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“Angel of Twilight: Clockwork Breakdown”	By : HappyDragon Category: Kingdom Hearts > Slash/Yaoi - Male/Male Views: 8242 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own Kingdom Hearts, nor any of the characters from it. I do not make any money from the writing of this story.

Chapter List
- 11
- 12
“Talking aloud.”
‘Thinking to one’s self.’
/Nobody Language/
Major P.O.V./Scene Change: * * * *
A/N: My notes/comments/ramblings
Chapter Start/End: ------

A/N: [[Removed to comply with new AFF guidelines. Please see the MM.org version for full A/Ns: http://www.mediaminer.org/fanfic/view_st.php/156268]]

Rating: NC-17, to be safe, but it’s so tame compared to the usual . . .

|Spoilers|: Mild spoilers for the main games.

|Warning|: The usual. And crappy writing on top of the usual.

Beta'd by:

Criticism: Constructive only. Non-Axel flamers need not respond.

Reviews:

*AFF.NET
Nobody: I’m sorry for taking so long to update. If you are still around, please consider this my apology

MPS SHADOWMASTER:

PART 1: ^w^ ~:heart: David Bowie will always be awesome like that. qwq If you are still willing to be my beta, I would love to have you. There was this huge miscommunication thing, and yahoo failed me, and. . . . yeah, that’s why I never tagged anyone back. Yeah, just go with this version of Fenrir as pure artistic license. There’s so many different re-imaginings of him, I’ve lost track.

I was actually in a fiction class, where one of my classmates had their own Fenrir character, and they were an ice-based demon/half demon or something. Just goes to show you that things aren’t clear cut when it comes to The Gods.

PART 2: @.@~! NOT MAH DEM-DEM! *Huggles and tries to hide her lion-boi*

I’m sorry. . . . you have no idea how sorry I am for doing that. But it’s actually been longer for me than all of you and. . . well . . read the A/Ns. -.-

But this, and the next chapter, is dedicated to you, for getting me up off my ass and writing this again. . . as well as other things.

Kituz: I’m so happy you like it, and I’m so, so, so sorry you found it when I wasn’t active on it. With luck, that’s changed now, and will stay changed.

If you are still here, I humbly offer this up as an apology.

~MM.Org readers
Go there to read replies.

Disclaimer: I do not own ‘Kingdom Hearts’, in part, or in whole, in any way, shape, or form. I do not own any of ‘Final Fantasy’, in part, or in whole, in any way, shape, or form. I do not own any of the ‘Disney franchise’ in part, or in whole, in any way shape or form. Each belongs to it’s respective owners/companies/visionaries/people who are not me. I make no money off of this FanFiction--which is in no way endorsed by any of the people who’s intellectual property I am borrowing for the writing of this story. I do this for fun.

HOWEVER . . . . any character or setting that appears within this story--along with the overall plot--who/which does NOT appear in any of the before mentioned properties (KH, FF, Disney products) are the sole intellectual property of myself, and I hold all copy-writes to them. If you wish to use them for your own enjoyment or stories, please contact me via e-mail to discuss the matter.

Thank you, and enjoy this fiction.
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“Angel of Twilight; Clockwork Breakdown” Part 11/?
‘Forgotten, But Not Lost’

It was easy to hear the lapping of water against the island banks wherever one was in their little town, the sound of life surrounding and flooding the senses. Birds sang, the wind made treetops and undergrowth shift, similar to, but different than the way the small mammals gathering fallen fruit did. On some parts of the island one could hear the fish jumping in the nets some of the men had set up, and there were the insects, always always always the insects chirping and clicking and hissing to one another. At least when the tree-frogs, and arrowhead frogs were not around. There were snakes here, and lizards, and monkeys on the main island. The turtles would be back to lay eggs in a few weeks, attracting the gulls and the wild and tame cats of the islands, and crabs, lobsters, anything and everything that would feed on them.

Life and death were not foreign things to the little island chain.

She sat with her short skort in the grass, and her feet in the sand, looking out over the waves at the sunlight reflecting back at the sky. It matched the color of her hair.

“Red skies in the morning, sailors take warning. . . . Red skies at night, sailors delight. . . .” At least, she thought it was the plural. It made more sense for both to be the same case, and the only way that worked grammatically was if both instances of ‘sailors’ was plural, rather than possessive.

At her side, on top of her schoolbag and some flat stones were books. A few textbooks for school, a few more notebooks for writing, well, notes, and in her lap a notepad, blank as the day she had first started to attempt writing letters to the stars.

The wind blew warmth and the tang of salt over her skin and lips. She hoped that wherever they really were, Sora and Riku were okay. Looking back, she didn’t regret wanting to run away with just Sora on the raft, but now she at least understood: She had been sensing the presence of darkness far deeper then his natural twilight, something that had frightened her when she first came to the islands. But she had learned not to fear his darkness, though only Riku’s darkness. So when a new-old-familiar-wrong darkness had started to linger in his smile, she had grown wary of that darkness, and feared him again.

And so she had wanted to run. To run away from the darkness that had taken her family and life away from her so long ago.

“Hey Kairi, are you writing a dream journal?”

A blink, and Kairi came out of her thoughts to look at the bubbly brunette at her side. “Hey Selphie. And, no. . . . what’s a dream journal?”

The usually hyper girl looked away and started to fidget. “O-oh, nothing.”

The redhead pouted, midnight-blue eyes holding little mirth. “Selphie . . .”

More fidgeting. “Really, it’s nothing major~.”

The Princess of Heart smiled. “Then it shouldn’t be bad if you tell me about nothing, right?”

“Ah, but I wouldn’t be explaining it right! Don’t worry about it, Kairi. Not all kids even have one.”

“Do you?”

No answer, just a bitten lip and a turn away.

“Then . . . tell me about yours. Who knows? Maybe I need one and don’t know it.” Kairi uncurled herself from her sitting position, stretching her legs out forward. She made sure Selphie didn’t see her smile when the brunette finally relented. The girl plopped down at her side and started to make herself comfortable, while keeping her sun-dress from riding up too high.

“Okay, but, this is going to sound really strange to you. Now, you know why Destiny Islands has its name?”

A blink, but the redhead was stumped. “Huh, wonder why they don’t mention that in school . . .”

“They do, kinda. . . You had to start a little later, and no one knew if they should mention it or not. And not all of this gets talked about at school, because everyone thinks our parents will tell us.” A soft smile. “I was adopted real little, so my folks told me.” Selphie had never wondered if she was related by blood to her guardians or not. She had vague memories of the orphanage she had been at, of the boys and girls she had hung out with, the blond bully she had avoided, and the kindhearted Matron whom had looked after them all.

“Okay, so tell me.” A gentle shoulder-bump to encourage her ‘native’ friend.

Another giggle. “Ok, ok, ok. . . . Well . . . They say this place is where Heroes go after they die.”

Kairi’s eyes widened into saucers. “What!? Don’t you mean, ‘to’ die?”

“Nope, after. Here they get to live the life that being a hero got in the way of. Peace after death.”

“An afterlife. . .” The Princess looked out again to the sunlight cresting higher into the sky. “How does this relate to dream journals?”

Selphie looked down. “That’s how we remember the lives we had. Always a few of the kids have vivid dreams that might just be memories, and we write them down, to keep track of it all. My parents told me most don’t keep writing in them when they grow up. Maybe my dreams will stop or I won’t want to remember them. . .”

The redhead bit her lip. “You shouldn’t just let yourself forget important things, Selph.”

Light laugher, “Yeah, good point Kairi!”

A half shrug before the meteor-tossed girl turned with a sly smile. “So, who all has these journals? You and . . . ?” Wouldn’t it be funny to tell them all that while they dreamed of being heroes, Sora and Riku were out there being real ones?

“Wakka and Tidus.” Selphie reached up to twirl a lock of brown hair with her index finger. “Well, that I know of. Some people like to show off their journals, and some don’t. Wakka and Tidus were friends a life ago, but I have my own adventures. Everything’s pretty wild with us all saving different worlds from being destroyed, and using magic, and collecting bigger and better weapons and armor and friends and summons and. . . . everything.” The brunette smiled wistfully, thinking of cowboys with telling smiles, and the socially awkward ‘Ice Princess’ who took forever for the team’s magical girl to thaw out.

Sometimes she wondered who had adopted him, this life.

The redhead’s giggles brought Selphie out of her thoughts. “Now who’s daydreaming?”

“Yeah-yeah. But at least I’m not sitting alone in the middle of nowhere to do it.”

Kairi paused, knowing that her friend was indirectly asking her why said redhead was out here. The light-filled girl looked back out over the warning ocean.

“I’m thinking of what to say to them when they get back.” And maybe even what to say to get them to come home.

“Oh, you mean Riku and. . . . Sa. . . . Sora? I’m sure they’re fine. Boarding school can’t be as bad as everyone says it is if Sora’s there, right? And they’ll keep each other company too.”

“Right, boarding school.” She wasn’t sure what was causing everyone to suffer the same mass delusion, or even why she was immune. If she had to guess the former was due to the KeyBlade covering up the tracks of its owner . . . . owners? Owner and friend? But the latter had to do with her heart and its purity of light. But the worrisome thing was how everyone recalled the loner Riku with ease, and yet tripped up when it came to remembering Sora the social butterfly. Perhaps, because all three of them had been such good friends. . . maybe that was why. . . . And Sora’s mother still knew him, Riku’s parents knew him. . .

Didn’t they?

“What were you saying about other worlds?” Kairi turned her gaze away from the sea. She wouldn’t be writing letters today either.

“Ah, well, different lives across different worlds. No clue where they are compared to here. . . . probably in different universes or dimensions. . . . maybe in our other lives, the worlds we lived on were where Destiny Islands is here.” The brunette shrugged. “I dream of a world called Gaia. Tidus and Wakka dream of one called Spira. But that was a life ago for us all, and they aren’t here now you know? It’s just Destiny Islands now. . .”

“Yeah.” What else could Kairi say to that? She was the only one here who knew that the ‘big storm’ from a few months back had done more than just driven the islanders underground into their cellars or the Mayor’s house, or the Town Hall. Few had ever believed she was from another world, and the ones who had were changing their minds, been changing their minds. She officially had washed over from one of the other big island cities, never mind that there were no other cities to be washed over from. To tell them all that this world had stopped existing in the realm of light for a few months? Never. It was just a big storm, and they hadn’t lost a day of living life.

“Hey, why don’t we go back to my house for snacks?”

A smile. “And so I can help out with the homework, Selph?”

“Maybe?” The brunette giggled nervously, before picking herself up to dust herself down.

Kairi watched, before starting to gather up her things so they could study together.

* * * *

Xemnas profoundly sighed, thinking of the state his castle was in this morning, and it was a vexing state indeed. Numbers IX and II were still out and about in the worlds, VIII was still under a probationary period, he would only work with XIII for now, and XIII could no longer safely work with others. That left numbers III, X, VII, and himself to do all the heavy lifting involving off-world missions. He would prefer to stay put, himself, and to keep Saix on hand should he need his second in command, but these were trying times and he would need to get something done sooner rather than later.

Ah, well, perhaps he could clear out a few of the less taxing missions, and shuffle around the other ones that needed doing with the hands which remained on deck. Even Saix got his claws dirty from time to time, usually after handing out the parts in the production that all the other actors in the play executed. This would be no different, if only that they would all need to pull a little extra weight until things were in order again.

Hmm, perhaps in their current situation, he would have to rethink the length of the duration of Number VIII’s punishment. . . . if only to make matters easier on himself.

Bah, he would let the fool stew for the next week, and see where that left them all. Numbers VIII and XIII would just have to take on all the cleaning duties outside and inside the Castle, as well as . . . cook . . . ing. . . . Which was the event that had pushed this downward spiral into motion.

How revolting. They needed Numbers II and IX to return home posthaste, or they would be unable to eat safely this night. Although . . . perhaps foraging within the oversized food stores would be acceptable to the other Numbers, and he himself could procure some nutrient bars to sate himself for the night, and so finish off more paperwork than usual. Ah, that would be a pleasant change of pace. He was woefully behind at the moment and could use every second which came his way to get more work done. Mmm, yes. That was a suitable solution for the night.

Xemnas picked up several smaller piles of paperwork, and started to shuffle through them. It was time to prioritize which worlds needed clearing out of excess Heartless, and which ones mandated covert surveillance, for now.

Recapturing his heart could wait.

* * * *

Yesterday had been mercifully uneventful, and last night tame in comparison to what the Heartless bastard had already visited upon him. Riku was sure that biting the other’s tongue the night before last [1] had earned him no favors, but with Ansem still recovering, he couldn’t find much reason to care. And soon, he would have less reason to fear.

King Mickey stood off to his left, waiting with him for the Gummi-Ship which had been sent to them on autopilot to pick them up. The King would be flying it back manually, though, just on the off chance that there was trouble along the way.

For now, the silver youth was standing by the world’s locked KeyHole, which was in the trunk of a cherry blossom tree, overlooking a sizable lake in the lone park Galdia had to ‘her’ name. Speaking of the world, she continued to play Jazz on this misty morning, something low-key with no name or set rhythm. She had whispered to him yesterday about many of the great works being nothing more than improvised audio chaos that managed to compliment itself into the listeners’ good graces.

Riku shivered from the wind picking up, and snuggled deeper into the blanket-like wrap he had around his shoulders as a cloak. They hadn’t used the black robes here, save for that day at the Faire. The robes would obscure who they were, and protect them from the Heartless as they moved between worlds, but they did tend to draw the attention of the regular inhabitants of the worlds. So Riku could, and would, make do.

Funny, Mickey had said that this world was currently experiencing Spring, which was why it was a little cooler than what Riku was used to back home. And yet, in had been their summer vacation when they had all been sucked into the events that lead them off of their home world. What would the other island kids be doing now? Were they back in school, getting an education or slacking off as they wanted? Was it still summer there, because time had stopped for them once they left? Mickey had said not to worry about coming up with an excuse for why he and Sora had left, because upon return he would find that the islanders would have come to their own conclusions about the boys, and where they had been. Part of him was glad it was that simple, and another part of him knew it would never be that simple. He would always know what he had done, and Ansem . . . was still a problem.

He could go back home, but he could not stay there yet.

Above his head, he heard the whine of the engines, and looked up to see the ship landing.

It was a curious little thing, brightly colored and somewhat blocky. But it did look sturdy, at least, with its yellow body and wings, gray landing gear, and red top. [2] And hadn’t the King mentioned that this was the back-up ship? So maybe it was the smallest of the fleet, and meant for sneaking by quickly, rather than getting into long drawn-out fights. For now, speed worked. For now, speed couldn’t be fast enough as long as they were headed towards Disney Castle.

“Well, Riku, here she is! Time to climb onboard.” With that, the mouse started to gather up the few bags they had acquired containing Riku’s new and used clothes, to stow them on the ship.

The human teen waited a moment before gathering up the last few things Mickey couldn’t carry on his own, before walking to the ship. At the top of the steps leading in, he paused, and turned back to look upon Galdia one last time. The city was sleeping in the early hours of morning, the light diffused by the still lingering mist. The wind moved through the trees, causing the pink flowers on the cherry tree to shift. There were birds, somewhere, calling to each other, and cats doing the same. There was life here, vibrancy and life here, and energy untold. So much potential in this thriving world, things to do and see, people living and dying and being born.

He knew nothing of this world. He knew nothing of most worlds, including the one he ate.

The wind seemed to blow a little harder, and he turned to head into the ship.

Upon entering properly, he paused, eyes growing wide.

“Riku?” Mickey flipped a few of the switches to get the ship going, because it wouldn’t stay ‘too early for most decent people to get up’ forever. “What’s wrong?”

A blink of turquoise eyes. “It’s . . . . Bigger on the inside.” [3]

The mouse King laughed heartily. “It has to be!” And then smiled. “The ships have to be small enough to land on any world without being detected, and yet big enough to hold a group of people traveling together.”

“But how does that work?” The silveret started to look around for a place to sit which would still afford him a view of the outside and the sea of stars.

“Mmm, well,” Mickey started the ignition sequence now that the door was closed. “I’m a little rusty on the details.” He couldn’t bring himself to tell the boy that the thing inside him had once been the pioneering expert of Gummi Blocks within Radiant Garden. Disney Castle had been using the ships to travel for a long time before he’d made contact with that world. . . “But the blocks are naturally inclined to work that way, and with a bit of magick to bring those properties out, a Wizard can build any sized ship with any sized inside, regardless of how complex the inside or outside is.”

Riku settled into the right-hand passenger seat, blanket still around him, and worked on getting buckled in. Mickey had warned him about that. “But what about worlds that don’t have magic?” Like Destiny Islands. He had heard of magic in stories, but never witnessed any before leaving there.

“W’elp, they just need to have a terrific mechanic and block-engineer.” With a final flick, the ship hummed back to life, and started to lift into the air.

The ex-KeyBlader gasped slightly, and gripped both arms of his little red seat with white-knuckled anxiety. Even inside the ship, he could still hear Galdia singing, though only faintly, as if the walls of the ship muted the sound. Tentatively, fearing what he would see and yet longing to see it anyway, the boy swung his eyes in the direction of the window at the front of the ship. [4] Before him was the misty cityscape, and the light slowly growing stronger as the morning wore on. But they were climbing, rising into the air, and it looked as if the ground was falling away from them. He wondered if anyone would see them go--then Riku remembered Mickey had mentioned something about cloaks and concealment, and he had probably turned something like that on once they were both inside, and didn’t need to see the ship themselves anymore.

They climbed high, over the tops of trees, passed the tops of buildings, up and up beyond the clouds and sky, all the way to the heavens. And then they broke free of the world, and were out amongst the starts. Riku let go of the breath he was holding, and just continued to stare in wonder at all he was seeing. This was. . . all the worlds. Every star was someplace new, someplace he’d never been before. It was beautiful and terrifying, and he wanted to go see all of them! This was what he lived for, exploring other worlds, seeing sights, having adventures!

. . . . With . . . his friends. . . . All of his friends. Sora and Kairi should have been here too. With him, and Mickey. It should have been the four of them together. . . . Although Sora would probably want his new friends to come along too, but could six people fit into this thing comfortably? “Mickey?” His eyes never moved from the stars. “How many people can fit in this ship?”

“If we had to make an emergency evacuation, ten safely, more if most of them are small or we don’t have the luxury of being safe. And that’s with some of them in the sleeping bunks.”

“Sleeping bunks?” That got the silveret to tear his gaze away from the window into the space between worlds, and look at the Kingly KeyBlade wielder who was still managing the fine tuning of the flight controls.

“Yep. It took the Gummi three days to get here on her own. It’ll take us at least that long to get back. Some places take longer, so unless a ship is built for short day-trips, they always have places for people to sleep built into them. Even if the crew has to sleep in shifts.” Mickey nudged the ship into making a soft left, and climbed higher, not that it was all that noticeable out between the stars.

“Oh.” Riku looked back outside again, drinking it all in. “I thought. . . . autopilot just couldn’t fly that fast. . .”

A slight laugh. “We’ll be to Disney Castle soon enough. Why don’t you walk around the cabin? Now that we’ve leveled off, it’s like being in an airplane.”

The teen blinked. “Air-what?”

Mickey blinked. “ . . . . . Destiny Islands was how small again?”

There stretched a long patch of silence before true conversation started up again. Afterward found the human back in the sleeping area, staring out the porthole window over the bunk he was on, which was kinda like a shelf built into the seemingly metal wall of the back of the ship. It was remarkable that he couldn’t hear the engines at all from the inside here, even if he could hear them slightly up front. Apparently soundproofing for sleepers had been taken into account when picking and placing the blocks to build the ship.

Riku had claimed the bunk on the right-side of the ship. For the moment he was on his knees with his shoes kicked off, looking out the window with the blanket half around him, and his face almost pressed to the glass.

‘This is all so unreal!’

‘And utterly fantastic.’ The dark voice inside his heart wistfully added.

The teen sighed, almost closing his eyes. ‘You would wake up now . . .’

‘I’ve been awake.’ Ansem purred happily. ‘This really is thrilling, is it not, Pet?’

The darkness inside him started to shift, as if the Heartless Lord wanted to press his face to the glass too. Riku stayed very still, just concentrating on breathing as the man moved himself into position to look out the window through his eyes. It was uncomfortable and disquieting. Fresh waves of loathing and hatred washed through Riku’s mind, all of them aimed at the dark man inside his heart.

Ansem coolly brushed those emotions aside, and continued to look out the window with Riku’s eyes, feeling the same blissful wonder as a very young child. This . . . was perfect. He didn’t know if his host could hear the music of the stars at the moment or not, but he heard nothing for the time being, other than the mundane ambiance of human and rodent sounds to go with those of the ship itself. ‘And we’ll be out here for three days . . . Maybe as many nights as well?’ A trickle of hope flared within.

‘ . . . Don’t know. Hope it’s only two nights.’ Or none. It might be possible that a few days for the worlds would only be a few hours for them. Maybe.

Ansem chuckled, and snuggled himself closer. He was still healing, but every second he was recovering strength and power. The teen complained about his affections, but he wasn’t about to leave Riku be now that they were in a small and enclosed space for the time being. And yet, the stars . . . they truly were beautiful, and held his attention for several long moments.

So many worlds with so many hearts, and all of them would be brought to darkness. All light would be consumed, all lives returned to darkness, and so would everything be born anew into Utopia, without war or conflict, or any form of hardship. It would be a living paradise of black nighttime, and he was to give it freely to every world and individual person. Ansem smiled, and thought of the world he had already saved, and mused on how wonderful it was that his host could help him in the future. Ironically, his outlook on his life and likely future was rather bright. He was winning this war, he could feel it.

Just like he could feel Riku’s apprehension, and lack of interest, or willingness to help. Well, that would change soon enough, if he had any say in the matter. Thankfully, he did. Now he just needed to work towards changing the boy’s mind. Riku’s opinions were tied into his emotions, and those were easy enough to manipulate.

‘It’s all so fascinating, isn’t it, Pet?’

‘Stop calling me that.’

‘I should think not. It does suit you well, after all.’

A scoff. ‘You don’t own me.’

‘But you are adorable, and easily maintained. . .’

The teen fidgeted. ‘You can’t possibly consider what you’ve been doing to me over these passed few nights . . . healthy. I would be better off without you.’

‘You would be living in a world of ignorance without me.’

Riku growled softly, his brows starting to furrow. ‘I would be living in peace without you.’

‘You would still be the wonder-lusting brat you had been without me. There was never to be any peace on that world for you.’

Indignation sparked. ‘I would have been fine. I would have gotten over it--’

Ansem laughed, rich and deep and long, pulling the boy’s consciousness to him. ‘Oh sweet child, there is no cure for such a thing, nothing to actually be overcome. You would have always craved adventure on other worlds.’ The little thing whined to be away from him. The Heartless male laughed again, and drew his host’s mind in, leaving a trail of kisses down from his jaw, along his neck, towards his shoulder. Another whine, and he chuckled all the more, continuing to shower attention on his host.

But the rodent King was up and walking now, most likely coming to see what he was doing to the teen. How annoying, having to retreat just when he was starting to enjoy himself. Still, he had the stars to distract him for now. The dark one settled in for the night, and contented himself with attempting to feel out which of the worlds they flew by already had Heartless on them, and which worlds did not, but were also open.

In the external reality, Mickey was worrying at Riku’s side.

“Are you sure?”

“Yeah, he’s gone back in. He was just bothering me before. I’m fine now, really.” For the moment, at least. Riku wouldn’t let himself think about the night to come.

But the monarch wasn’t wholly convinced. If only the ship had a warp Gummi-Block in it. . .

“Do you want to sit up front with me again?” Company would help to keep the darkness at bay. “I can teach you how to pilot the ship . . . ”

Riku thought on that for a long moment before nodding at last, and padding after his mentor. The stars really were beautiful, and the blanket had been meant to help keep him warm anyway.

* * * *

Demyx hardly stumbled as he exited the Dark Portal, and Xigbar was right on his heels. The gateway closed behind them, with little sound.

It was easier to notice the quiet of the castle that way.

“Damn, you’d think someone had died.” Or no-one, the gunner mused, as they were not truly people who could die in the first place.

“I don’t think so. . . But we should probably ask around?” The blond singer tried to make light of the situation.

“Sure, lead the way, kid.”

He did, but all their walking brought them to was some Dusks, busy cleaning the inside walls of the castle. The little voices urged them on into the deeper places, where they found some of the other mid-caste types cleaning too. None of them had seen the master of the nothings not-living on the world since Xemnas had gone out on some missions the day before.

Xigbar frowned at that. “So who is here?”

/Eighth-sire and Thirteenth-sire, sir./ One of the Dusks helpfully squealed.

“Where at?” The bardic-male was asking so he could avoid the pair more than anything else.

/The Grey Area./ [5]

“Right. Let’s go, Squirt.” He turned and started to take a few steps in that direction.

“Eh, you can go. Don’t really need me there, right?” He didn’t want to see them. Not right now, not so soon after everything.

“Sure, but it’d be nice if you were there. You could have it out with the Spitfire, and be done with it. Then we could all get back to business as usual, rather than having to bullshit around with each other.” The stripped brunet paused to look back over his shoulder. “Besides, no-one is even saying you two have to kiss and make up, just get it settled to the point where everyone can work with everyone else again.”

Demyx looked away. “I have to be the one to say sorry?”

“No. You don’t have to mean it if you do, anyway. But think of it as being the bigger man. And really, when have you ever known Red to say sorry about anything, or even cop to half of his bullshit?”

A slight smirk. “True enough.” Yes, for the sake of peace, he could pretend to forgive the other. He had been pretending for the passed two months and change, and this was no different, if only a little more public. He fell into step at Xigbar’s side, musing over his choice of hollow words.

Along the way, none of the other Numbers showed themselves, confirming the space-bender’s fear that their strange little king had indeed gone off the reservation and had yet to return. Sure some missions ended up taking days instead of hours, even when using the Dark Corridors to travel with, but the point was that they worked so Xemnas wouldn’t need to leave his hidey-hole, other than to go to ‘Where Nothings Gather’ for formal meetings, or ‘The Nexus of Consumption’ for proper food. If he wasn’t back yet it was either because the dark man had been hurt, or distracted, and either was a disaster.

Though if the Sorcerers were still here, it was unlikely he was gravely wounded. They might have to send a search party for him, eventually, but he would be home.

And then he would probably give them a good long talking to, so that they would not soon forget their place in the grand scheme of things and building of the Kingdom Hearts moon. Good thing he hadn’t been the one to piss Xeha-Xeha off, and even if he had, the FreeShooter could sleep with one eye open anyway.

They found Roxas and Axel right where the Dusks had said they would be, though not exactly doing what he thought they would.

The lanky redhead was towering over blondie, tilting the kid’s head back for a rather intense looking kiss that seemed to scream tongue, and promise a quick trip between the sheets for some naughty business. It was easy to see who had initiated the action, but not if the teen really wanted to be returning those affections. But that didn’t matter to Xigbar as much as possibly getting a free show.

Then the SongBird had to cut in with clearing his throat, and all hell broke loose with Roxas panicking and beating the other Number off of him. He was still flushing pink as he dusted and straightened his robes, Axel continuing to smile lecherously all the while, as if nothing was remotely wrong with the picture.

“So. . .” That was about as far as Demyx could bring his preparation.

“So.” Axel wasn’t much for words at the moment, standing loose and cool, hands on his hips as he regarded both of them.

“I’m still pissed at you.” The sandy blond would go with honesty.

“ . . . . Because?” He wasn’t being cruel, as there was no reason for it now.

The sitarist huffed. “You killed Zexion, laugh at me for what I said, and then have the nerve to go and be with Roxas--and somehow all that you did gets swept under the rug? Forgiven like it never happened?” The beast got to love, and have the things he wanted, and Demyx received death?

Axel had the grace to look chagrined. “ . . . Yeah. . . . I was playing double agent. Zexion ended up on the wrong side of things. That wasn’t fun for me. But you know all that. The rest? Talk to The Superior. I’m sure he’s only keeping me around now because we can’t spare the manpower.” He could see how this would have hurt Emyd . . .

Demyx reached up and scrubbed at his own face for a few minutes. This was so unfair! There really wasn’t any justice in the universe, was there?

“Look, Dem,” He took a step closer, “it’s done. I can’t take it back. You wanna kick my ass? Fine, I’ll stay put, and you can wail away on me. You wanna take it out on me in bed? I won’t fight that--”

Roxas frowned, but knew about the prearrangement, and so only pouted openly.

“Don’t.” The singer slowly unclenched his fists, before he started to break something. “Don’t . . . think . . . you can say you’re sorry and get out of all this with me. Don’t think that I can just let go at the drop of a hat.” He looked up with oceanic eyes. “This is going to take time. But for now, truce. Shit needs to get done, and we need to be the ones doing it. All of us. . . . even if that means we have to work together at some points.”

The wolfy male nodded his consent, smile tugging at the corners of his lips. It was a start, a small start, but a start none the less, to getting them back on track to being brothers again.

“And Axe, you do get that none of us want to fuck Roxas, right?” The blond in question squawked at the question, but his indignation was universally ignored.

“Eh, I’m getting used to that idea, yeah. Still wanna tear Mansex’s nuts off, just because he’d probably try some shitty experiment or another, but I’m learning to deal with that too.” A quick flash of pointy teeth to show that he was in high spirits at least.

Demyx nodded slowly at that. “Then . . . truce?”

“Truce.”

And the aura of the room relaxed at the words. That was all that would be needed until Xemnas came home, and was able to iron out the fine details.

“So how has everyone been?” The Melodious Nocturne walked over to the nearest couch to plop down on. Xigbar went for a chair, not about to miss out on the news.

“Well,” Roxas looked around the area to see where else he would need to clean after everything was said and done. “Yesterday Axel and I went on another sweep of the city, just because we can’t go off world--Make that I can and he’s not allowed to.” A soft grumble. “Then we did some cleaning inside the castle, and it all lead up to everyone being on their own to get food. The Superior didn’t come home for dinner, so people didn’t exactly care. Today we’ve just been inside the castle brushing and scrubbing with still no sign of Xemnas. Apparently Saix was given marching orders for all of us for the next few days. Oh, and since the two of you are home, you get to cook dinner tonight, Saix’s orders.”

“Peachy.” Xigbar smirked. As long as Number I wasn’t around, he didn’t have to worry about his ears being talked off. And, he could work on what he wanted to say to Xaldin about his . . . ideas . . . for an experiment . . . involving Demyx.

Of course if the broad shouldered brunet had been working hard for the last few days, there was a good chance he’d want to pound or be pounded into a mattress when he got back. Well the scarred male had nothing against that, less so after being teased by Demyx’ lush-ass antics the night before. He’d wanted to murder a few bottles of something strong the morning after, but had settled for strangling his libido in the shower a few times to get everything quieted down. And at least the blond had agreed not to go off and drink anymore, for the day, so the two of them were able to dry out before attempting to make their way home.

But there was only so much to do in Midgard when drinking wasn’t involved. The world was pretty run-down, and really on its last legs. It was horrifically funny that it hadn’t been attacked by Heartless yet, and being as it was the singer’s hangout away from home, he wasn’t about to change that.

Still . . . how long would it last before the Heartless caught the scent of it? There was still so much shit about the Heartless the six of them didn’t know . . . hadn’t . . . known. . . been able to learn. Huh, there really were only three of them left who would give a damn about those answers now. May the poor bastards already gone rest in whatever peace they could get.

“Hey! Xiggy-pop! I said, what do we want to make for dinner tonight?”

Number II turned to regard the watery other. “Something quick and easy, and, well, maybe not pot-roast . . .”

* * * *

“Come for me, Lovely.”

“NoIdon’twantto!”

Dark kisses trailed up a moonlit neck. ‘We don’t always want what’s best for us.’

‘Nonononononononononononono!’ Riku tried to twist away and only screamed.

“See? Hush . . . Be still, Pet.” He wound darkness and tired arms around the boy again and pulled him closer to his chest. His face was better now, only a few flickers at the side of his chin to give him away. It still hurt to move the arm or leg, however, as those clearly still needed more time to repair. The child continued to sob in his arms, and he did what he could to comfort the pale thing. Sweet little child, at least the spell had left them alone for the past few nights, and he surmised that meant the caster was healing as well.

Good. They would do best to learn quickly he was not one to be tangled with lightly.

Ansem smiled, and looked down at the twilit jewel in his lap, and stroked his hair. Ah, so many things he wanted and needed to teach Riku, and time was slipping away from him. The days marched on, never halting in their progression, and here he sat unable to educate his child properly. Oh the Heartless Lord would soon fix that, somehow, but at the moment there was his throbbing need to address, and the boy needed to be calmed down. So he adjusted his position and the pillows supporting his damaged avatar-body, keeping the mewling thing close to him.

“Oh, Pet, Pet, Pet--this isn’t as horrible as you make it seem.”

‘I don’t love you, I don’t like you, I want you outofmeNOW!’

“No.” And he nipped at tender flesh. “I am part of you now; bound to your heart for all times.”

Riku let out another wretched sob.

“Peace, my Lovely, you needn’t be so melodramatic. This is a joyous thing! You will never again be alone, and you’ll have access to all my knowledge. Anything and everything you could ever want to know about, you need only ask me. I shall share all that I know with you, Pet.”

A snarled hiss, and the teen pulled away again, only to go nowhere when the tentacles gave him no slack to move with. “You’re a monster!”

A coy smile. “Silly thing. . . some might say you are too.”

Riku hesitated, reminded of everything he’d done over the past year and months. All the trouble he’d stirred up, just because he wanted to get out and off the islands. His world temporarily destroyed, his friends lost, the Heartless were more numerous then ever because Ansem was technically in power still, or had a body at least. Yeah the Heartless still weren’t organized, but the principal was that he’d fed the flames to make them burn so hot now.

And he’d eaten of a world . . . he had turned into something almost Heartless, almost like them to feed with them.

Did that mean . . . . was he still human anymore?

A quick tug brought him out of his thoughts, and back to Ansem’s chest. He was up and struggling again in an instant before something wet and slimy wrapped around his dick to occupy him. Riku froze, whined, and tried to remove it with both of his hands.

The dark man only chuckled, and leaned forward to kiss the jewel’s forehead. He was met with more whining for his troubles, and the boy resolutely wanted nothing to do with him.

But that was not something for the little thing to choose at the moment.

Ansem trailed his fingers over the lithe back, feeling telling shudders and tremors bloom in his wake. The roving starlight momentarily tightened around him, before letting go again, and tried scrabbling his hands to work the power leads off of his small body. Ansem only chuckled, his power building around them, caressing against skin almost, almost, literally. The boy’s breath hitched again, and the dark one purred, knowing his beloved host liked being played with.

Riku’s mind went delightfully blank when that happened.

All of his skin was sensitized now, all of it, not just what was on his head, but everywhere, every inch, every finger. He couldn’t stand it, couldn’t stand him, needed to lash out and bite, hurt, maim, kill the bastard for doing this to him. But Ansem continued to run his hands and his darkness over him, and it was hard to think when everything felt so wronggoodno!

Riku threw his head back when Ansem bucked his hips up into him.

“Yes, you like that, Pet. You like that, so let me do this for you.”

“No!”

“I know your heart, and it can no more lie to me than your body can, anymore.” Another deadly soft jab up.

‘Stop! Please, no more!’ It was too much to bare, the humiliation too great.

Ansem kissed him, full on the lips, pulling him close before he manually moved Riku up and down the length of his cock. The teen moaned, clawing at the large man’s back, as tears slipped from his eyes. Without a choice in the matter, he had to go along, if only to make it end sooner rather than later. So Riku got his legs under him, to help lift himself up and down in time with Ansem’s guidance, moaning even louder when his prostate was touched in all the activity.

The wicked man smirked, and aimed to strike the spot true again.

The silvery teen had to pull himself away to scream properly then, his oversensitivity quickly doing him in. His inner workings were already rhythmically constricting and releasing around the older presence inside him, which was throbbing angrily. He could feel it pulsing throughout his body, taste the tempo on his tongue--

Then he remembered that, oh gods, this was his heartbeat too, Ansem had taken root in his heart, and this was his own pulse quickened, quickening still!, with arousal and excitement, and wanting lust. But it was not his, born of him, his heart, even if it came from inside him, these were not his emotions to feel and the man had no right to make him feel this way!

He continued to suck on Riku’s neck, running a hand down his pale back to cup and firmly squeeze the boy’s pert behind. The little thing shouted, and squirmed, and that just made him bang Ansem’s impressive self into his pleasure spot. The little one stilled, tight and frozen in carnal desire, and with a strangled cry he spilled himself over the pair of them.

The once king sighed out his release, watching the boy sag against his tentacles--the only things hold him up!--as his darkness filled his mental body. The restroom in the Gummi was just that, a restroom with no bath, and limited compressed liquid for the flight. Riku hadn’t been able to do a true purge of his system, and his power was starting to build up properly.

The thought made him buck into said boy.

Riku’s eyes fluttered open for a moment, revealing fleeting slips of topaz, before falling closed again.

Ansem’s lips quirked. Softy, he moved one hand up to gently pry open a single set of lids. The eye was rolled back into his boy’s head, but the edge of the iris was clearly rimmed with a Heartless glow.

The dark king smiled, and pulled the sword-child to his breast, smoothing down hair like starlight, and cooing sweet nonsense into his ear.

Riku’s mind was already gone.

* * * *

The next thing he knew he was jerking awake, because Sea Urchin stings were poisonous and Sora didn’t know where the soup was, and. . .

Wait. . . Kairi had never made them spicy egg-rolls before. . . Riku was pretty sure he’d never eat anything that outright said it was spicy. Sora could, and did. And the brunet had been stung by a Jellyfish when they were little, not an urchin. Soup only worked on some kinds of sicknesses, and to help recover from a sting. What Sora had needed back then was hot water, not hot soup.

Riku sighed, and curled up into a balled sitting position on his bunk. His dreams had gotten weird last night. They had been slightly hazy memories replaying for him before Ansem . . . And now that he’d been on the Gummi for just starting on the third day, they were more of a jumbled hodgepodge, or things that had happened at different times throughout his life, but warped in one way or another. It wasn’t exactly a pleasant dream, but he couldn’t call it a true nightmare either. It was just . . . there, and strange.

Another sigh, and the teen pushed himself up and out of the bed to make quick use of the restroom. He washed up, made himself presentable, and then padded back out to sit by Mickey, still wrapped in the blanket. He liked that it was soft, but strong, and still able to keep him warm.

“How did you sleep last night?” The King looked away from the screen long enough to smile over at the human.

“‘Bout as well as expected, considering.” Couldn’t think about what Ansem did to him. Couldn’t think about him at all. Just had to stay in the moment; the bright, cheerful, waking moment.

Mickey hummed, showing that he heard, but had no idea what to say to that.

“How much longer until we get there?” Riku snuggled into his seat.

“Not long now. We’ll see it up on the screen long before we get there.” A warm smile. “Disney Castle is pretty hard to miss.”

“That’s good.” He took to looking around through the windows, green eyes watching as they passed the worlds by. They looked interesting, a few of them, at least, and most appeared to grow progressively brighter in coloring. “We should visit some of them, someday.”

“We will.” He promised himself that he’d take the teen to a few untroubled worlds to see how other peoples lived.

Riku hummed in acknowledgment, and spent the following hours staring out into space. None of the worlds looked anything like his home, the ones they passed close enough for details to be picked out, anyway. Even though some of them seemed so close together, others looked almost alienated from the rest of the clusters. There was one, late into the trip, that looked like a bank of clouds, or he at least thought that they were clouds, he wasn’t really sure, though there might have been a big building on them.

Mickey had followed his gaze, and smiled. “That’s the Olympus Coliseum. You’ll find few better places to train. There are a few competitors there, and countless Heartless I hear. But the Gods of that world are strong enough to keep them all bottled up inside the Coliseum proper.”

A smile. “We can go there?”

“Yes, in a few days, depending on how you feel.”

The teen just nodded happily, and continued to look out the window. Not much later he saw a rose covered castle, but it was different that the one the Nobodies had brought him, and Sora, to and didn’t look much like what Mickey had described as his home.

“Ah, it did come back! That’s the Beast’s Castle.”

Riku frowned, remembering what had happened over the waterfalls of the witch's base. “Good to know.”

A little further out from there was a world that . . . . . looked like a box. With flags. And lots of blue.

“That’s the Land of Dragons. Since it just came back not too long ago, I don’t think much is happening there now. . .”

The place didn’t look too appealing to him anyway.

Not long after that, another world came into view. Riku turned back towards the inside of the ship, unable to forget the place in question, and having no need to see Ansem’s former headquarters of Hollow Bastion.

However he perked up almost at once, seeing the world more or less dead in front of them. Shinning white, with sky-blue spires reaching heavenward, was a majestic castle fit for a king and a warrior of the light. “Is that. . .?”

“Yep-yep, say hello to Disney Castle, my home sweet home.” And, for the next few days, Riku’s home too.

To think, help had been so close to him for all those dark months. So many things that could have been avoided. . . But then, no, Mickey hadn’t actually been inside his own castle at the time. He had been traveling, looking, investigating what Ansem and those allied with him were doing, trying to see what had caused the number spikes with the Heartless. And yet, some corner of his mind told him he should have tried to reach out to there all the same.

“We’ll be landing soon, so you better buckle up, Riku!”

Those words successfully pulled the teen from his mind, where he had apparently been hiding for more than a few minutes judging by how the world seemed to loom in the front window now. The silveret hastily clipped himself into the harness-like restraints which had kept him safe in the seat during takeoff, almost catching the edges of the blanket in his haste. But once those were out of the way, he was snugly secured, and wrapped up for warmth again.

The ship dropped down effortlessly into the atmosphere encompassing Disney Castle. Riku kept his eyes trained to the ground outside the front window, smiling a bit at the cheerful music which greeted his ears. Well, given the kind of world it was, it made sense if the music it sang was upbeat all the time. They dropped lower, landing behind the castle, in what looked like a private courtyard that was blocked off from the rest of the world with tall hedges and trees. Everything was well manicured, and growing bright and green.

Mickey’s words came back to him, that this was a private landing and greeting for them. So it made sense why they would be landing here, rather than at the garage where all eyes of the kingdom would be trained upon for signs of their sovereign leader’s return.

Well, if they had known Mickey had been gone, that’s where they would have been looking.

A flash of movement caught Riku’s eye as they started to touch down. People. Not many, just two. At least he thought it was only two people, but there was something small hopping up and down on one of their audience’s shoulders. From what he could see, both of them wore dresses, one duck with a tiara and one other mouse with a crown. So then, that must have been Queen Minnie and one of her friends. Thinking over what the King had told him over the past few days, the past few months, even, the silveret hazarded a guess.

“Is that the Queen? And her friend you mentioned, Daisy?”

The mousey ruler only smiled. “Yep-yep. I’ll do the proper introductions outside, but that’s my wife, Queen Minnie Mouse, and one of our good friends, Daisy Duck.” There came the last few thumps as the landing gear touched ground.

“The magician’s wife. . .” the one who had told Sora he couldn’t go on their Gummi-Ship with them. Wife of the duck who had sparked one of his most stupid and hurtful choices and misunderstandings in his life. He understood now, and yet didn’t, why the magic avian had been like that back then.

But he had no right to complain about that now. In a way, it did worry him though, that he and the knight were the only constants at his brunet’s side. They had abandoned Sora at the drop of a hat, just because Riku momentarily had the KeyBlade in his possession. Yes they had gone back to his aid, and been at his side in the castle of twisted memories, but it still worried him that Sora didn’t have a proper network to rely on anymore.

“Good, it looks like Chip and Dale are with them. They’ll be able to park the ship in the garage later.” With that, Mickey switched everything into cool-down mode so that the chipmunks wouldn’t have to restart everything when they moved the ship. As he unbuckled himself, he noticed his young charge continuing to look around at the outside in confusion, though he at least was getting himself out of his harness. “Riku?”

“I just see two people. Where are you looking that you see two more?”

A pause, then a smile. “On Minnie’s shoulder. They’re very small, after all.”

Hmm, they must have been the brown things jumping up and down then. Well he guessed that size must not have mattered for them, probably having managed to build something to overcome that challenge. At the sound of Mickey rustling with the bags of his things, Riku finished unlocking himself, and went to gather up the remainder of them.

When they were ready, Mickey spared the teen one last smile, and opened up the ship’s door.

<centered>+*~*~*~ ‘It’s A Small World After All! It’s A Small World After All--’ ~*~*~*+</centered>

Too bright, too intense, too much! Riku spun on his heel and flattened his back to the wall, out of the rays of sunlight, eyes screwed shut. “Loud!” It was the only word he could get out, a short bark of a comment as he clapped his hands over his ears.

The music quieted slightly, a faint trill of an apology coming from the world himself. Him . . ? . . . Somehow, yes, male.

“Riku!?” The teen could hear his mentor coming to his side, trying to find out what was wrong.

“I’m . . it’s so bright here. I just. . . I need a minute.” The music, the world song, could he hear it too?

“It’s okie-dokie with me.” A soft pat to his side. “Just take your time. I’m right here for you.”

“I-I know . . . just . . . don’t go anywhere for a minute.” Riku continued to breathe slowly, listening to the sounds of the others outside asking what was wrong.

Mickey didn’t even take a step away from the human. The mouse King turned and shouted through the door, “We’re fine! Just . . . going to be a minute!” Then ducked his head and body back into the craft to continue comforting his poor ward.

Though he couldn’t see, Riku could hear. He could smell, too, and use his other senses. Mickey was a spot of warmth and light at his side. The world song grew subdued, but no less bright, changing seamlessly into something pleasingly mellow [6] that didn’t grate on his hypersensitive ears. He was able to take his hands down from his head, and catch the clicking footfalls of two pairs of heeled shoes, perhaps like the flats his mother wore when she was dressing down for the day. So, the women folk were coming in. . .

Minnie Mouse washed into the cabin, followed by Daisy. [7] The first thing she saw was her beloved husband, worrying over something. A moment later she registered the trembling starlight. “Oh, you poor dear~!” Motherly instinct and compassion drew her forward, the engineers on her shoulder leaping down to inspect the craft, and leave the monarchs to care for their guest.

Daisy sighed, hand going to rest over her feathery heart. “I’ll go see that everything is ready and waiting?”

Minnie gave a half turn back. “Oh would you please, Daisy?” The avian nodded, and then left to order the boy’s rooms. She even gathered up a few of the bags that had been abandoned in panicked haste.

Still Riku stood, just breathing in slow, deep breaths, acclimating himself to the new world. The new presence--Minnie, he guessed from the conversation--was just as warm and bright as Mickey. Neither was blinding, on their own, but rather soothing. Together there was. . . something of a harmony, a pulse of energy, of their light. Looking on from behind closed eyelids the teen calmly watched them, for lack of better understanding or vocabulary, synchronize. It was . . . nice, what he supposed happened with soul-mates. It created an energy field, an aura of pleasant warmth that washed over him.

Like sitting on the beach, with the sun rising, but not yet directly overhead.

Riku’s eyes finally fluttered open, aquamarine and curious.

Both mice smiled up at him.

“Welcome to our home.” Minnie quietly murmured.

The silveret opened his mouth, a false start, closed it, then smiled. “Thank you . . . your majesty.” He was answered with a soft chuckle.

“Oh dear, it’s Minnie. Just Minnie, all-right?”

An embarrassed smile. They were both so kind to him! “As you wish . . . Minnie.”

The light brought about by King and Queen smiling went unparalleled, even by the morning dawn following the longest, blackest of nights.

“Come’on, Riku, let’s get you settled into your room. Then we can give you a proper tour of the palace.” Mickey slipped his hand around the boy’s, and his wife mirrored the action with the teen’s other hand.

A spark of memory crashed over the human’s inner eye. His own parents used to do this with him, once, long ago. Back when he was little, a tiny thing, and they could swing him along as they walked on the beach. He could pick up his feet and trust that they would hold him aloft with their combined strength.

The sovereign powers gave a coaxing tug on his hands, and he took a step forward, off of the ship’s wall. Music swelled, as if for him, a congratulations and a welcoming. Between the two of them, they had the rest of his bags, and both his hands.

Riku smiled, and trusted himself to their knowing strides.

Once they had cleared the ship, and made it a good walking distance away, Chip and Dale went about piloting it to where it needed to be. Riku’s hair ruffled in the up draft, and only then did he notice that he’d left the blanket onboard. Oh well, the Gummi wasn’t going to go anywhere he couldn’t reach for the time being, and if he really wanted that blanket, he could go collect it later.

At each of his sides, Mickey and Minnie were pointing out different things about the castle, which hall they were in, and what wing the library was in, who was featured in which portraits or group paintings, and such innocuous things. He learned, more or less, where the kitchens were, the dinning hall was, the front gates, and that there was a whole town outside of their palace. [8] Through it all the boy smiled, nodded, and said few words, just enough to show that he comprehended what he was being told.

But, a part of him wondered, nagged at him even, if the caring Queen actually knew the condition he was in, and why Mickey had brought him here. Would she even allow herself to touch him if she knew the horrible darkness that lurked inside him?

“Riku?”

The boy shook his head. “It’s nothing, sir.” And he spared the King a small smile.

Mickey didn’t look convinced, but he let it slide, knowing that the boy would be too uncomfortable to talk about what was really bothering him. “Well, I was just saying, this hallway has most of the bigger sleeping quarters. These rooms are reserved for us, our family, and our dearest friends.” But what the boy would soon learn was in a community as close-knit as theirs, every servant might as well have been a treasured friend for how well they were cared for.

“I see.”

“More than that,” Minnie chimed in, “there are enough beds in the castle for everyone living in our world to have a place to sleep. Oh, it’s hard to think of us needing to evacuate the world into the castle, but if it needed to be done, we could. Most of the bedrooms in this hall are for guests, and these are also the largest of the guest rooms. We could fit whole families in them if need be.”

“So the further out from your bedroom, the smaller the rooms. . . bedrooms get?” Twin nods answered him.

“This is also the center of the castle.” She added. “As such, it is heavily protected during the night, just like the throne room is, during the day.”

‘Right’, Riku nodded to himself, ‘because that would be the wisest way to keep them both safe. Have the guards where they are. . .’ A tug at his right hand let him know that Mickey had paused.

The silveret turned to see him gazing up at a door. Blinking, the human looked too, and saw that a decorative high-relief object adorned the surface. It was, as far as Riku could tell, made of the same white wood as the door, and looked to be in the shape of a scrollwork heart [9], on which rested an ornate, and over embellished, crown. Both were surrounded by a low-relief of a stylized sun, with a multitude of wavy rays of light radiating from the perfectly circular center, over which the crowned heart rested. There were even a few line thin rays between the larger ones, perhaps in more low-relief, perhaps even in sunken-relief. If the teen had to guess, the work was slightly bigger than his own hand.

“This is our room.” Mickey almost whispered.

Riku nodded, and started to pay closer attention to his surroundings. He could have guessed that was where the King and Queen spent their nights, but it was good to have confirmation. And, the teen noted, none of the other doors in the hallways seemed to be so decorated. Anything to make his mentor easier to find should he need him was considered a godsend. On his left, Minnie gently squeezed his hand, before urging the three of them to walk on.

She paused at the literal next room over. “And this will be your room from now on.” Her voice was quiet, almost reverent as she spoke.

The little human started at that. “Really? Here?” He looked up in astonishment. If it was so close to them, then it must have been huge! There wasn’t enough of him to fit into a room like that! Maybe if he still had his old life. . . [10]

“Really really.” The humble Queen smiled up at him.

“I,” he could feel the sting of tears at the corners of his eyes. “Thank you.”

“Think nothing of it, Riku.” Mickey smiled up at him. “You’ll find that you have your own bathroom, with a full tub and shower, and everything else you’ll need. And there’s also a door that will connect your room to ours, without having to go through the hallway. We have a door of our own in our room, and we’ll keep it unlocked for you, but you don’t have to keep your door unlocked if you don’t want to. Okie-dokie?”

The boy was too choked up to form proper words, and simply nodded his assent.

“Then here, Riku,” somehow, his name sounded so right when she spoke it, pressing some of the bag handles into his hand. “Why don’t you go and get used to your new room? Take all the time you need. And don’t worry, we’ll come and get you when it’s time for dinner.”

Riku nodded again, feeling the King also hand off the bags of things he’d carried through the halls. “I . . thank you, again.” The mice only chuckled.

With that done, he looked up at the door to his room--his own room here!--and after shuffling the bags between his hands, managed to turn the knob by himself. There was no one else in his room, but the telltale sign of empty bags, neatly folded, on one of the dressers. So Daisy had been here and gone, and probably stored his clothes there. That was fine with Riku, and he walked into the space, finding it far brighter, and more inviting, than the one the darkness had gifted to him so many long nights ago.

He turned, still smiling, and closed the door.

Outside his room, King Mickey and Queen Minnie continued to stand a little longer, drawing close enough to clasp hands with each other.

“He’s so precious.” She had to blink back tears. “Everything you said.”

He gave her his own watery smile. “Everything, and so much more.” A chaste kiss, and they both turned to back to where the human had disappeared to.

On the door--now Riku’s door--level in height with the decorative relief of the royal suite, was an intricate pattern of discoloration, as if something that had once been on it, was now removed.

It was in the shape of a smaller scrollwork heart, adorned with a crown.
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[1] Yes, welcome to our first in-fiction time-skip. @_@ I had never planed to time skip more than once in this thing, somewhere in the middle, and for a big chunk of time. But I now see that doing that is an impossibility. I would go crazy if I tried to write out nearly a year of action and then some. ~.~;;

[2] You can either think of the old-time airplanes Mickey once flew in his black and white days, or the default Gummi-Ship from game one. Either should work for now. :3

[3] Because ‘Dr. Who’ humor is so easily abused. XD

[4] Until someone proves otherwise, my feelings are that Destiny Island is low tech. Not even steam-punk, or ‘High-tech of the low-tech’. That means not cars, trains, computers or other electronics other than light bulbs, radio, Television, refrigerators--iffy at best, because they might just have Ice boxes. . . but they have a school . . . . . and you have to be able to keep school lunches. . . . Anyway, no cars, planes, or trains at this time, as it is a tiny tiny place, and you can get to everywhere by foot (bicycle maybe) and boat. So he doesn’t know the proper terms for some things, like a windshield. Or a cockpit, or . . . other stuff that goes with motorized vehicles in general. And for those of you wondering . . . . Chocobos have been explained away as the figments of kids’ dreams. *Shifty look* For now. . . . *Runs.*

[5] If you played ‘Days’, awesome. If not, it’s like. . . the hangout lounge where everyone gets their missions assigned to them.

[6] Think of whatever background music they used for it in KH II/KH2, and Disney Town in BbS, and you’re good. If you want to get real fancy, then don’t forget to include the soundtrack to the Fantasia movie. In fact, take every Disney movie not yet in KH--except The Hunchback of Notre Dame, which will be explained later--and add that to Disney Castle’s & Disney Town’s soundtracks of possible music. And I think Walt Disney made use of ‘public domain’ classical music in many of his shorts, so that’s fair game too.

[7] Unless I note otherwise--or it’s Riku--everyone is in their game 2 outfits. And when Mickey is not in his robes, he defaults to his RED jumpsuit. Brain refuses to be creative right now. Riku is in game 1 outfit until he’s older . . . which isn’t yet. . . but I must be careful with aging progressions. . . . Lengthening of hair. . . and strategic growth spurts. . .

[8] The only good thing about taking so long to work on this chapter/story was learning about the past and Disney Town. I know that by game I times, a few of Disney Towns key characters are off-world in Traverse Town, then later in Hollow Bastion/Radiant Garden, and Pete himself world hops. My excuse is that, not everyone shown in the past of BBS has been shown relocated by even game II times, so I gather Huey, Dewey, and Louie went off to find out if Uncle Scrooge was okay after Radiant Garden started to fall apart. Otherwise, I vote Disney Town is still functional, or we have to allow that fortresses of unbridled light and shiny happiness can be eaten by Ansem too. And I’m not ready to say that yet.

[9] As always, I must thank ‘Dark Ki’ over at LJ for coming up with that term for the iconic Heart symbol of the Kingdom Hearts Universe.

[10] This is something that has been brought up in KH canon/fandom/fanon so many times that I don’t even remember all the stories it comes from, or everything they cited. But, here’s a recap for you who have forgotten, and a crash-course for those of you new to the Universe: Somehow, someway, possibly in the Manga, we see Riku looking at the approaching ‘Heartless’ storm that swallowed up the islands. . . . off of a balcony. From his room. The point has been made that he could only have such a thing if he came from money. So, in my head-canon, until proven otherwise, Riku is from a white-collar (Upper Class, to lower-Upper Class) family. Sora is from no higher than a blue-collar (Middle class) family, and maybe even lower if his father was just a fisherman (before being dead). Kairi was canonically adopted by the Mayor of Destiny Islands, and the Mayor probably has money enough to raise an adoptive daughter the way Riku was raised. . . . Okay, at least better than blue-collar kids would be raised.

A/N: [[Removed to comply with new AFF guidelines. Please see the MM.org version for full A/Ns: http://www.mediaminer.org/fanfic/view_st.php/156268]]
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“Angel of Twilight: Clockwork Breakdown”