with Myde, or else the Hikari twins would be having a very one-sided conversation with the slate-haired boy, but they all coped and had a great time.

One day, when they were all eleven, the four of them were walking through town, looking into the stores for something interesting. Myde looked absently into the window of a music store, chatting excitedly about the upcoming Struggle and offering suggestions on who he thought would win.

And fell in love.

"Myde? Why are you glued to the window?" Zexion asked indifferently.

"I think he's drooling," Sora observed.

Roxas grinned. "Looks like Myde's found something he likes. Why don't we go in and ask about it?"

Myde ripped his eyes from the blue stringed instrument and nodded enthusiastically. The other boys all laughed and dragged him inside.

"That?" the store owner asked curiously. He was a short-haired blonde with blue eyes and a black design tattooed on his cheek. "That, m'boy, is a sitar. You like it, huh?" Myde grinned and nodded so hard he was surprised his head didn't fall off. "Well, why don't I take it down for you and you can have a look at it."

Myde handled the instrument carefully, lovingly, lifting it up slowly despite its weight on his small arms, running slender fingers over it, eyes widened in awe.

"She's one of a kind, she is," the store owner said fondly. "I think you'd like her."

Myde nodded, his eyes devouring the prize he held. "She's beautiful . . . ."

"Never thought I'd have to compete with an instrument," Zexion muttered.

The blonde laughed nervously. "Sorry . . . ."

"Don't apologize," the store owner (who of course had no idea that Zexion was present) assured him. "Nice to see a kid who's interested in a thing of beauty." He frowned thoughtfully. "You want her?"

Myde nodded feverishly, looking up to the man pleadingly. "But . . . . my parents would never pay for her . . . ."

He grinned and ruffled Myde's hair fondly. "Well, then, why don't I put her in reserve for you? Even if your parents won't pay for her, you can just save up the money for it and pay me once you can. And in the meantime, I'll be happy to let you come in and teach you to play on her. How's that sound?"

Myde smiled brilliantly, setting down the sitar carefully, and then threw his arms around the store owner. "Thank you, thank you, thank you so much!" he cried. "Thank you, Mr. Shopkeeper!"

The man laughed and patted Myde on the back. "Hey, no problem, kiddo. But one condition."

Myde nodded feverishly, willing to promise anything.

"No more calling me 'Mr. Shopkeeper.' That's something you'd call an old geezer. The name's Zell, Zell Dincht. But you better call me Zell." The man grinned, ruffling Myde's hair.

Myde nodded, grinning hugely. "Nice to meet you, Zell. I'm Myde, and these are Sora and Roxas Hikari." Everyone shook hands.

In the midst of the introductions, though, Myde couldn't help but notice out of the corner of his eye that Zexion looked a little lonely.

---

Myde strummed on the sitar lovingly, crooning softly under his breath. A few feet away, Zexion watched him practice, smiling wistfully.

"Nice job, kid!" Zell said when he stopped, grinning. "You're getting pretty good at that. You and Nocturne really go well together!" Myde had named the sitar Nocturne and commonly referred to her as "his baby."

Myde nodded, smiling. Then he glanced to Zexion, who was now looking at the floor. He sighed. "Um, Zell? There's something I wanna tell you."

The man cocked his head to the side curiously. "Yeah, sure, Myde. What is it? You saved up enough to buy her yet?"

"N-no . . . . getting there. This is something else. Um . . . . please don't think I'm crazy." Zexion's head jerked up, and he stared at Myde incredulously.

Zell's eyebrows went up. "Okay. What is it?"

Myde took a deep breath. "Well, you know how sometimes I say something . . . . and it doesn't seem to be to you? Or fit with whatever we're talking about?"

The blonde man nodded.

"Well, that -"

"Absolutely not," Zexion cut in. "No, Myde. You don't need to lose any more friends over me. I forbid you to tell him."

Myde looked at his best friend apologetically. "Sorry, but I have to. Zell," he turned back to the older man, "it's because there's someone else there. You can't see him. Nobody but me - and kinda Mrs. Hikari - can. Sora and Roxas know he's there, but they can't see him or talk to him."

Zell stared at him for a few moments, then nodded. "Okay. Cool."

Myde and Zexion both stared at him. Then Myde squeaked, "Wh-what?"

Zell shrugged. "I know you're not crazy, kid. And I had noticed that there was someone else you, Sora and Roxas seemed to be responding to constantly. I figured if you wanted me to know, you would have told me. And so you have." He grinned.

Myde blushed. "W-well, um . . . . yeah."

"So, who's the mystery man?" Zell asked, his grin spreading.

"Zexion," Myde mumbled.

Said slate-haired boy walked over to Zell and poked him incredulously. Zell didn't feel a thing, of course. "Y'know, Myde, I think he's the crazy one," Zexion muttered.

"Hey! Don't be mean, Zexy!" Myde protested.

Zell laughed. "What'd he say?"

Myde flushed. "He thinks you're insane. I dunno why," and here he scowled deeply at his best friend.

Zexion shrugged, smirking. "I don't have to be nice to anyone but you, Myde, you're my best friend," he said coolly. "Who cares about anyone else?"

"But Zell's being really nice," the blonde whined.

Zexion shrugged again. "Who cares? You're the one who wants his friendship, not me."

"Zeeeeeeex," Myde groaned, chucking a box of guitar picks at his friend. Zexion yelped and dodged, still smirking smugly.

Zell laughed. "Well, pleasure meeting you, Zexion. Hope we'll get along. If only because friends of friends should get along."

"Do you really, honestly expect me to believe that you think I'm real?" Zexion hissed, glowering darkly.

Myde flushed and repeated the question, but not quite as harshly.

Zell smiled. "If he's real to you, Myde, then he's real. I believe you." He ruffled the blonde's hair. "Don't worry, Zexy, I'm not out to steal your little boyfriend."

Zexion and Myde both flushed and began to protest loudly. Zell threw back his head and laughed hysterically.

---

When Myde was twelve, and Zexion still hadn't disappeared, his parents finally became concerned enough to try taking him to a couselor.

"Myde, you have to make Zexion go away," the counselor told him gently.

The blonde set his jaw stubbornly. "Why?"

"Because . . . . these kinds of things just aren't normal."

"You can take your precious 'normal' and shove it up your ass," Zexion muttered, slouching lower into the couch.

Myde sniggered.

"Is something funny about what I said, Myde?"

The blonde smirked. "Sorry. Inside joke."

"Myde," the counselor said sharply. "This blatant disrespect of your elders is unacceptable."

Myde jumped up. "What's to respect? You idiots can't even see what's right in front of your faces! C'mon, Zexy, let's go." He reached out a hand to help up his friend from the couch. Zexion smiled as he reached up, his fingers closing over Myde's, warm, firm, real. They both walked out hand in hand, Myde muttering darkly to himself, and Zexion, for once, smiling brilliantly, ignoring the angry calls of the counselor from behind them.

After that, Myde didn't talk about Zexion very much. Both of them had agreed that it was best to attract as little attention to their unorthodox friendship as possible, for Myde's sake.

---

"You know my friend, Olette, right?" Roxas asked one day, when it was just him, Myde and Zexion sitting and chatting lazily in a small field - Sora had detention for making faces at the teacher.

Fourteen-year-old Myde nodded, clutching Nocturne to him. He'd finally managed to save enough to buy the sitar from Zell a few months ago, just before his birthday, but still went to see the blonde man and play for him often. Right now, though, he was still having trouble letting go of Nocturne for even the space of a few minutes. School was torture.

"She . . . ." Roxas hesitated a little. "She asked me to . . . . to tell you that she likes you."

Zexion, who had been lazily playing with a blade of grass, perked up.

"And she . . . . wanted me to ask you if you'd go on a date with her," Roxas continued.

Myde flushed, opened his mouth, closed it, looked down, fingered a few chords on Nocturne, and looked up again. "Well, um . . . ." He glanced to Zexion, a blush still dancing across his cheeks, and then back to Roxas. "Well, I . . . . guess that'd be okay . . . . I mean, she's . . . . she's pretty cool, and nice and cute and all . . . ."

Zexion stared at him, openmouthed. "You can't be serious," he said lowly.

"Why not, Zexy?" he asked, looking down to the sitar in his lap.

"You hardly even know her!" the slate-haired boy cried indignantly. "C'mon, Myde, are you just going to go out with every random person who says you're cute or something?"

"What's it to you, anyway?" he asked defensively. "It's not like me dating someone else is going to mean that we're not best friends anymore!"

"Oh really? And how long would it take before anyone you liked called you crazy and demanded you get rid of me?" Zexion responded. "How many people would accept me, or you being friends with me for that matter? I'm not fucking real, Myde, remember?"

"You are real!" Myde cried. "Hello, would I be talking to you if you weren't?"

Roxas sighed. "I always feel so out of the loop in these kinds of situations," he confided to a daisy.

"Not to anyone else, I'm not! And unless you can find some random miracle person, I doubt people are going to be very accepting of me! Of my situation!" Zexion hissed. "God, Myde, would you just think for once?"

"So what, now I have to choose between having a best friend and having a love life?"

Another mournful sigh from Roxas. "Sometimes I wish we could all just get along and live simple, happy lives."

"Don't you dare make this about me! I am trying to look out for my best friend!"

"Well, maybe I don't need you looking out for me! Why do you have such a problem with me trying to connect with anyone who doesn't automatically acknowledge your existence?"

"Because I do exist, and I don't appreciate being ignored!"

"Well, as you oh-so-kindly reminded me, to everyone else you don't exist! So if you don't like being ignored, then you might as well just leave me alone for once!"

"Fine!" Zexion snapped. "I'll just leave you to your precious real people! They're the only ones who matter, right? Never mind that I've known you longer and better than they ever will, I'm not real, so I'm not as important as them! Well, fine! I'll go find some way to be real while you're busy with all your new friends and dates and all those stupid people who matter more than your own best friend!" And he jumped up and stormed off.

"Z-Zex, wait!" Myde called after him, but the slate-haired boy just kept walking until he was out of sight. Myde stared after his friend, deeply shaken. They'd had fights before, sure, but then they'd still been together, just sitting in chilly silence until one or the other said something and they started talking and they somehow became friends again. Zexion had never flat-out left before.

"What'm I supposed to do?" the blonde whimpered to Roxas, panicked.

The other shrugged helplessly. "I don't know. You two are best friends, right? So he'll be back eventually. I'm sure of it."

Myde nodded worriedly. He looked down at the sitar in his hands and fumbled out a chord or two, his fingers shaking. "By the way, Rox. Umm . . . . tell Olette . . . . she's cool and all . . . . but I'm just not interested in her. Not like that. Okay?"

Roxas stared, and nodded slowly. "All right."

"I hope Zexion comes back soon," Myde whispered.

"Don't worry, I'm sure he will," Roxas reassured him.

Roxas was wrong. Myde never saw Zexion again.

---

Fast forward a few years. Myde, Roxas and Sora were all seniors in high school now.

Not long after Zexion's disappearance, Myde had become wildly popular. He was the band program's darling, and the star of the swim team. He was cool, funny, smart, interesting. Wherever he went, flocks of people congregated around him.

It didn't matter. Now that Myde had what he'd once wished for, he wanted back what he'd had. But Zexion was gone, gone without a trace. Myde had never forgiven himself for that. His only close friends were the Hikari twins, and even they were shut out of his confidence to some extent. He was cheerful and kind, but distant. It didn't matter. Everyone fell over themselves to hang out with him anyway. He got offers of love every day; each was rejected. For a while, his fanclub theorized that perhaps Myde batted for the other team, but then he turned down several offers from other boys. After that, his fanclub began to pray that he wasn't simply asexual. Myde didn't care. He wouldn't allow himself to go out with anyone, not when it was that that had taken his best friend from him.

Especially considering that he'd been in love with Zexion.

It had been a simple crush at the start, that was all. One boy discovering his hormones and perpetuating them on another. But as time grew, so did Myde's attraction. He'd tried so hard to get the other boy to notice him, to view him in more than a platonic light. Accepting the date from Olette had been a desperate attempt to draw Zexion's attention. And it had backfired. Terribly. Myde couldn't possibly date anyone, not after that.

"So, Myde, you hear the news?" someone asked, jolting the blonde sitarist from his thoughts.

He looked up. "Huh? Oh, hey Kairi." He smiled. Kairi was one of the few people he considered anything like a friend. She was sweet, fun, and not interested in him at all. Though the last wasn't too surprising, considering she was a lesbian. Yep, they got along. "What news are we talking about here? I do hear a lot, you know." They would often get into contests over who knew the juiciest gossip in school, since all the latest gossip tended to get to Myde immediately and Kairi was very good at sniffing out things. She'd make a fine reporter one day.

She grinned. "We're getting an exchange student from another world!" she said excitedly.

"Oh, I knew all that," Myde replied, grinning back. "My family's the one housing him."

She gaped. "No way! How did I not hear about this earlier!" she demanded, hitting him on the shoulder. "Myde, you horrible, horrible person! You're supposed to tell me these things!"

He laughed. "Just wanted to see the look on your face, Kai," he said teasingly.

She moaned despairingly. "And here I thought I was going to have something really big to hold over you. I could taste victory, and you stole it out from under my nose, you evil child!"

"There, there." He patted her back in mock consolation.

She grinned and fisted him good in the ribs, then gave him a huge hug. "Idiot. Don't know why I hang out with you."

He shrugged. "You sure you're not secretly in lo-" Myde stopped at her expression as she stared over his shoulder, absolutely frozen. He turned to see what she was looking at and grinned wickedly. "Well, I think Miss Yuffie Kisaragi is looking especially good today," he murmured.

The redheaded girl let out a strangled sound and punched him again, glaring. "Shut up!"

"Why don't you just ask her out already?" he laughed.

She sighed and looked away, a blush tinting her cheeks. "I'm not sure if she's even into girls. And besides, even if she is, what if she doesn't like me? And then I'd be an object of gossip instead of a perpetuator of it. That would be horrible."

Myde patted her back in real sympathy. "You know, if you don't tell her soon, you'll regret it for the rest of your life," he said softly. "Believe me. I made the same mistake once, and it's cost me dearly."

She looked at him skeptically, one eyebrow arching. "What's this? The great heartbreaker, Myde, actually admitting to having feelings?" she asked teasingly.

He smiled. "Yeah. But no telling. Don't wanna ruin my rep."

Her eyes softened, and she nodded. "Don't worry, Myde. You know me. I don't spread anything around that's really personal. Especially about my friends. I won't pry."

"Thanks, Kai." He smiled gratefully.

"So . . . ." And now the wicked smile was back. "You know about the new person we're getting, huh? I can take my defeat in stride. So tell me."

"Tell you what?"

"Everything, duh! Name, gender, appearance, homeworld, whatever!"

Myde laughed. "Actually, I don't know much more about him than you. I know that it's a boy, and he's from a place called the World that Never Was." He shrugged. "Aside from that, there's really no information on him. Not even a name. Guess I'll just find out when I meet him."

"A mystery man, huh?" Kairi grinned. "Well, tell me everything you can once you meet him. Speaking of which, when's he coming?"

"Oh, tomorrow," Myde said casually, and grinned at her squeak of outrage. "Don't worry, Kai, I will supply you with details galore when I can."

She glared. "You are an evil bastard. But have fun."

He smiled. "Will do."

---

"Myde, honey, we're home! And we've got company! Come and say hello!"

Myde sighed, jerking his headphones off his ears. "I'm kinda busy, Mom!" he yelled. "I've got homework!" He returned to his Calculus, muttering to himself.

A few minutes later, someone opened his door, and a terribly familiar voice said, "You don't even have the time to say hello, hm?"

Myde gasped and whirled. And there, by some freak chance, was - "Z-Zexion?" he choked out.

The slate-haired teen started in surprise, and then his eyes narrowed. "No. My name is Ienzo. Who the hell are you?"

...To be continued...

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And that is the first chapter of the insanity called Imaginary. Hope you liked. Since it is odd and insane and I don't know where the hell I got the idea for it from. It just decided to hit me one day and demanded writing on top of all my other projects . . . . -cries-

Anyway, yeah. Don't even bother trying to predict anything that's going to happen with this fic. Because chances are you won't get it right. This fic is insane. Did I mention how hard a time I had attempting to explain it to Celen? Yeah, well, it was a pretty damn hard time. She's still mystified as to how the hell I pulled this out of my ass.

By the way, the Kairi/Yuffie is a nod to the amazingly fantabulous Metal Chocobo and her incredible story Ordinary Adventures, which got me hooked on the pairing. Go read. Now. I command thee. She writes much better Kairi/Yuffie than I probably ever will. And then leave her a prettiful review, because it's a great story and she works hard to make it so. And then go read her other stories! Because they rock my socks, too! And because The Element Demyxium made me cry. Do you see these emo tears? No, you don't, because this is the internet, but believe me, they're there. It takes a damn good story to make me cry.

Sooooo . . . . here's the part where you review and tell me what you thought! Please, please, pleeeeeaaaaaaase. (Yes, I'm begging shamelessly. I also don't care, dammit.) It really, really makes my day when I check my email and find the happy little review alerts, sitting there, being . . . . happy. Yay. And I really want feedback for this story, because it's very complicated and I'm putting a lot into it. So I would very, very much appreciate just a few minutes of your time to click on the little button that says "go", write me a review, and send it off. Thanks much for reading! Love you all!

Be seeing you . . . .

-Aili