A/N: Thank you for the kind encouragement and review as usual R12! I'm glad you're still enjoying this story, even with all its hiatuses and hiccups! I'm not perfectly satisfied with the next few chapters because I wrote them a long time ago when my writing style was different, and some things get so old that they're difficult to edit when you're in a new frame of mind. I just want to get to writing new chapters, but I can't do that until I get these ones out! So here another one is!

Warning: Explicit Sexuality

~X~

Chapter Forty Two

~X~

Sora fled through endless, darkened stacks of books, silencing his steps as grinding metal sounded from the pipes overhead along with the echo of music. He could hear muted voices coming from above: Kairi, Minnie, Mickey, Yen Sid, and Eraqus. But he could not call out to them. When metal footsteps clanged towards the stack at his side, he stopped himself from screaming and swiveled around, dashing in the direction he had come.

They tortured him well and good, discussed the voices above, whispered yet crystal clear, glasses tinkling like clinking champagne flutes. As Kairi tittered laughter, Sora saw a glimmer of a cape flutter ahead and froze in terror, wishing he could cry out and warn the party where he was. They laughed again.

Lured him in like a rabbit with a carrot.

If you'd said a mouse with cheese I would have been offended!

Little traps everywhere, too stupid to realize. I heard they made the others watch.

They always make the losing troops watch. Want their last moments to be pure fear.

When Sora reached the end of the wall of books concealing him, he hunkered onto all fours and bounded close to the ground like a jackal, leaping across tables and scattering the maps on their tops. Grinding metal halted in the distance. Then, it began to run.

Sora bit back the whimper crawling up his throat, leaping so fast the books surrounding became a blur. Then he was climbing stairs with red brick walls on either side, pursued by a swishing blade. Before it could reach him, he slipped and skidded into another basement, remaining close to the ground as he flew across stinking carpets stained with black spots and the stench of iron. He passed a room he knew he did not want to enter. Fluorescent white light flickered within, along with the jittering whine of some sort of machine. He shied away and slithered farther, until he happened upon a metal sliding door marked with the same diamond enclosed, foreign script he had seen on the shipment boxes outside the warehouse on Avenida. When he slipped inside, he cringed.

It was an operating room surrounded by memory pods in varying shapes and sizes: some ovular, some rectangular, some filled with pink sludge or made of blocks of blue ice cream. In the center sat a body on a table, shrouded in a purple sheet. As soon as Sora touched it, the sheet was gone.

Ari lied in its place, eyes open, blinking at Sora as he tugged at his open chest. Wire frames in the shapes of prisms sat in place of his organs, surrounded by fleshy, blood red ribs and muscular walls. He smiled and waved, telling Sora he wasn't real, anyway. Then he stepped off the table and leaned against the wall to wall, two way mirror at the room's rear.

Behind its frame wrestled Vanitas and Roxas, naked. When Vanitas pressed himself against the base of Roxas' thighs, aim dreadfully off, Roxas became drenched in water, shivering and chattering his teeth.

It's only research Ari acceded. Then he turned to Sora with a grave glance. Their last patient went septic. How's your Mickey Hunt going?

He's upstairs, Sora said coolly, watching as Vanitas turned to Soddy. I've just got to walk up to him.

Ari's reflection overlaid Soddy's features. He won't apprentice you, you know, he said knowingly. He's taken.

I can always try, Sora responded, seeing himself in Roxas.

Not looking like that, you can't, Axel's voice rung at their side.

Though he appeared out of nowhere, it felt unremarkable. When Sora gazed down and saw Terra's key blade in the man's black-gloved hand, he felt scared. When Axel turned, his face disintegrated to Eraqus': jaw slack, eyes hollow, and black, tar like blood smeared against his chin as he hissed, only wielders of light are allowed in this room.

Sora grimaced in confusion, turning towards the operating room door.

There was nothing there but a wide window surrounded by white tiles, the same tiles Roxas and Vanitas had been surrounded by as Sora and Ari watched them wrestle from the outside or the two way mirror. Now, Sora saw nothing but his reflection. Where his own body should have stood crouched a heartless.

Sora shivered as he watched, drenched in cold water. Someone held him from behind, but he could not see them.

The mirror heartless' yellow eyes blinked with him. It shook when he shook and crossed its arms over its front when he crossed his. Its mouth opened wide when Sora grimaced, revealing pincher teeth.

For a moment Sora stood in confusion. Then, the invisible arms holding him tightened. The heartless straightened in realization. Clomping metal footsteps echoed at its crouched back.

No. There.

"NO!" Sora shrieked, jumping up and hitting his head off the gummi ship's bedroom ceiling. As he clapped his hands over his scalp, he cowered and glanced around to see if he was safe. When he realized he was tangled in his sleeping bag and drenched in sweat from head to toe, he tore off his shirt, wrenched out of the bedclothes, wiped himself down, and hunted through the mattress folds for Jaws Junior. When he located the stuffed animal, lodged between the bed and the gummi ship's rear window, he clutched it in his arms, nuzzled it close to his cheek, and curled up and cried. Joshua's voice sailed down towards him, asking if he was okay.

"Under an hour away," the blond added. "We're last to arrive, so heartless vessels should be few and far between."

Sora stared into Jaws Junior's dull, black eyes. Tiny, distorted faces reflected within, like dark, gleaming twins.

Shoving the animal away, Sora lumbered up the ladder and plopped into the chair at Joshua's side, wrenching up his destroyed tablet and scrolling through the bestiary. He considered entering in "black ooze," but feared that if he told Xemnas it summoned a phantom of Terra's key blade armor, the headmaster would laugh him all the way back to Destiny Islands. After all, it had been a dream, right? Maybe the mildewy stuffiness of Disney Castle's Reserves Section had gotten to his head, made him slump over, smash against the memory pod glass, and fall asleep.

Still, his fingers shook as he typed in the password to his new homework app and email. Xemnas' call for all students to return to the academy sat at the top of his received mail, cap-locked URGENT. Sora had read it so many times he had memorized it. Missing student found. Abandon posts and return to home base IMMEDIATELY- NO exceptions, no exemptions, no mercy.

When he switched the tablet off and glanced up to see what Joshua was doing, he spied him lounging in the front seat with a stylus in one hand, tablet in the other, and glasses slipping down the bridge of his nose, poking and pressing across the screen to highlight and circle words in what looked to be an essay.

"What are you doing?" Sora asked, wringing out his sopping hair on the carpet.

"Don't shake your sweat off up here, Sora," Joshua warned in reply. "Wait till we get home."

Sora whined and slumped back in his seat with his arms over his chest. When he stilled, Joshua told him that he was proofreading his report on inter world dancing.

"Really?" Sora chirped, sailing to Joshua's shoulder and leaning against it. As soon as he felt the warmth of the boy's skin and smelled his perfume, despair clutched so far down his throat that tears budded around his eyes.

When Sora nuzzled again, Joshua shook him off and scowled in disgust, hissing for him to stop sweating on him.

Sora sniffed and sat on the floor at his side, staring out the gummi window and wishing that the "home" they were floating towards was really Destiny Islands.

"I'm impressed, Sora," Joshua said. "Looks like you really used those books Minnie piled us with on our way out. Well organized, too. Though your bibliography and sentence structure need serious work."

When Sora stayed silent, Joshua peeked over at him, pale nostrils flickering in and out as he inhaled. When he turned back to Sora's rough draft, he murmured, "your musk smells nice. Kind of salty and sweet, though I don't like being drenched in-"

Sora listened until he could not anymore. A gag crawled up his throat, making Joshua yelp in fright when it came out as a hoarse whimper.

As Sora burst into tears, Joshua gaped and leaned over the pilot chair to stare at him, watching as the brunet hiccupped and wailed his mouth wide open, head cast up and legs slipped apart like butterfly wings.

After hestitating Joshua reached out and patted his head, wincing when his hand came back damp. He wiped it on the seat cushion as he cooed for Sora to calm down. When he asked what had happened, Sora cast his head down and stared up at Joshua like a naughty child.

Joshua cocked his head in expectation. "Did you have a bad dream?" he goaded.

Sora sniffled. Then, scrunching his face up, he whimpered, "y-yeah," and blustered into weeping again.

Joshua sighed and stroked his scalp like a puppy, rolling his eyes when the boy piped down.

"I was supposed to stay awake," Sora whispered, sniffing uncontrollably.

Joshua sighed that it was only natural for him to fall asleep. "You've been awake for three days straight. Your body is exhausted."

"Bu-but why aren't you sleeping?" Sora whimpered.

His companion snorted and said he got a lot of sleep at the brothel in the imperial city. "And I do fall asleep at the cockpit, you know," he said. "I'm a light sleeper, anyway, but I'm only awake now because I'm anxious. Aren't you?"

"Y-yeah," Sora croaked, trying not to think about the reason why. His eyes drooped of their own accord as Joshua stroked behind his ears and played with the shorter hairs at the back of his neck. He blushed as he leaned into the touch, closing his eyes completely to revel in the sensation.

"Ihadadreamabouthim," he slurred, causing Joshua to pause.

"Who?" The blond asked.

Sora opened his mouth to say "Ari," or "Eraqus," but instead he murmured, "Roxas. Bunch of others. I was chased by a monster. Then I found out I was a monster, too." As he said it, his face scrunched up and his shoulders shook from returning sobs.

Joshua's hand crept away as his breath paused. Then, voice heavy with irritation, he muttered that Sora could sit at his side if it would make him feel better.

Sora fired up the chair arm in an instant, snuggling at Joshua's ribs and leaning against his shoulder as he hiked up his legs. The closer he got, the more Joshua cringed away. When Sora threatened to take over the entire chair, Joshua snapped for him to stay on his half.

Sora slumped with a pout and rolled his head back and forth across Joshua's shoulder, making the boy cry out in giggling indignation. "Stop that, Sora!" he barked. "Or I'll kick you off!"

"I'm sorry," Sora mewled. "I won't move again, I promise."

Joshua scowled and grabbed his tablet back in his hands. He hummed as he proofreaded, chuckling every once in a while. When Sora scooted to get a better look, Joshua froze and pinned him with a glower that made Sora cower and apologize. Joshua continued staring at him, this time ponderous. Then, he glanced away.

The way his blond curls shivered as he breathed and the way his purple irises darted and jet black pupils dilated when they centered on something interesting had never been more fascinating to Sora. When his pale cheeks twitched up with a blushing grin, Sora blushed, too. Finally, the blond scowled and shot the brunet another forbidding glance.

Sora kept his gaze.

When Joshua stared into his eyes, he raised an expectant brow. "Sora," he warned. "You're staring."

"Sorry," Sora whispered, forgetting to stop. He liked the way Joshua's lips moved when he talked.

Joshua's eyes narrowed further. "I know Roxas taught you that staring like that means something," he hissed. Then he turned away with a curt nod. "If you want to maintain our professional relationship, I suggest you look away or get off this chair. I may not be as stubborn as you, but once I get an idea in my head, I'm just as ruthless in going after it."

"Uh-huh," Sora murmured, draping himself over Joshua's arm. As he stared out the cockpit window, he bit his lip.

Space was so dark. Were there less stars than usual? They seemed dull: a dying pulse, a parched candle, a shrouded grin. Bound and suffocated. Trapped in surrounding black. Sora clutched himself as he stared, trying not to compare their flickering light to eyes, but most of all trying to ignore how good it felt being close to another human being.

He had not been touched in months, and all of a sudden his body ached for it. As he felt Joshua's still, even breath, he closed his eyes again, abandoning all tension and breathing with him. He dozed in and out, wringing his hands to keep from gripping Joshua's. When golden irises and the terrible whir of the A/C in the Hall of Records pulsed through the back of his head, he wrapped his arms around Joshua's middle and squeezed, smelling his neck again, nodding up when the blond scowled and shivered instinctively.

"You're acting very funny for saying you didn't want anything to do with me on the beginning of our journey," the blond intoned.

"That was because I was trying to control myself," Sora slurred through half sleep, covering his mouth too late.

Joshua whipped towards him in gleeful surprise, pinching back a smile as his brows rose half way up his scalp. "So Mr. 'I'm saving myself' Nomura isn't a prude after all?" he cooed. "I should have guessed lack of sleep is a natural truth serum for you."

Sora turned away in rancor, shooting Joshua cool glances every once in a while though he snuggled closer to his side.

Joshua snickered and ran his fingers through Sora's hair, jiggling his head back and forth after taking hold. As Sora rotated towards him, the blond sighed in mock dejection. "Ah, Sora," he crooned, giving his best coquettish pout, "if only you'd gotten yourself a man in Twilight Town or the Land of Dragons like I told you! The ship with me has sailed."

"M-hm," Sora murmured, ignoring him.

Joshua scowled and pinched his nose, telling him to listen.

It made Sora wince and furrow his brows.

He imagined himself leaning over and pecking the boy on the lips. His hair smelled so nice. His skin felt so soft. How had he not realized before? Sora stared at it through heavy lids, watching the way Joshua's lips pursed and curved down. When the lips got closer, he sighed in curiosity. Joshua's breath tickled the hairs of his nose. He wiggled and pinched at his nostrils to get rid of the sensation. Then, cheek against the seat back cushion, he closed his eyes and touched soft pink.

Joshua's lips remained frozen. Sora ran his own along them, wanting to press them with his tongue. His hand glided up and tugged thick blond curls, twirling the strands in his fingers.

Joshua responded by opening his mouth. Was he trying to protest?

Sora sighed and scooted closer, past his half of the chair, thigh gliding over Joshua's knee and resting between his legs.

The blond remained still; mouth gaping as Sora slipped both hands around his jaw and tilted his head to the side. Then, as Sora relaxed so close to sleep he moaned and mumbled without qualm, Joshua returned his kiss, slipping his arms around Sora's waist and pulling him close. They breathed together as Joshua slipped one leg between Sora's thighs, Sora bending down to reach the blond's upturned face as he felt Joshua's other leg graze the side of his ribs. Sucking in again, their scissoring thighs crept closer and their movements quickened.

Sora's cheeks burst red. His heart raced. Joshua made a sighing noise that made Sora run his tongue inside the boy's mouth.

As they sucked closer, Sora's hands slipped past Joshua's jaw and twined around the back of his head, reveling in the baby hairs at the nape of his neck. When he hooked his free leg around Joshua's hip and pressed his foot into the boy's backside, Joshua did the same.

Their erections touched through the fabric of each's garments. It wasn't close enough.

Wincing, Sora pressed so close that his legs shook. When he felt Joshua's balls against his own through his briefs, he scrunched shut his eyes and bit his lip to keep from moaning. When he averted his face, Joshua attacked his exposed neck, rolling his hips towards Sora's and grinning as Sora rolled back so hard their erections pressed and rubbed together. The fabric keeping them apart felt as though it were made of nettles.

When the pain was too much, Joshua burst out "I've got to-" in sudden vexation, kneeling away from Sora and unzipping his jeans.

Sora untangled their legs and leaned back, clutching his knees to his chin as he slipped off his boxers. No sooner than he was away did Joshua pull him back, entwining their legs one over the other again as Sora fumbled with the boy's collared shirt, giving up three buttons down before pulling it over his head. Joshua shivered as he wrestled it off, yelping and giggling when he nearly fell out of the chair. It made Sora giggle, too. But eventually, his smile faded.

He had never been this close to someone before- not even Ventus. Sure, he had traded blowjobs, laid with, and sat against a boy's lap. But this felt different. Joshua's genitals pressed so close to his own that Sora could feel the beat of the blond's blood through his own penis. The inside of his thigh snuggled against Joshua's soft, blue veined hip. It was so impossibly warm between the boy's legs that Sora could think of nothing but drawing them closer.

When he looked up, they met eyes. Joshua's lips were swollen with blush, puckered forward in want as his flushed cheek leaned against the seat back cushion. He was panting. Was Sora panting, too?

Sharing Joshua's wide, violet gaze with a gulp, he slipped one hand around the blond's left shoulder and the other under the pit of his right arm, meeting fingertips at the center of the boy's back. Then, still staring as though incapable of looking anywhere else, he pressed.

Joshua bit his lip and did the same, grabbing Sora by the hair and eating up his lips. The more their hips rolled the closer they clutched to each other, like cells merging together. The area between their legs became moist and hot: their balls, penises, and the insides of their thighs sliding together violently with sweat and semen.

The feeling of skin on skin was too much. Sora rattled out a cry as their bare penises reunited, clutching the arm of the chair behind Joshua's back. His hips moved faster, rolling and shoving into Joshua as he bit his lip and winced with each thrust. His arms and legs were beginning to shake with the familiar feeling of fullness in his pelvis. Joshua shook too; his face flushed bright pink as his curls swept in mottled strands around his nose. Sora wiped them away and kissed him again, timing every pull and push with the pull and push of Joshua's body. When they threatened to tip over the chair again, Joshua scowled and crawled with Sora in his arms to the ground, resting the brunet against the control panel, hiking one knee under his ass, and extending his other leg until it pressed against the pilot chair leg a foot away. With the extra push capacity, he thrust against Sora with mounting vigor. Sora helped him by pressing his shoulders harder against the control panel wall and flexing his hips forward as far as they would could go. The electric whine familiar from the night of the drag show and every time he had played with Ventus returned again. But this time, he wanted it so bad.

"Fuck, let me just-" Joshua cursed, smoothing their penises with precum and closing his hand around both of them. Then, he squeezed.

When he began pumping, Sora flew his eyes opened and cried into the skin of Joshua's neck, grabbing the boy's hair and pulling it as Joshua's other hand trailed around to cup his ass. They continued scissoring thighs, balls and puckered entrances meeting, nipples digging around each other as their ribs knocked together beneath the skin of their chests. When Joshua cried out against Sora that he was "coming," Sora grimaced and snapped, "whatareyoudoing?"

Against his will, Joshua sputtered with laughter. Then, his face screwed up and his mouth opened wide. White liquid burst from him between their chests. When the same surge left Sora as well, he screamed Joshua's name and trembled against him as the boy continued pumping, wincing when it became too sensitive. Even so, they continued thrusting, wincing through wave after wave until their shaking subsided and they draped against each other, spent.

"Fuck..." Joshua gasped, bringing one trembling hand to wipe away the sweat pinning his bangs to his forehead. He let Sora help without complaint, scrunching shut his eyes instead of scowling when the brunet mussed up his hair in the process of pulling it away form his face.

Sora's heart calmed as he combed Joshua's hair back, digging his fingers between each family of strands and trailing all the way down to the nape of Joshua's neck before repeating. His eyes drooped. His breath stilled. Hesitantly, he rested his cheek against Joshua's, closing his eyes and sighing in contentment as the tears pooled along the edge of his eyes met the tears against Joshua's.

"Minerva," Joshua exclaimed through chattering lips. "That was the best nonpenetrative sex I've had in my life."

"Sex?" Sora slurred in casual astonishment, wondering how what they had done counted for sex if no one's penis had entered anywhere.

"Well, maybe best is pushing it," Joshua continued with a half snort, half sigh. "We could have gone way longer if I hadn't cut it premature with the handjob, but quality over quantity is always worth throwing into the mix..."

"How did we have sex?" Sora demanded through a whine, clasping Joshua's shoulder blade and rolling the skin above with his fingers.

The blond lifted his face up just enough to give Sora a frown. "Lesbian sex, Sora," he said simply.

"I'm not a lesbian, Joshua," returned Sora, mimicking Joshua's knowing tone drowsily.

Joshua rolled his eyes. "Obviously you're not a lesbian- but defining sex as purely penetrative is kind of insulting-"

"But I can't have had sex yet," Sora croaked. He should have been too tired to care. But he was so distraught by everything that had happened, his heart drowned with anxiety.

This could not be sex. He was not ready yet. He needed more time. He needed to make sure it was the right person.

Joshua opened his mouth like he was going to protest. But when he rolled over and saw the look in Sora's eyes, he softened, sighing and stroking the boy's sodden, honey brown hair. "You're right, Sora," he cooed. "It wasn't sex, it was just..."

"D-decompressing," Sora offered, warming when Joshua grinned. Taking a chance, he snuggled closer, until he was embracing the blond again.

Joshua's eyes rolled in his head as he attempted in vain to stay awake. "Decombresin," he slurred to himself. "Goodjob,Soruh..."

"Mh-hm," Sora responded. The last thing he registered was Joshua mumbling for them to clean themselves up. Then, everything fell silent. When he snapped his eyes open again, Joshua was moaning. This time, though, it seemed to be from agitation.

"Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck," the blond scowled, glancing out the cockpit window with bitten nails as the hazard lights in the ship began going off. When Sora asked what was wrong, the blond hissed that they were ten minutes away from landing.

"Ten MINUTES?" Sora barked, shooting up before remembering he was naked. When he pressed his hands down his stomach and brought back strange, half dry liquid, the color left his face.

Suddenly, the ship shuddered and he tripped over his feet. Yelping, he snapped his gaze outside the cockpit glass. The Land of Departure grew from speck, to softball, to watermelon before his eyes. Before he could dash for the ladder, Joshua roared for him to get in the passenger seat.

"But Joshua, I'm-" he started. The ship shuddered again and he slammed into the cockpit glass. Nursing a hefty bruise forming on his forehead, he decided sitting down was more important than cleaning himself up, clamping in both of their tablets before snapping on his seatbelt and wincing at the feeling of wet skin on scratchy cushion. Joshua was practically naked, as well, his jeans falling around his ankles as he fiddled with the controls and tried sitting down. When he bent to get hold of his pants, Sora stared between his legs, noticing that his ass was caked in glistening, milky liquid, too. When Sora recalled what they had done before they fell asleep, he groaned.

Joshua screamed, "FUCK!" and collapsed in his seat, jeans still around his ankles, seatbelt plugged in, and hands gripped like vices around the wheel. "Sora, man the laser!" he roared, whimpering as they hovered close enough to the atmosphere to break through it.

"Joshua, there are no heartless-"

"Fuck," Joshua said under his breath, sucking in to regain control. He closed and opened his eyes, pushing the breath out as he gave the twin peaks a determined glower. Then, gritting his teeth, he steered the ship down.

Cid Haze stood at the forecourt center with glow sticks flailing around him. When he was sure Joshua saw him, he pointed the glow sticks down and summoned the ship in a circle.

Joshua pushed out another breath and curved the ship right, dipping lower and lower until they were ten feet off the ground. When the ship's rear got a little close to one of the school's second floor windows for comfort, Sora whimpered and Cid Haze jumped up and down and indicated hard to the summit.

Joshua nodded and steered the ship farther away. When they were five feet clear of the ground, he pressed the breaks hard.

The gummi ship snarled in protest, puffing black smoke as a mysterious clanging sound rattled up from the pipes beneath the ladder. With a final, protesting shudder, the spacecraft roared, lurched forward, and whistled to a halt. When the clanging pipes silenced and the ship stilled completely, Joshua set in place the landing features, locked the wheel, and took out the ignition. Then he fell back in his chair, clapped his hands over his eyes, and exhaled.

For a moment, he and Sora slumped in exhaustion. Then, pulling back his hair, he glowered behind him and told Sora to make himself presentable.

Sora scrambled out of the cockpit and clambered down the ladder, wiping himself down with a towel and shoving on a semi-clean t-shirt and Zell's old running shorts. By the time he remembered he was not wearing any underwear, it was too late. Joshua was roaring for him to move to the side as he scrambled into a new outfit. By the time both of them opened the hatch and scaled the rope ladder to the ground, Xemnas was descending the Academy's entrance steps to greet them.

Sora clasped his legs together and tried sucking up his balls to keep them from peeking out the side of his shorts.

All the while, Xemnas approached with a reserved gate and gaze of suspicion, taking his time to glance the brunet up and down. When he got close enough to smell Sora, his nostrils flared and his lip curled.

Sora gulped, refusing to meet his eye.

When the headmaster asked Joshua how the trip down had been, Joshua chirped that they had just come from Disney Castle. "Turns out that cornerstone trick of yours really worked, Headmaster!" he beamed.

Sora marveled at how fast Joshua regained composure. Save for the dilation of his pupils and the twitch of his lips, no one would guess a single thing was wrong with him. When Sora tried a confident chuckle as well, Xemnas pierced him with a gaze that knocked the wind right out of him.

The man drifted coolly from Sora back to Joshua, murmuring that he had not asked about whether they completed their mission. "I asked about your trip back," he intoned.

Joshua's smile faltered. Curt, he stated that the trip back had been uneventful.

"Really," Xemnas whispered, glancing from Joshua to Sora again. "You both seem well rested."

Sora blushed so hard his face burned. Joshua stuttered that they had fallen asleep before landing. "It's been a long week," he explained. "But at least all of our midterms are taken care of!"

"Oh, I never said your club midterms were taken care of," Xemnas responded, running his hand lazily along the gummi ship's side. "The location of Disney Castle solely covers your combat midterms. Granted, every other graded assignment you have missed thus far will have to be reviewed, as well. It is now so late past their due date, I struggle to see the point in making you complete any of them at all."

"Well, I'm sure Sora and I don't mind that!" Joshua giggled.

Xemnas' ensuing gaze shut him up. "You should be very worried about your grades," he said in a quiet voice, staring towards Sora and sharpening his glance. "Very. Worried."

Joshua winced and followed Xemnas towards the front double doors just as Xigbar bounded out to meet them.

When the ravenet noticed Joshua's stony gaze and disheveled hair and Sora's Olympian blush and wobbling steps, he snorted and said that it looked like Joshua had entered the castle after all. "Does the oil and gas tank need checking?" he barked to Cid, grinning over his shoulder and biting his lip as if on the verge of guffawing. When Xemnas snapped for him to follow and keep quiet, he snorted and held out his hands in glee, patting a confused Cid Haze on the shoulder before leaving him to inspect the ship on his own.

As Sora watched Cid scramble up the ship's ladder, he squeaked that maybe he and Joshua could clean up alone.

"That is unnecessary," Xemnas responded. "Gummi ship inspections remain carried out by licensed professionals."

"Well, it's a good thing Cid Haze is doing it," Sora tried through a gulp.

"Cid Haze doesn't run inspections, kiddo," Xigbar called from Xemnas' side. "Xaldin does."

Sora nearly fainted on the spot. When he saw Joshua's cheeks go from white to green, he knew he was close to defeat as well.

Terrified his balls would upstage him as he climbed the stairs and driven mad by the sensation of wind against the bare dampness between his legs, he dug his hand down the back of his shorts and attempted tucking his family jewels between his buttocks while no one was watching, keeping his own eyes trained against the steps so he would not trip. When he gazed up again, he met Xemnas' wide amber eyes and felt his blood run cold.

The headmaster's nostrils and pupils dilated as he stared Sora down. Then, his gaze narrowed and averted as he incised that despite receiving his urgent email inside an asteroid belt closer to the Land of Departure than Radiant Garden, they had been three hours later in arriving than everyone else.

"The asteroid system Disney City is hidden within disables foreign travel and communication devices," Joshua interjected. "We didn't know about the call to return until one of the workers in the castle's gummi hanger came and told us that the ship's warning lights were going off-"

"I want a complete report of your time of arrival in Disney City," Xemnas cut in, "the time you received the update from the workers in the gummi hangar, and the time you left. If any items not pertaining to your missions are found within that ship's walls, they will be confiscated and examined by myself personally. If the ship does not pass inspection due to maintenance, operational, or cleanliness issues, you will both hear about it."

Sora and Joshua were too shocked to respond. When the latter asked in a small voice if they could be released to clean themselves up, Xemnas stated that they had thirty minutes to prepare for the school wide meeting at three. "Classes have been canceled for this event," he added. "Both juniors and seniors will be present."

When Joshua and Sora thanked him and moved to leave, Xemnas called Sora back.

Frozen in terror, Sora clenched his hands into fists and orbited slowly around on the balls of his feet.

Xemnas and Xigbar stood shoulder-to-shoulder, Xigbar smug and Xemnas unreadable. The headmaster leaned to his associate and told him to make sure Joshua went straight to his room. Xigbar complied, pushing Joshua along and through the exit to the stairwell. When they were gone, Xemnas told Sora to accompany him to his office. When Sora attempted objecting, the man turned and ascended the stairs past the grand hall alone.

For a moment Sora watched him walk. Then, deciding it was best to follow, he clambered up and shadowed him down the second floor hall.

It was a silent journey save for the squeak of Sora's sneakers and the swish of Xemnas' coat.

When the headmaster stopped abruptly before Eraqus' suite, Sora leapt away to avoid crashing into him. The man dug a set of keys from his pocket and filed through one after the other, picking his way towards the winner at a glacial, luxuriant pace. Finally, the correct one was found, the door was unlocked, and Xemnas filed inside with Sora tiptoeing a couple feet behind. As Xemnas strolled towards and settled behind Eraqus' severe oak desk, he told Sora to close the door behind him. When Sora complied and attempted seating himself, Xemnas told him to stand.

Sora did so, clasping his hands together between his legs like a fig leaf, feeling his balls shrink up without any help at all. He watched Xemnas extricate a file and write in it for what felt like ions, feeling the minutes pass like years on the grandfather clock behind the headmaster's silver head. When he cleared his throat, Xemnas glared up at him and snuffed him silent.

Sora held back the urge to sob.

Xemnas began writing again, the scrape of his quill deafening. Every time it touched the paper was a knife to Sora's skin. Just when the brunet thought he would go crazy, Xemnas announced that he heard he had had fun in the Land of Dragons.

Sora breathed in relief, propping up a smile and croaking that it had been formative. "I-I learned so much," he garbled. When he leaned forward, Xemnas held up his palm for him to remain away.

Sora faltered, continuing through a stutter that his aim had really improved. "For some reason my magic was off when I started traveling," he insisted, breaking into a grin when he thought of the way he had fought Shan Yu's dragon. "But you should have seen the fire spells I summoned when I defeated Shan Yu and the Huns!"

"I thought Mulan defeated Shan Yu and the Huns," Xemnas murmured.

Sora faltered a second time, gulping that that was technically true. "But the heartless were all me!"

Xemnas' eyes widened and dulled in silent mocking.

The gesture made Sora shrink on himself and return to silence. Again, the scratching pen drove him mad.

When he asked if he was free to go, Xemnas stood, tore the paper he was working on in half, and launched Eraqus' name holder for Sora's head.

Sora yelped and ducked as it smashed against the door behind him, wincing as it thudded to the carpeted floor where Eraqus' bloody corpse had once laid. Stillness engulfed the entire chamber. Somehow, Sora found the courage to glance up.

Xemnas loured before the desktop like a carven sculpture. When he relaxed he snorted, murmuring that aim was a useless skill to develop if one didn't know how to guard.

Sora remained with his hands shielded in front of him, mouth agape. "Wa," he started in disbelief, hands curling to fists as indignation burned through his body. "What was that for?"

"I am teaching you a lesson, Sora," Xemnas returned in an even, concise tone. "I am showing you what a lack of respect feels like, personally."

"But I didn't disrespect anyone!" Sora wailed. When Xemnas launched towards him, he backed towards the door, yelping as the man took hold of his arm.

Xemnas pulled him forward, forcing up his wrist until Sora stood on his tiptoes. After prying the boy's hand open and smelling it, he threw down the limb in disgust and circled Sora's shrinking form. The boy sniffed in a breath, pushing it out in staggered jumps as tears welled around his eyes.

"Do not cry," Xemnas intoned.

Sora's exhale came out as a sob. As his shoulders shook and his next breath made his lower lip slip behind his upper teeth, he wept.

Xemnas remained inches from his nose, staring down at him through a wide, expressionless amber gaze as the boy cowered away as much as he could. "Stand straight," the headmaster commanded.

Sora tried. When he could not, he broke down and covered his face in his hands, leaning over and wailing with abandon as the man's breath fell against his forehead.

Xemnas loomed less than a centimeter away. "How quickly the lessons fade," he murmured.

Sora cried harder.

"A month and a half in the Land of Dragons, teaching yourself what you should have learned from the moment you set foot in this school, honeymooning with Joshua in the countryside, fighting another world's war five weeks after discovering that your target, King Mickey, hadn't set foot in the Land of Dragons for at least five years. Going after a fugitive you were expressly forbidden from following atop the Tung Shao Pass-"

Sora looked up in horror, wondering how on earth Xemnas could possibly have known he was chasing Soddy. "How-" he started, but before he could finish, Xemnas interjected that other students had heard word in the capitol of a cloaked man wandering the mountains after Shan Yu.

"I had to send Xigbar to interview the few remaining imperial soldiers to confirm what really happened on the Tung Shao Pass. Unfortunately for you, one saw the man you were running after following the avalanche that killed the Huns."

"There were heartless," Sora sobbed, vision destroyed from tears. "I- I had no choice. Shan Yu said that- that he had been trying to lure me-"

"-And that he did-"

"-He would have killed the emperor if I-"

When Xemnas grabbed Sora's arm and shoved it from his face, Sora mewled and cowered so far he shrunk to half his standing size.

"When did you discover the Huns were targeting the emperor?" asked Xemnas. When Sora failed to respond, he gripped his arm harder.

Sora wailed and pried at his fingers, leaning back against the man's pull until he was nearly wrenched into his superior's arms.

"Look at me, Sora!" Xemnas boomed.

Sora whimpered and stared up at him, resisting the urge to piss himself as the man's pupils constricted and the citrine of his eyes swallowed them. Like this, he seemed a monster hiding in a human's skin. "Did you discover the Huns were targeting the emperor the same day you discovered that King Mickey was absent from that world?"

"Bu-but Shan Yu-"

"Answer the question I am asking, Sora."

"N-no-"

"Who else would the Huns have been targeting, Sora?"

"Shan Yu m-mentioned a key-"

"When did Shan Yu find out about the key blade?"

"The m-masked-"

"I'll give you a hint. Was Captain Li Shang aware of the cloaked man roaming the Tung Shao Pass the day his father entered the camp near your gummi ship and the day you joined the imperial army?"

"I- I don't know!"

"The answer is yes, Sora."

"O-okay."

"Yes, Sora!" Xemnas boomed. "Show me you are not brain dead. When I tell you to say yes, you say yes."

"Y-yes!"

"On the day you discovered Shan Yu was utilizing darkness and targeting key blade wielders in his plans of world domination, did you report it to your superiors?"

"N-no-"

"Why did you not acknowledge the updates telling you to desist and return to the Land of Departure?"

"B-because my tablet went out of batteries."

"Why did you not charge it?"

"I- I-"

"Say you were too far away from your gummi ship, Sora-"

"I- I was too f-f-far away from the gu-gu-gum-"

"Speak, Sora! Have you developed a stutter in addition to the inability to form concise sentences?"

"I was saving people!" Sora shrieked at the top of his lungs. When he sobbed louder and let the tears roll down like pearls from his shut tight eyes, Xemnas commanded him to keep eye contact. When the man's chest grew close enough to touch Sora's arm, his smell reminded him of Terra.

This time, Sora really did piss himself. Before the liquid could run down his legs, Xemnas scoffed and cast a blizzard spell on him, freezing the line of urine dribbling towards his socks like wax from a melting candle.

Sora shivered at the feeling of ice cold below his belly button, reestablishing eye contact like Xemnas had told him to. Humiliation dragged his shoulders around his ears as he shuddered and down with each labored breath.

Xemnas stared at the show in revulsion. "You stink of sex when you leave the ship that was entrusted to you for safe keeping," he started. "You piss and cry like an animal in my office. And then you have the gall to tell me you have spent the last month and a half saving people?"

"I- I did, I swear!" Sora hiccupped in pleading. "I h-helped Mu-Mulan save the Land of Dragons, I- I was gi-gi-given a me-medal for, for being a h-hero!"

"How many members were left of the imperial army after you saved the capital?"

"Uh, s-seven foot soldiers, s-some people at the entrance to-to the vil-village, an-and one- one hundred castle guards."

"So let us round up and say that of the two hundred thousand members of the imperial army, only two hundred and seven survived."

"Y-yes."

"And of the Huns, if our census of fifty thousand remains correct, you murdered every single one of them bar four?"

"We-well M-Mulan-"

"Oh? Now Mulan gets the credit?"

Sora hiccupped in confusion, scalp splitting with a migraine that made him sway on his feet.

A mocking grin plastered across Xemnas' face as he hissed down. "How quickly a hero trades blame!" he marveled. "Tell me, Sora, if you had interviewed Li Shang upon first meeting him, left the Land of Dragons as commanded, and informed the Organization of the rumors surrounding Shan Yu's use of darkness a month before the Huns' ambush on the imperial army and the mountain village it camped within, how many innocent lives could have been saved?"

"B-but, but-" Sora stuttered. When he realized what Xemnas was saying, he flew his eyes open and stared at him in shock.

Xemnas gazed back, expectant.

Sora remained motionless, mouth ajar, eyes wide, and head cowered between his shoulders. He forgot to breath, and barely felt the beat of his heart. When Xemnas leaned close, his voice drifted over Sora's eardrums like syrup, thick with lament.

"How many lives do you have to destroy playing these little games of yours?" The man whispered. "I warned you so often that your foolhardiness would kill people. I never expected the number to reach the hundred thousands. But you continue to surprise me in the worst ways. Ever since I heard news of your hand in the slaughter, my mind couldn't help but return to that poor, innocent village. How many people did the Huns torture? How many were children your age, dreaming of becoming a hero, like you?"

"The Huns would've killed them anyway," Sora gulped, swallowing back bile as well as deep, growing self-hate.

"They did not have to, Sora," Xemnas whispered. "Under the Galactic Federation's constitution, Shinra and the Organization can step into a foreign world's affairs if given permission. Instead of furnishing an army doomed to failure, imagine if they had let us defend them? No one would have had to die at all."

"Th-that's not true," Sora hissed. "You- you can't save everyone."

"But I thought that was what you told Axel in your Skype interview to get here, that you would save everyone," Xemnas murmured in feigned surprise. "Did you lie?"

Sora faltered, losing the ability to speak at all. His blue eyes centered on Xemnas', but they did not see. His mind fell blank.

Xemnas stared down at him in satisfaction, stepping away and folding his arms behind his back as the boy's fell limp at his sides. When he was certain Sora's emotional outburst had passed for good, he indicated for him to come to the door.

Sora stared after him, dumb as a post.

Xemnas cocked his head. Then he opened the door.

As it swung to the side, there was a yelp and clamor. When Xemnas stared into the hall, he noticed a huddle of Organization members just outside, glued together amidst sheepish giggles. They glanced from Xemnas to Sora in embarrassment; Demyx clapping his hand over his mouth and spewing muffled laughter when he spotted the dark patch on Sora's shorts.

"Superior!" Xigbar gasped in feigned shock. "I thought you said you were going to talk to him, not break him! He looks like one of those upended jumping frogs!"

Demyx burst into cackles, followed by a wincing, sniggering Luxord.

Xemnas snarled for them to disappear, pressing his hand between Sora's shoulder blades and shoving him into the hall. Sora forced his legs to work as he followed Xemnas and the rest of the organization present towards the nurse's office.

When Sora stared up in delayed curiosity, the headmaster pointed ahead. "If the thought of dead children hasn't moved you to rethink the enormity of the responsibility you have thus far flouted," he drawled, "perhaps this will." With that, he opened the infirmary door and filed towards a cot at the far end of the room with a curtain pulled in front of it. The outline of a man with a spiky hair moved behind, hand resting on the bedframe. When he heard coming footsteps, he jumped up and appeared at the room's center, blubbering that he was just checking on the returning student's vitals.

Axel. When he made eye contact with Sora, he glowered. But his gaze softened when he noticed the state the boy was in.

Sora stumbled like a machine past his shoulder, slowing the nearer he got. His lips and shoulders curled up, shielding him against the vision he knew he did not want to see.

When Xemnas reached the bedside, he turned and indicated for Sora to stand close.

"While you were off fucking the student I trusted most to keep an eye on you, watching movies with friends in Twilight Town, and 'saving' the Land of Dragons, your dear friend was being viciously tortured within an inch of his life by DiZ," he explained, "His assistant, Ansem, Seeker of Darkness, whom Reno tells me you skinny dipped and went on ice cream dates with during his time here as associate professor and let escape on the Tung Shao Pass just days ago, forgot to chain his cage properly upon his return from the Land of Dragons. That is the only reason Roxas was able to escape. Because of his intelligence, we discovered that DiZ and Ansem captured Naminé and several memory pods. We discovered that she has been set for torture and disposal whenever she extends past her usefulness, and we discovered that DiZ and Ansem are targeting every child within this school's walls for capture. Should they succeed in their crusade, any surviving victims may turn out much like this."

With that, Xemnas pulled back the curtain.

When Sora saw what lay inside, he wailed. Immediately he was shushed, stared upon in rancor by the all of the organization present as Xigbar rushed to the bedridden student's side and comforted him through fitful sleep.

Roxas lay fitted with an oxygen mask, his chest drawing in ragged breaths as the plastic surrounding the mouthpiece dug into the corners of his sunken cheeks. His hair was shaved to reveal dark sores, his arms covered in bandages. His body was half its usual size, all bones and skin. The sun kissed blush that usually bathed him in golden light was gone, replaced by sallow swaths and shadows, as if he were a tiny leather canvas stretched over a frame too big for him. His fingers were lost in bandages and metal splints, but his hands were so bruised they looked black.

Sora stumbled towards him at a loss, staring from feature to feature of the boy he thought he knew. He did not move when Xemnas crept close to his ear and pointed over his shoulder.

"When they could not reach him through his body," the headmaster said, "they accessed his heart through his mind. I wonder what memories Naminé forced onto him in that pod world. If only you had given us her letter earlier on, we might have caught DiZ before he destroyed him. Pity, really," he chuckled, adding after a moment's thought, "it's almost like de ja vu, isn't it?"

When Sora would not respond, Xemnas shrugged and murmured that it reminded him of Riku.

"To think," he said. "That he most likely met the same fate, or worse, at the hands of the very same men. If only you had provided us with the truth at the right time. Such waste."

Sora stared at Roxas as he slept.

The boy's eyes rolled backwards and forwards beneath bruised, crusted lids as his lips sucked in and out in short gasps. Globs of sweat pooled around his eyes, his thoughts causing him to fidget with the little strength he possessed. Sora wondered what he was dreaming about.

A chortle wafted over his shoulder as Xemnas clucked his tongue and shook his head. "I wonder what your friends see before they die," he whispered. "I wonder if they see your face and wish they had never met you."

The figure before Sora turned to clay, the bed surrounding cheap balsa wood and shreds of old clothing, as if it were a toy in a massive dollhouse. The glass of the window behind softened and blurred. Numbness crawled up Sora's spine. His mouth fell dry. Then, his world went black. The last thing he heard was himself, hitting his nose against the post above Roxas' feet, and then sliding over the side and against the floor.

~X~

A/N: Please follow, fav, and review!

It really helps me write better! I take all comments/ concerns like a champ as long as you word them nicely! ;D