This part ended up waaaaay longer than I expected. Still, I'm having a ton of fun writing this fic. It's the first time I'm really getting a chance to write from Axel's point of view, let alone focus on Roxas so much. It's also really refreshing to write about all these characters in a non-romantic setting. I don't think I ever realized how subtly complicated their relationships all were until I started working on this thing. Anyway, enjoy!

-o-o-

What Happily Ever After?

Part Two
Some Kind of Fascination

-o-o-

-Axel-

Ever realized how much something meant to ya only after someone tried to take it?

That's how I was about Roxas.

One day, he was just Number Thirteen, my frequent partner, the Chosen One with the keyblade, the hero's Nobody. He was special, but at the same time, he really wasn't. Like, he was cool and all, but I wasn't that much more fond of him than I was with any of the others in the Organization. Sure, we hung out a lot and shared ice cream every sunset on that clock tower in Twilight Town and talked about (or rather, I talked about) the randomest stuff, but... he was just part of my mission. That's all.

Okay, that didn't sound convincing, did it? Some say that Nobodies are incapable of making friends because they have no hearts. But me? I liked to consider Roxas my friend because, out of the entire Organization, he really was the one closest to me.

But I hadn't realized how close I considered him until he came along.

The guy who complicated things.

As soon as Riku collapsed in front of Roxas's boots and became part of the equation (the Axel 'n Roxas buddy equation), I started to realize how dependent on Roxas's attention I had become.

I didn't like the way Roxas looked at the guy. Even in town when he watched all those happy people, he was passive, just a silent observer.

But with Riku, it was like... there was something there that shouldn't have been there, some kind of fascination, almost a childlike curiosity. I'd never seen Roxas look at anything like that before.

It was at those times that Roxas wasn't Roxas, but somebody else. His Somebody. Sora.

Not that Sora would be able to retell the tale after Naminé got done with his memories, but I'd met Sora long enough to get a pretty decent idea of what he was like. Dedicated to his heart, dedicated to his friends, dedicated to his duty, dedicated to a fault. Everything was black and white to him. We Nobodies—Sora wasn't ever going to understand our shades of gray, so likely we'd end up as black on his radar in the long run, and hunted down one by one all for the sake of his "duty."

But not Riku. Sora would protect him.

Riku: now hewas a different kind of gray, wielding the darkness yet fighting for the light—or at least trying to. Most of what I'd seen of Riku had been Vexen's little clone of him, and even though Hotshot Scientist No. 4 had been confident in his data and the accuracy of the clone, there was no telling how accurate it had actually been. And despite how harshly the clone had treated Sora, the silly boy had still tried to save it. That's how special Sora's friends were to him.

Anyway, I didn't know much about Sora's friends. I knew that the girl who Naminé had tried to replace in his memories had been a princess of sorts, but she was supposed to be safe and sound back on their world; and I knew Riku's heart had somehow been possessed by the Superior's heartless and was still sorta plagued by it, and he was apparently powerful enough to wipe out a few Organization members, making him quite the target of interest for the Superior. That's all I really knew. You know, just snippets of what I had seen with my own eyes and what I had heard from everyone else.

So when it came to Roxas—Sora's Nobody—and the way he looked at Sora's best friend...

I didn't like it.

It was a nasty reminder of what we really were—shadows of who we used to be, shadows who weren't supposed to exist. And Roxas wouldn't existif he or Riku found out where Roxas had come from. After all, if I knew that my Somebody still existed somewhere, I'd want to meet him, too.

I couldn't let the two of them get too buddy-buddy with each other, and I couldn't let anyone else find out we were stashing an enemy in our stronghold. I'd probably be executed on the spot if one of my superiors caught wind of what Roxas had brought home as a pet.

Either that, or I'd get rewarded for bringing him in. Xemnas might have a field day if he got the chance to do a little experimenting with the kid. After all—why had his heart survived all that darkness when so many other hearts collapsed and turned into heartless? It was a good question. If Vexen were still around, he'd probably leap at the opportunity to mess with him some more. Heh, except I'd stabbed him in the back. (Not that there were any witnesses to that now.)

Regardless, I wasn't gonna take the risk by flaunting Riku's presence, so I was stuck in a very dangerous place either way.

So why had I done it? Why had I agreed to help short 'n spiky out?

Alright, I admit it. I was curious about this Riku guy. I hadn't heard of any otherhearts out there getting possessed by heartless, steeped in darkness, and somehow making it back mostly unscathed. I'd heard that Riku was a force to be reckoned with. After the shape I'd seen Zexion in after Riku had gotten through with him (and before, you know, I let the clone get 'im), I believed it.

I hadn't gotten the chance to meet Riku vis-à-vis at Castle Oblivion—which might have been a good thing. I didn't want to end up like Lexaeus, if ya know what I mean; he'd gone blade to blade with Riku and bit the dust. This was as good of an opportunity to meet Riku as I was ever gonna get, 'cuz at least this way I'd look like the good guy for helpin' him out, and he was too sick to shank me anyway.

So maybe if I played along with Roxas's curiosity, I'd get to see what made this guy so special.

The trick was not getting caught.

Well, getting past security was easy. We had no security except the lesser nobodies, and they obeyed us without question even though me 'n Roxas had a human with us. We were able to teleport right into the castle to the wing where our chambers were.

Roxas insisted on hiding the stowaway in hisroom.

"There are empty rooms, you know," I pointed out. Aside from the constant trembling, the lump in my arms hadn't stirred even once since we had left the crystal wastelands of Hollow Bastion. I might have thought him dead already if not for the sheer heat radiating off his body. "It's not like the missing ranks of the Organization are gonna be using them. I bet we could even find some hair stuff for pretty boy here in Number 12's bunk."

It was a joke, but the blasé look that Roxas gave me said he wasn't in the mood for playing. Well, Nobodies generally were never in the mood for that; figures that the one Nobody who acted like he had a heart sometimes wasn't the type who had a sense of humor.

"Neeeever mind."

"You're the only one who comes near my room," Roxas said quietly. "And it's the last one in the hall. Besides, they expect the other rooms to be empty. Suddenly having one locked would look suspicious."

Okay, he had a point. And there's no way I coulda kept him in my room with the way Demyx liked to walk in unannounced.

I sighed. "Alright, you win. Open up before you-know-who comes looking for our mission report and we're caught lugging this guy around."

Roxas didn't need to be told twice. He pressed his hand to the center of his door, and beneath his glove there was a small burst of light. Roxas's powers. I always thought they looked cool—a lot cooler than some of the others, anyway. I waited as the door shimmered and became translucent, letting us pass through it into Roxas's quarters.

But when Roxas moved to his bunk and started stripping the blanket off, I hesitated.

"Where are you gonna sleep?" I wondered.

Roxas didn't look up. "The floor." He gestured to the bed. "Put him here."

Sleeping on the floor? That bites. "Why not crash with me?" I asked as I set the human down. As soon as I did, a wash of frigid air hit me, and I realized how ridiculously cold this castle was. I'd never really noticed it before. But I guess it's not that obvious until you've been carrying someone as hot as a furnace around.

This time Roxas glanced up at me as if I were crazy, and I remembered what I had just asked him.

"Oh, right." I smirked and tapped my forehead. "Organization members don't exactly have sleepovers. I get ya."

"That, and someone needs to look after him." Roxas carefully rolled Riku onto his back and, with a delicate brush of his fingers, swept silver bangs out of the human's face. Though Riku's eyes were closed, his expression was wrought with pain. He was still holding onto his wound, too. A frown pulled across Roxas's lips. "We have potions in the ward."

"I'll get 'em," I said. Not that I needed to do much work. Lifting a hand, I summoned two of my little nobody buddies. Assassins, suitably named—though today they'd be contradicting their nature. I sent them off to grab the potions our enemy needed, and they flitted away to obey, silently phasing into the white and grays of the wall.

Then we waited. Roxas watched Riku as I watched Roxas.

The silence that ensued wasn't the kind of quiet that I was used to dealing with around Roxas. Usually we had a companionable air between us, but in that moment, I felt out of place. This sudden, strange tension in Roxas—I just didn't know what to do with it. The way Roxas hovered at the bedside and just watched Riku tremble and breathe—it was like there was no room for me.

It was just Roxas and his new little pet.

Things were already getting complicated and the human hadn't even woken up yet. And man, I wasn't used to being ignored.

When the nobodies returned, they deposited a couple of bottles each into my hands. Two hi-potions, an ether, and an elixir. Impressive. Dismissing the Assassins, I approached the bed and pressed the elixir bottle to Roxas's cheek to get his attention.

Blue eyes lifted to meet mine, and I smiled. "Special delivery."

Roxas regarded the elixir before taking it, his frown curling into a partial smile. "Thanks..."

Alright, so maybe nursing an enemy back to health would be worth it if I got to see Roxas smile every time I helped out a little.

Roxas pulled the stopper and reached out to move Riku's hand away from the tear in his coat, but Riku only pressed more firmly against his side, not letting Roxas access his wound. Was the guy awake?

After setting the other potions down, I stepped forward to help Roxas, easily prying Riku's hand off. For being so sick and mostly unconscious, he still had quite the strength, but it was no competition. I held his arm down and used my other hand to rip his coat open a few more inches to get a better look at the damage.

Though it wasn't bleeding anymore, the cut seemed fresh. It was only a few inches long, but there was no telling how deep it was. It was a really strange injury. Instead of inflammation along the severed skin, it was pale, so I thought maybe it had gotten infected, but... if that were the case, there would be redness, too. I lightly pressed against the edges of the wound, and his skin blanched even more.

There, like miniscule rivers of light, little white trails fed away from the cut and deeper into his body. There was something else at work here. No human or heartless had given him this wound.

"Saïx and Xigbar had a mission yesterday," I muttered aloud. Roxas wouldn't have known about that, though. Looking up, I explained, "This isn't a normal cut. Looks like Saïx got 'im with one of his claymore's points."

"Saïx?" Roxas asked, blue eyes widening. He knew what that meant.

For whatever reason, Xemnas had sent out two of his best Nobodies to get Riku. I got the feeling their mission hadn't been to kill him... More than likely, it had been to apprehend him and bring him in. If he had given them too much trouble, it made sense that Saïx would have just hurt him and left him there to suffer and weaken. Like a wolf stalking an injured deer. Except in this case, an unsuspecting little rabbit had decided to help that deer.

"Yeah. You probably haven't seen him fight much, but he's one of Xemnas's faves for a reason. See, Mr. Berserker's powers aren't all about rage and moonshine. He's clever. Calculating." I traced the edge of the human's wound again, and this time earned a soft, strained groan. The pressure made the white veins briefly visible before the faded cream of Riku's skin concealed them again. "This right here... is special. They wanted him alive—or at least in a lot of pain before he died."

"What do you mean?" Roxas asked. He leaned closer, whether with interest or some shadow of worry, I didn't know.

I glanced at him. "Do you know what a nobody's blood does to a human?"

"Nobodies usually just... disappear if they get hurt enough. I've never seen one bleed," he admitted. His brows knitted as he met my gaze. "We don't have hearts."

"Exactly," I said. "But we have bodies. We're mostly human, except for the whole 'no heart, no emotions' problem. I mean, we eat, we sleep, we talk, we think. We can bleed, too—it just takes a lot. We're made of both light and dark, you know. When our bodies—as nobodies, I mean—fade away, it looks like a buncha darkness." I pressed against Riku's skin again to show Roxas the veins of white more clearly. "But on the inside, that's where you find the light. That's why it's white. It's not real blood, but it drives us, so they call it blood."

Roxas studied Riku's wound with a look of wonder. "White blood..."

"Yup." I carefully took the open elixir bottle from him. "And since humans have hearts, a nobody's blood is like poison to them, even though it's just a form of light." Plus, with Riku's remarkably dark past, no doubt his body was outright rejecting that little bit of foreign light. But I didn't mention that; it'd just lead to more questions about Riku that would eventually point towards Sora. I didn't want Roxas to know about his Somebody if I could help it. All he knew about Sora was his name and that he was another keybearer, because that's all Xemnas had told him.

Roxas's gaze flickered to the bottle before returning to Riku. "So what's going to happen to him?"

"Heh, that depends on whether or not we get caught," I pointed out. I pressed the edge of the small bottle to the human's wound and gently tipped it, sliding it over the crevice to let the elixir wet it. I didn't use the whole thing because I was pretty sure this wasn't going to work anyway. "A few things can happen. His body can miraculously accept the nobody's blood, which I doubt. His body can reject the blood and expel it—or we'll have it take it out ourselves. Or the blood will eventually reach his heart and maybe kill him... or make him stronger. Who knows."

Another pained sound escaped Riku's throat, and when he made a weak move to cover the wound again, I firmly held his arm down and watched. Even with the strength of an elixir, nothing happened to the cut. As I suspected. It was like giving a poisoned person a potion; what they needed was an antidote. And in Riku's case, his wound wasn't gonna heal until something happened to that poison.

Although... Was it my imagination, or was his shaking subsiding?

Roxas's glove rested over Riku's chest. "Hey... It worked a little."

Okay, not my imagination. Roxas had noticed it, too, and he seemed... pleased.

"I guess that means he's gonna live a while," I commented. It came out dryer than I'd intended, and Roxas sent me a pointed look. It was guarded—not quite trusting, but not quite mistrusting, either. I couldn't blame him, though. I knew Roxas suspected that I hid a lot of stuff from him. I had to. Superior's orders and all. And right now, I was still torn between Roxas's wants and the Superior's orders. I was helping Roxas now, sure, but... if Roxas's pet made one wrong move, I knew I'd hand him over to Xemnas in an instant. Even though I was already hiding things from Xemnas anyway.

I found the stopper and plugged the elixir again before setting it with the other potions. Best to save the rest of it for later. Roxas and I had other things to do before we could continue playing doctor.

As I pulled away from Riku, though, something caught my attention. I hadn't noticed it at first, but—

Another problem: Riku smelled like darkness, and not just any kind of darkness, either. He smelled like the Superior. It was faint enough that it wouldn't draw unwanted attention, but anyone passing by Roxas's quarters might be able to detect it. I'd have to put Riku in one of my coats to help disguise it. For now, Roxas's blanket would have to do.

"We need to turn in our mission report," I reminded him as I spread his blanket out over Riku's immobile form.

Roxas straightened himself. "Yeah..." But he hesitated at the bedside with a lingering glance at the human, that indiscernible expression back on his face. I knew that he wouldn't want to leave his patient alone for long. I kind of didn't want to, either, not with the high risk involved. Besides, we were on a tight schedule.

I spread a hand and summoned a portal of darkness leading directly to the locker room. "Then let's hurry—we're gonna miss the sunset." I didn't have to elaborate on which sunset. We never missed our sea-salt ice cream, and I really didn't want to break that tradition because of this silly human.

Once again, Roxas met my gaze, but this time with a level of understanding. My partner was back; the shadow of Sora was gone for now.

The two of us stepped through the portal and into the locker room to change into new coats. Roxas didn't ask questions, so I assumed he understood about Riku's distinct smell. I just hoped that our efforts would be enough to avoid suspicion. When we were done changing, I conjured up another portal, and together we entered into a chamber I was all too familiar with.

Like many of the other rooms in our stronghold, it was an almost blinding white. Spaced out at varying heights around the circular wall were thirteen marble seats for each member of the Organization, though there were only eight of us left thanks to Sora, Riku, and yours truly. This was our conference hall, of sorts, but lately it was rare when all eight of us actually organized. At the end of a mission, usually only a handful of us gathered at a time, like now.

Roxas and I appeared in the center of the floor, facing the ascending chairs of our superiors. Only three of them were present: Numbers One, Two, and Seven—Xemnas, Xigbar, and Saïx, respectively. Number Three was absent, which put me on guard.

If Saïx and Xigbar had failed to retrieve Riku during their mission yesterday, maybe Xemnas had sent Xaldin alone today. If so, Xaldin might have already caught wind of who Roxas and I had run into and brought back with us. Or maybe... our mission at the bastion had only been a cover-up and they knew we would run into Riku?

This posed problems. I wasn't sure what to think now, and I hated that feeling. I was used to being several steps ahead of everyone. For now, I'd see if Xemnas himself brought up the subject; that wasn't exactly playing it safe, since if he knew we had Riku, I should be the one to turn Riku in, and if I didn't even mention the human, Xemnas would know I was trying to cover something up. But on the off chance that Xemnas didn't know about Riku's whereabouts, I didn't want to blow the secret. So—I wouldn't.

Xemnas peered down at us with his usual nonchalance, but I wasn't fooled by the lack of interest in his expression. Behind the cold amber of his eyes were the never ending calculations and observations of the most formidable person I had ever come across. Once upon a time, maybe he had been different with a heart and a sense of morality blurring his scientist mind, but without that heart, he was merciless.

His silver hair slipped over his shoulders as he leaned forward to address us. "Report."

As usual, Roxas let me do most of the talking, which was fine with me. I explained the outcome of the mission, like all of our missions dealing with heartless extermination, and when I was done, Roxas gave his estimate as to how many heartless he himself had wiped out. All throughout our report, none of our superiors glanced away, nor did the others say anything, not even when we finished. Maybe I was just being paranoid, but it seemed like we were being judged. At times, even though I was masking myself as well as I always did, it still felt like I had our secret branded on my face for them to see.

But not one word was breathed about Riku. No one proclaimed us traitors. The other members didn't suddenly teleport in and assassinate us for hiding an enemy in Roxas's room. Anything had been possible, but nothing happened.

After our report was finished, Xemnas dismissed us with a bored wave of his hand. I decided then that there was nothing more awkward than being guilty of something, coming so close to being caught red-handed, yet somehow getting away squeaky clean. Instead of just accepting the dismissal and leaving, I found myself blinking at my superiors as if they had just told me they were changing the dress code to pink.

Really? That was it? No dramatic hand pointing and accusations of treachery?

Xigbar must have mistaken my surprise for something else. He slouched back in his chair and smirked at us. "Relaaax, there won't be another mission for a few more days. Chill while you got the chance, yeah?"

"Uhh, sure," I said in reply as I sent a nondescript glance at Roxas, who was doing a better job looking more casual than I was. Well then. I wasn't gonna count our lucky stars; I was just gonna get the heck out of there. Saïx was already giving me a studious look, and I didn't want to give him more reason to suspect me of something. Slinging my arm around Roxas's shoulders, I gave a playful two-fingered salute to our superiors. "See ya!"

I teleported us away, and when the darkness cleared, the warm setting sun of Twilight Town greeted us.

Freedom. At least for now.

We were later than usual, but the girl at the ice cream cart greeted me just as cheerfully as always as I bought our evening snack. Roxas lingered behind, more solemn than usual as he observed the laughing humans nearby. Teenagers, about Roxas's age. We saw them often, though Roxas never approached them, and they never approached him.

I remembered the day I had first met my little buddy. After Xemnas had given Roxas his new name, I had sorta taken the kid under my wing. When I had been showing Roxas around the town, he had paused to watch those same human kids laughing as they all ate sea-salt ice cream. The look on his face then had reminded me of a kicked puppy, so I'd decided to buy some ice cream for him to get him to relax and open up to me more.

That was the first time we'd shared ice cream together on the clock tower. Now it was our own little tradition, and that tradition was more important to me than... well, not a lot of things were important to me, so I guess that spoke for itself.

The two of us took our ice cream to the clock tower, as always, and sat to watch the sun finish setting beyond the horizon. From there, we could see the entire town and all its people and the flocks of birds as they flew past us.

On most days, we'd sit a while and chitchat about random things as we nibbled at our ice creams. You know, to unwind after a daily mission or something. But not today. Roxas practically inhaled his treat, already finished with it by the time I got to the halfway point.

He was also a lot quieter than usual. I tried to bring up anything that wouldn't somehow lead back to Roxas's new pet human, but he didn't seem to be up for small talk. He stared down at his licked-clean stick as he listened to me. If he was listening. Sometimes I'd love to know what went on in that spiky head of his.

"Earth to Roxas," I said, waving a glove in front of his face. "You in there, buddy?"

Blinking, he glanced up at me for the first time since we had gotten our ice cream. He saw my forced smile and looked away again before changing the subject. "We shouldn't leave him alone for too long."

Great. Even if Roxas had a point, I still didn't like how easily Riku was already messing things up just by being there.

I stifled a sigh and lowered my gaze to my unfinished ice cream. The sun had finished setting, the sky now cast in a deep red, and the color glistened softly against the turquoise of the melting treat dangling from my fingers.

"...yeah," I agreed at last.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Roxas look at me again, probably in reaction to my hesitant tone. "Hey," he said, trying to sound upbeat. Without raising my face, I glanced back at him, and a small smile was tugging at his lips. Was he trying to reassure me? "Maybe he'd like some ice cream, too."

Right. I shoulda guessed.

Man, who was I kidding? Roxas wouldn't worry about me when he had a big chunk of his past lying unconscious on his bed. What was worse—now the human wasn't just intruding on the tradition, he was becoming a part of it.

But I wasn't the jealous type. Didn't have a heart, remember?

I formed a partial smile to his credit. "Sure." I lifted my dripping ice cream and popped the rest into my mouth.

After returning to the vendor and buying one more for Riku, I handed the bag to Roxas, and we headed to an alley to teleport back to the castle.

I'm not sure what I had been expecting when we got back to Roxas's room, but when the door shimmered and disappeared to permit us, I don't think either of us had imagined coming back to an empty bed.

I heard a rustle and slap as Roxas dropped the bag with the ice cream in it.

Both of us stared into the room for a long moment as if our eyes were just deceiving us. But no—the evidence was there. The empty bed, twisted sheets dangling onto the floor, the potion vials used...

The pet was missing.

I was the first to break our stunned silence. "Whaaat? Where'd he go? He couldn't even keep his eyes open, how'd he manage to teleport away?" At least, that was what I was gonna assume. He would've had to have teleported away; otherwise, there was no way he could have made it through the locked door without Roxas's powers.

Unless...

Roxas wordlessly hurried into the room, and I suddenly realized that that could be a very dangerous idea. I lunged after him, grabbed an arm, and jerked him back—

And just in time, too.

A streak of purple and black swiped through the air where Roxas had been just a split second before. An ambush. It missed, though barely, and Riku staggered out from his hiding spot next to the door, weakly clutching his wicked wing-shaped weapon in defense.

From an injured person or not, that attack still could have caused some serious damage—damage I wouldn't have been able to explain to our superiors. Maybe it was time we stopped underestimating this bastard and showed him who exactly was calling the shots around here.

When Roxas moved forward and stretched a hand out, I threw my arm in front of him to stop him from bringing out the keyblade and making the situation even more complicated. Riku didn't need to know who Roxas was.

"I got this," I said, and I didn't wait for a response.

I shoved Roxas back out into the hall and took charge, summoning one of my chakrams as Riku lifted his weapon towards me, pale-faced and looking as though he might fall to pieces at any moment. I didn't even know where he had drawn the strength to stand this long, let alone stay conscious.

But right then, I didn't care. I wasn't going to let him threaten Roxas again.

Before Riku could even flinch, I had closed the distance between us, slammed him against the wall, and stabbed my chakram through his hair and the hood of his coat, pinning him there between me and the wall. My other hand went for his throat, but I didn't clench. By the way Riku's green eyes widened behind his heavy bangs, I knew he knew that his life was in my hands.

He said nothing in that moment, but his eyes never strayed from mine, and I felt a pleased smirk curl at my lips as I studied him up close. His expression was an open book like this.

He wasn't scared of me. No, he was just surprised and probably disappointed in himself, and from the way his eyes gradually began to narrow at mine, I could tell he was beginning to accept his defeat, but only temporarily. This human wasn't going to settle down easily. I'd give him a day at most before he attempted another stupid stunt to escape. I'd better remedy that.

"Hi there," I greeted him, now grinning, though I made sure my expression had a malicious edge to it. I didn't want to give him the impression that I'd let him get away with doing that again. "I don't believe we've met in person yet, but I know aaaaall about you."

His eyes narrowed even more.

"The name's Axel," I said, not surprised when Riku didn't seem to recognize my name. I skipped my usual formalities and cut right to the chase. "And you're Riku, aren't you?"

Now he was outright glaring. Good. At least I knew he was lucid enough to understand me through his pain. He looked like he was in a lot of it, too. If not for the chakram point keeping him pinned to the wall, he probably would have collapsed again already. I'd let him hang there and suffer a bit longer while I got my point across.

"You know, I was in Castle Oblivion, too, and we all know about how you took out Lexaeus and Zexion," I continued, keeping my voice partly playful. Riku didn't argue against my accusation, even though it was only half true. "Numbers five and six. That's two senior members of the Organization. You must be preeeeetty powerful."

I lowered my hand from his neck to lightly prod at his wound with two fingers. He outright grimaced, his eyes squeezing shut as he grit his teeth and sucked in a sharp breath, his weapon dropping from his shaking fingers and dissolving back into shadow. He'd broken out into a cold sweat again.

"Hehe, at least when you're at full strength," I teased. "You look pretty pathetic right now."

A soft growl issued from his throat, and he cracked an eye open to send me another scathing look.

I offered him a smirk. "Tell me, Ri-ku," I continued, leaning close to get in his face, "you got any idea what my superiors would do to you if they knew I had you pinned here like a helpless little bird?"

His eye closed again as he tilted his head back against the wall and swallowed.

"No? Well, they'd kill ya at best," I said with a chuckle. "Or they'd take your heart—you know, turn you into a nobody, and depending on which kinda nobody, they'd probably use you against your pal the keyblade master."

That did it. He snapped to attention, fear in his eyes as he regarded me, his breathing even more ragged than before. Sora was that important to him, huh?

I wasn't much of the vindictive type, but right then, I couldn't resist. I took a step back and pulled an arm around Roxas, drawing him forward. Roxas was stiff, almost guarded, but he didn't resist as I presented him to Riku.

"By the way, have you met Roxas? Say hi, Roxas."

Their gazes locked. Roxas tensed even more, and Riku's expression clouded with mixed emotions. Neither of them said anything, so I went on.

"Roxas, this is Riku, our enemy. Riku, this is Roxas, the guy you should thank." I tugged Roxas back, and Riku sent me another dark look, this time with silent inquiry. "Lucky you, Roxas wants to keep you alive," I explained. "And, well, since Rox 'n I are pals, I'm inclined to spoil him a bit."

When Riku glanced at Roxas this time, Roxas was the one who averted his gaze, and confusion passed through the human's eyes. I had no doubt he was trying and failing to put the pieces together. Roxas looked just like Sora, and if Sora was that important to Riku, there was probably one big scramble of questions inside that pretty little head of his.

"We're not gonna kill ya," I assured, "so you should be grateful." I released Roxas, but he stayed where he was and hesitantly sneaked glances at Riku as I moved closer again, curling my fingers around the spokes of my chakram. "For the next few days, you belong to us." I yanked my weapon out of the wall, letting Riku slump to the floor. "And after that, maybe we'll let you go. Maybe we won't. Depends on how well you behave."

Riku's face had lowered, his bangs shielding his expression again, and his hand had gone back to clutching his wound. I couldn't tell if he was even still listening to me anymore.

Twirling my weapon, I let it disappear into flames and darkness, and I kneeled beside him with my arms folded over my knees. "So no fancy tricks, no escaping. Got it?"

No response except for his forced breathing.

Well. This might be easier than I thought after all.

"He's bleeding."

I turned to Roxas, whose eyes were fixed on Riku again. I took a better look at the human to make sure Roxas was right, and sure enough—there, hardly noticeable against the black of Riku's pants and coat, a thin stream of blood was trickling down his side and pooling beside his curled legs.

"Huh. He is."

Roxas started to turn away. "I'll get some more potions."

"Wait." I rose back to my feet and shook my head. "This is good news. We'll let 'im bleed a bit. If he bleeds the stuff out, we won't need to do it ourselves." I guess overdosing on potions and getting a little rough-handled had been enough to trigger his body's own curative process. This guy was resilient. "But afterward, we'll need to patch him up before he gets a real infection. I think I know where we can find a secluded bath for him."

Where Naminé liked to hang out. It'd been a while since I'd seen her, but hopefully if all went well, we wouldn't run into her—or the freakshow she was working for right now.

After I'd conveniently "lost her" at Castle Oblivion (which is what I'd told Xemnas), she had started working on restoring Sora's original memories. For a while, Riku and the mouse king had stuck around, but they'd gone off to do their own thing, leaving Naminé with some guy named Diz.

I only knew all this because she'd told me. But Riku (nor Roxas) didn't know I knew Miss Memory Witch, and I'd rather keep it that way. She was another dangerous pet that Roxas didn't need to get close to.

"Alright," Roxas agreed. When I looked, he was staring at the human again. And under that curtain of silver hair, Riku's green eyes were staring back. There was that look I didn't like, except this time Riku was returning it. Roxas frowned. "His eyes..."

"I've seen them before."

I hadn't forgotten what Roxas had said back at Hollow Bastion. His memories may have been missing, but some part inside of him was still Sora, and that part of him recognized Riku. Or at least his eyes.

Well, there was one way to solve that.

I held a hand out, calling out to the darkness as I would if creating a portal. It swirled around my fingers, and I focused it, watching as the shadows solidified into a strip of silky black cloth. Then I stepped forward and kneeled, ignoring the way Riku tried to draw away from me.

With an easy swoop of my hands, I slipped the blindfold over his eyes and secured it with a knot at the back of his head. He didn't resist the impediment after that. All he did was trace the material with his gloved fingers and turn his face in my direction as if he could still see me through the black veil. As long as Roxas wasn't distracted by those eyes, I didn't care.

I rose and turned towards the door. "Rox, c'mere."

He hesitated, glancing at Riku.

"He's not gonna die if we leave him for a minute," I said with a crooked smile.

With a small nod, Roxas followed me into the hallway, and the door shimmered back into existence to lock the human inside. We moved past the bag of ice cream Roxas had dropped, where the turquoise treat had begun to seep onto the white marble floor.

I paused far enough away so that Riku wouldn't be able to overhear us even if he'd had the strength to crawl to the door and press his ear against it. Roxas's solemn expression was back, tinged with uncertainty.

My smile twisted into a tease. "Relax, I just wanted to mention something." Then I grew serious again. Motioning back towards his chambers, I met his gaze. "Don't ever show him your keyblade."

Roxas's brows drew together in confusion. "Why?"

"Just don't." I waved a hand, trying to come up with a good reason other than, I don't want him to know who the heck you really are. "He might—try to take it or something." Okay, even I would have found that suspicious. Real genius there, Axel.

"I thought I was the only one who could use it besides the other keyblade wielder?" Roxas asked.

I shrugged. "You never know."

Roxas's gaze drew back towards his door. "But..."

He never got to finish his thought, though, because we suddenly weren't alone anymore. There was no sound—just that familiar tug of power that told me there was another nobody very close by.

That, and Saïx had a distinct scent, too.

I turned around, already lifting a hand in greeting. "Yo, Saïx! Got a mission for me already?"

My blue-haired superior regarded me with cool indifference. "You're needed," was his answer. That was just like him, too. He did what he came for without directly answering any of my questions. Xemnas was teaching him well. "Just you," he added, focused solely on me. Then his yellow eyes shifted towards Roxas, who had put up his own mask of disinterest.

"Right. I'll be right there," I said without delay. I still didn't want to give Saïx anymore reason to suspect me for anything.

He had always rubbed me a little wrong. It wasn't because he had joined the Organization right before me, and it wasn't because Xemnas really did play favorites with him. I think it was because Saïx just had that sixth sense about him, like he could see right through me into what I really was. I was still waiting for him to go berserk on me and run me through with his claymore for hiding so many secrets—Naminé and Sora's whereabouts, the true reasons behind the deaths of the other members, and now Roxas and Riku's... thing... which was no more than ten meters away from Saïx. Right under his nose.

And Saïx didn't seem to have a clue.

He calmly glanced away from Roxas and, frowning, gestured to the melting bag of ice cream not too far from us. "Clean up this mess." Then he slowly turned away and left, disappearing into a dark portal.

I released a breath I hadn't known I'd been holding.

That had been close. It was a good thing we hadn't been yammering that loudly about Riku, otherwise he might have overheard something. But who knew how lucky we were gonna stay.

After glancing back at Roxas's closed door, I met his gaze. His questioning frown wasn't comforting. I'd just been summoned—alone—to talk to Xemnas, so likely it was about something Roxas wasn't supposed to know. The somethings that Roxas wanted to know and often asked me about. I was sure he had one of his usual questions sitting there on his tongue right then but knew I wouldn't answer him. I very rarely did.

It was always easier to change the subject.

"Don't allow yourself to get attached to you-know-who," I said as I nodded towards his door. For once, mentioning Riku was in my favor. "He can't stay."

Roxas just watched me, his silence speaking for him.

But as I turned away to conjure up my own dark portal, I heard his voice—soft and hardly audible beneath the drone of the darkness springing up around me.

"I know..."

-o-o-

To be continued…

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