Prologue:
Day 2: In Which They Almost Go to the Beach
His sleep was uneasy, riddled with dreams of darkness and strangers. When Roxas's eyes snapped open they still felt heavy, as if he were struggling to keep himself awake instead of just waking from sound sleep, but it was impossible to close them again -- there was a taut, painful pressure at the front of his mind. Roxas rolled over and pinched the bridge of his nose, trying to shake it off.
It was afternoon already, he realized when he managed to look up. Again. He really had to stop staying up so late.
Although, Roxas mused to himself as he got up to shower, he couldn't remember why he'd been up -- or when he'd gone to bed-- He couldn't even remember leaving the Usual Spot last night.
He hurried through his chores and then swung out the door, heading out to find his friends before they got into something exciting and left him behind. The streets were quiet and empty, and the only sounds were his sneakers on the pavement -- just like yesterday.
Roxas still couldn't believe that his friends hadn't seen the picture thief yesterday. It only made it the more aggravating that they hadn't followed him; they couldn't possibly have missed seeing it, and seeing for themselves that it -- they weren't human.
But since they hadn't, there was no proof, nothing at all. Not even of the keyblade that had destroyed two of them so easily.
If he had that... Roxas glanced around furtively, making sure that the back alley was still empty, and then ducked to snatch up a stick from the side of the street. He gave it a wide swing, like he was practicing for Struggle, measuringly. Come on--!
But nothing happened. He frowned and swung again, again, and then outright scowled at the treacherous stick. With an irritated sigh, he tossed the stick back over his shoulder and started again for the Usual Spot, but the stick made a soft sound, colliding with something definitely not made of stone.
Roxas whipped around, his eyes widening, and sure enough there was a man there -- a tall man in a black hooded coat. He'd never seen anyone like that around Twilight Town before, but instinctively he started to stammer, "Oh, I'm-- I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to--"
The figure remained still for a moment, staring first at Roxas and then at the stick that must have struck him. Without saying a word, or even appearing to hear Roxas's apology, the tall man just turned and left for the sandlot.
...crap. Roxas rubbed his fingers, turning the white and black bands around and around with nervous compulsiveness.
That hadn't helped mitigate the surreal dissociation he'd had since last night.
Fortunately, the moment he stepped into the Usual Spot he was hailed enthusiastically by his friends, bringing an unconscious warm smile to his lips, and effectively banishing that feeling of being out of place. Of course this was his place. It was their place.
"Oversleeping again?" Hayner drawled.
Roxas threw himself onto the couch and stretched his arms and legs. "Doing chores, for your information," he said, which was partially the truth. "But now everything I have to do today is done."
"Huh," said the taller boy, successfully distracted. "Well, we don't have much in the way of plans, but-- hey! We could go to the beach."
There goes Hayner again, Roxas thought, kicking up his feet and already resigning himself. Hayner had had worse ideas -- at least the beach was nearby, safe, and fun. Roxas imagined himself already in that warm, baking heat...
Olette protested, "But what about our homework? We haven't even started it!"
"Whatever," Hayner said dismissively. "We can do it when we get back! It's not summer without a trip to the beach."
"Hayner!
He shifted gears abruptly, looking pitiful and unhappy. "You wouldn't really make us miss out on the beach this summer, right?"
"Well--"
"Come on, Olette," Pence said, agreeable. "You've got to admit, the beach would be pretty nice today. Which will we remember more fondly when we're older -- having a fun day playing at the beach, or slaving over our homework?"
"Th, that's not fair!" Olette said weakly, and she turned to Roxas with a pleading look.
Pence added, "We could search for alien treasure on the beach."
Roxas tilted his head back, musing. Sorry, Olette, he thought. "The beach sounds great, but... how will we get there? I don't really have any munny." He rubbed his finger bands again awkwardly.
"What?! Didn't your parents give you spending munny for summer vacation?!" Hayner sounded scandalized.
"Well, of course they did, but I bought this--" Roxas frowned. "Well, I bought this Moai tissue dispenser, see...?" He raised his arms to show the shape of it in the air. "The tissues come out of its nose, and... And, it was 3,000 munny."
In retrospect, that seemed like a pretty stupid financial decision. He couldn't for the life of him remember why he'd felt compelled to buy that -- or even when he'd last seen it around the house. Roxas scratched his head. Why in the world had he thought that was cool?
After a beat, Hayner echoed, "You bought a-- what?"
"A tissue dispenser!" Olette said, standing up for him stubbornly despite how nearly indefensible the bizarre purchase was. "You know, for -- for when you have a cold, or something."
"See, now aliens are definitely involved here," Pence said, smirking. Roxas tossed an abandoned ice cream wrapper at his head.
Hayner leapt up and put his hands on his hips. "Okay, Roxas is an idiot, we know. But what about the beach?"
He stared straight at Olette until she folded her arms sullenly. "If you want to pay for his ticket, fine, then we'll go," she said.
"Yes!" Hayner crowed, pumping his fist in the air, and then pausing a beat. "Well, I can't cover his ticket -- I don't even have enough to pay for mine."
"And I kinda bought this spy kit," Pence added sheepishly.
"Oh, Pence!" Olette said, exasperated. "Not the one in the back of the comic book!"
At least he wasn't the only one who made bad judgment calls, Roxas thought, and he slanted a private grin at Pence. The brunet was laughing guiltily, but winked at him when Olette wasn't looking. That made Roxas wonder if he was actually sharing in the moment of feeling stupid, or if Pence was just defending him his own way.
"So no one has any munny," Hayner mused, tapping his chin thoughtfully. Then all at once he brightened and grinned like a madman, jabbing a thumb at his chest. "I got it! Just leave it to me!"
"Is it ever a good idea to leave something to you?" Roxas asked dryly, pushing himself upright.
"What are you talking about, it's a great idea! Just follow me..."
Roxas was the last to arrive at the train station later that afternoon, although he was traveling fast enough -- swaying nimbly on his skateboard to bring it to a halt in front of his friends. He dug in his pockets for the munny he'd earned, and his friends held up their own portions.
"My mailman's salary," he said cheerfully as Olette gathered up their respective earnings.
"They even paid Hayner," she said, amused, as she collected them in her munny pouch. "Even though he just threw up all the posters on one wall."
"I fixed it!" he said indignantly.
Pence admitted, "This was actually a pretty good idea. I was expecting to spend the day constructing rocket-powered skateboards to skip out on paying for train fare, or... or rooting through people's garbage in the hopes that someone had accidentally thrown out four train passes. That sort of thing."
Hayner scowled at him. "No watermelon for you," he said direly.
"We can't afford watermelon for anyone," Olette corrected. "We made 5,000 munny -- that's enough for everyone's tickets, and for pretzels!" She handed the munny pouch to Roxas. It was practically too big to fit in her cupped hands, so he kicked the skateboard away and tied it into his belt loop.
Excited and probably impatient from waiting for him, the others raced to the train station ahead of him. Roxas started to run after them, but he tripped over something, stumbled once and then crashed to the ground, hitting his chin and clacking his teeth together painfully.
"Ow," he muttered, "crap." He shook his ringing head and glanced back, to see--
A stick? That hadn't been there a second ago, he was sure of it -- he just kicked the skateboard past there. Roxas turned over to stare at it, and he had just a heartbeat to catch a glimpse of the man in the black coat out of the corner of his eye, just a heartbeat to suck in a surprised breath before the man seized his arm in a painful grip and hauled him to his feet.
"Hey--!"
"Do you feel Sora?" the man whispered harshly into his ear.
Roxas wanted to demand who the hell he thought he was, who gave him the right to touch him, but that question snapped him out of that uncharacteristic train of thought. He knew that name. It was his name-- the boy from his dream-- he knew that name.
"What?" he whispered.
"Roxas!"
Roxas's head jerked up, and he found Hayner and the others waiting for him in front of the train station.
"Come on!" Pence said urgently. "We're gonna miss the train!"
The figure in black was gone already when Roxas turned around. He stared at the open space until Hayner ran up and grabbed him by the elbow, then hauled him into the station. "Roxas, the munny, we need the munny," he said, impatient and sticking a hand into Roxas's pants pocket to search.
Roxas put up with a lot of inappropriateness from Hayner, but that was just too far; he batted the offending hand away and frowned at him. But the munny wasn't where he'd tied it -- wasn't in any of his pockets -- he patted himself down quickly and looked up, frantic. "It's gone, it's just--" He darted around Hayner to scan the area where he fell, but there was nothing. "That guy must've taken it!"
"Guy?" Hayner echoed, coming up behind him to help him look. "...There was no guy." Roxas spun around to give him a glare for being difficult, but Hayner was looking at him, not at the courtyard, and his expression was -- confused. Maybe wary. The look was echoed on Olette and Pence's faces.
"You fell, Roxas," Olette said, almost a whisper. "No one was anywhere near you."
Again? Roxas thought numbly.
The train's whistle went off, fading into the distance without them.
NEXT >>> Prologue (Part 6)