Hi everyone. I'm so sorry it took me so long to churn out this chapter. But this chapter is dedicated to my best friend Valeera. She recently went away to college and I really miss her. So here's to you hun, and I hope you love it (sorry, still no Zemyx highjinks, I promise it'll be in the next chapter).

Disclaimer: Kingdom Hearts belongs to Square Enix and Disney

Roxas sighed as the last of the heavy bags of food was dropped onto the pile. Saix nodded his thanks to him. "Good job Roxas."

Both were taken by surprise when the door slammed open.

"Sora's in trouble! In the forest!" Xion cried.

"Who are you? Why have you come here?" Asked one of the - creatures surrounding Sora. Centaurs a far corner of his brain supplied. There were five of them and four were pointing weapons at Sora. The one who wasn't was a grey haired man with yellow eyes.

"Why are you here?" The grey haired man- centaur asked again, more forcefully than before.

"I just wanted to know what's back here! I'll leave now!" Sora yelped as the black haired one jabbed him with the spear.

"You won't be going anywhere kid." One of them snapped.

"Hey leave him alone you stupid horses!" Someone cried, a wet rock sailing past.

The one with a crossbow reared and whirled around. "Come here and say that to my face you overgrown fish!"

"Xigbar, ignore the merman." Ordered the grey.

While the centaurs were distracted by whoever it was in the pond, someone grabbed Sora and pulled him away from danger.

"Quiet. Stay hidden." The savior ordered before slipping away, leaving Sora lying under some of the flowering bushes surrounding the flower bed.

"Hey! Where did the boy go?!" Yelled one of the centaurs. Sora tried to make himself as small as possible hoping they wouldn't notice him. They didn't, and Sora listened to their hoofbeats fade away as they ran into the trees.

"Hmph. You're crushing my violets." A voice complained above him. Sora sat up quickly, going face first into a large bloom, knocking it off the bush.

"Hey! Stop killing my flowers brat!" Yelled the pink haired man Sora was now facing. He wore what looked like leaves and flower petals stitched together and had sparkly translucent pink insect wings.

"Uh-" Sora stared, sure now that he was losing his mind. Centaurs and fairies don't exist his mind was screaming at him, scrambling to come up with a logical explanation for what he was seeing.

"What are you, stupid? Get off of my flowers!"

Sora hopped up, wincing when he heard a plant crunch under his foot. The pink haired man flinched as if it physically hurt him.

"Sorry. I-I didn't mean to." Sora apologized.

"Sora!"

The brunet turned to look and saw the entire staff of Nobody's Heartless Animal Sanctuary running towards him. Well, it looked more like Xion, Saix, and Roxas were running towards him, and Vexen and Zexion were chasing Roxas.

"Sora. I'd step out of those flowers if I were you. Carefully." Saix said, watching the pink haired fairy closely.

"I saw you surrounded by the centaurs, how did you get away?!" Asked Xion, hugging him tightly when he was out of the flower bed.

Roxas had stopped and was now gaping at the fairy.

"Remarkable. Both your new assistants are idiots. Congratulations Saix. Make sure they don't kill anymore of my flowers." The pink haired man said, before disappearing in a puff of rose petals and gold sparkles.

Saix rounded on Sora. "What were you thinking?! You have been expressly told multiple times NOT to come back here!" He roared, seething. "You could've gotten yourself killed Sora! Go home before you cause any more trouble."

"What was that thing?" Roxas was still staring at the spot where the fairy had disappeared. He had seemingly not heard a word of Saix's tirade.

Xion glanced at Saix before answering Roxas. "That was Marluxia, our resident flower fairy. Nobody's Heartless doesn't just help normal everyday animals. There are fey creatures who have gotten hurt or lost their homes who come here and we look after them. But they don't like humans too much, which is why we were trying to keep you guys from coming back here."

Roxas shook his head. "But- Those things don't really exist!"

"Hey! Don't be rude! I do too exist!" called a voice from across the clearing. A dirty blond man was lounging on a rock lining the pond. He grinned at the twins. "I'm Demyx! Nice to meet you!"

Zexion glared at Demyx. "Be quiet. These two are in trouble."

Sora rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly. "I'm really sorry. I was just curious."

Saix huffed. "You two can both go home now." He ordered before stalking off.

Sora and Roxas trudged into their home and fell into the couch.

"I'm sorry Roxas. I didn't mean to get us fired." Sora apologized sadly.

"He never actually said we were fired." Roxas pointed out.

Sora snorted and got up, stalking into the kitchen and getting out a tub of ice cream and two spoons. "Let's just drown our sorrows in Cherry Garcia Rox."

Roxas snorted and took his spoon. "Fine."

Axel was lashing his tail against the bars of the cage when Vexen entered. "What's going on out there?"

"The twins saw the hidden sanctuary." Vexen replied shortly.

"Seriously?! No fair, I wanted to show it off." Axel groused. He grinned at the icy look Vexen tossed his way.

"We don't know yet if they could be trustworthy. But now that they've seen it, I doubt we can send them away." Vexen mused, opening the cage door.

Axel slithered up on to the exam table. "I like the blond one. I think he's trustworthy." Axel hissed as Vexen removed the dirty bandages. A rank smell filled the room, the scent of rot and decay. Axel squirmed. "Any better doc?" He already knew the answer.

Vexen started to clean the wound the best he could. "A colleague suggested trying an acidic solution. Apparently it was a treatment used around the time of the Second World War, with limited success. There are risks of-"

"Just do it. I don't care about any risks. Just fix this doc." Axel snarled.

"Very well."

The alarm clock hit the wall and yet the evil noise didn't stop.
"I think it's a phone." Mumbled Sora.

"What do you want?" Roxas grumbled, locating his ringing cell phone.

The person on the other end giggled. "Good morning to you too Roxas. I just wanted to let you know that Saix decided not to fire you guys. And you're gonna be late if you don't get here in twenty minutes."

Roxas launched out of bed. "We'll be there! Sora get your ass outta bed! We're gonna be late!"

Yawning the boys stood before Saix, who still didn't look very forgiving. "Since there is no longer any point in hiding the sanctuary from you two any longer, you will start helping out in that area too. But, you cannot go into the sanctuary alone. You must be supervised by myself, Vexen, or Zexion at all times. Is that understood?"

Both nodded.

"Good. Now Roxas go feed the animals and Sora you shall accompany Zexion to the sanctuary. And don't upset Marluxia anymore please. He's annoying enough as it is."

Roxas sighed happily as he entered the kennels. He was a bit reluctant to explore the insane, unimaginable clearing hidden away in the woods. He never liked the fairy stories their mother would read to them, because he could all too well imagine horrible curses like being put to sleep for one hundred years and suffering from having razor sharp jewels fall through his lips at every word. Could those creatures do that sort of thing? His brain began to remind him of the other terrifying tales that haunted him as a child. Of mermaids dragging sailors down to their deaths, and fairies making people dance to until they died of exhaustion. He shook his head, not wanting to follow that train of thought. Sora was helped by at least two of those creatures, they couldn't be all bad.

"Hey there Roxas. Nice to finally talk to ya."
Roxas jumped and looked up. Leaning against the exam table was a tall, skinny man with a mane of red, spiky hair. Under his eyes were upside down purple triangles.

"Who are you?!" Roxas cried, nervous around the stranger. How did the man know his name?

"Don't tell me you've forgotten me already." The stranger cried dramatically. "It's Axel, A-X-E-L."

Sora was excited to go back into the clearing. He had always dreamed of having big adventures. "So what are we doing today Zexion?"

"Just distributing any medications that the patients need. Not all the creatures here need medical attention; some have no homes left to return to. Like the centaurs you ran afoul of. Their leader was ill and came here for help, but while they were gone their forest was destroyed and a housing development built on the land. So, since here they are safe and get food and care they decided it was better to stay rather than hunt for a new home."

Sora nodded. He wondered who had helped him hide from the centaurs and why he was here.

He froze suddenly, realizing he had lost Zexion. One second the slate haired boy had been there, the next he was gone. "Z-Zexion?" he called softly, hoping not to draw any attention to himself.

"Do I need to save your butt again?" called a voice behind him teasingly. Sora whirled around. "Who are you?"

The voice belonged to a tall, pale boy with silvery hair. He had bandages wrapped around his eyes. He grinned. "My name is Riku. You're Sora, right?"

AN: I feel like Sora had a few out of character moments in this chapter. But I hoped everyone enjoyed this chapter! Also, I'm not 100% positive that the procedure mentioned by Vexen in this chapter is real, but I saw it in a movie once, and it sound plausible enough to me. I mean, there's already mermaids, centaurs, and fairies in this story so a little medical inaccuracy can't hurt, right?