Disclaimer: Don't own KH, wish I did, etc etc

I wonder what happened to Twilight Town and the gang after KH2, so hence,I have decided to write about it. Hopefully I won't make a complete and total mess out of it. This part is writtenfrom Hayner'sPOV,almost in the same style as my Hay/Oletteone shot. I'm thinking abouteither a) going to normal/general point of view, b) keeping it in Hayner's, or c) switching between Hayner's, Pence's, and Olette's views. I'd love to hearopinions about that. So...yeah. :) Oh, andI never fully realized this from KH2, but the world withRoxas isn'ta real world at all, just a digital worldthatwas madeup from the real Twilight Town. HOWEVER, the real TwilightTown is no fun ifthere was no Roxas, so, for the sake of the story, I'm going to just pretend that thedigital world...is the real one! ...Hope that makes sense. :)Enjoy!

..Sunny

Sleeping with the Light On

We're at the Usual Spot. Then again, where else wouldWe be? Getting ice cream? Riding the trolley? Getting our asses kicked by Seifer and his gang? Well. Olette wouldn't be getting her ass kicked. She might hide around the corner and wait until we finally stumble around the corner, give us a lecture, and then start bandaging us up. I don't know why she does that. The bandaging up, I mean. Ha...we all know why she gives the lectures...you can even tell what kind of thing she's going to rant on about, if you just look at her face. When she starts pointing her finger at you, but her mouth is twisted up strange and her voice sounds funny, you can tell she's sad or worried about you, and her heart isn't really in the lecture (the common after-being-crushed-by-Seifer anecdote). When she starts waving her arms around...well...that's the time to conveniently disappear.

Pence. "So what do you guys want to do?" He's licking one of those sea salt ice cream things. I want one. Bet you a dime he doesn't have any.

Olette. "Hello! I'm a girl, why don't you guys respect that?"

Shrug.

Well Olette, you're practically one of us guys anyway.

Olette pouts. "Thanks a lot, Hayner." She's sticking her tongue out at me. She thinks that it'll bother me. It doesn't. Girls never know that it's sort of cute when they do that. Sort of annoying too. Hard to decide. Best not to waste time thinking about it.

Pence. "Where's Roxas when you need him." He sighs and props his feet up on one of the boxes. "Maybe we should go get a job."

Laugh.

You're joking. We should spent Saturday posting up posters for Mr. Husani again?

Olette. She looks sort of angry. "What do you guys have against Mr. Husani? He's an old man, you guys shouldn't be so mean to him."

Pence. "He's nice to you! He always underpays us."

Yeah, Olette. It's cuz you're a girl.

Olette. Looks smug. But still angry. "Oh, so now I'm a girl?"

Sorry Olette.

She doesn't look so upset any more. That's good. Wouldn't want to hurt Olette. Roxas never hurt Olette. Shit...

Olette. "So if we're not going to geta job, then what are we going to do?"

Trust Olette to be the one to get back on track. It's good she's here. Otherwise we'd never do anything. And fail school. We'd probably be dead by now. Pence is thinking. You can tell. Because his ice cream is starting to melt and drip over his hand. Olette's got that one smile. The one where you're trying to hold in your laughter, on the verge of letting it out. You know the feeling.

Pence. He suddenly jumps to his feet. Waves his hand around. "Aaah! Olette! Hayner! Help, it's all over my hand! Aah! It's dripping!"

Olette. She laughs, holding her hands to her stomach. Pence made her laugh. Damnit.

Pence, over here. I'll dry it of for you. I know there's a rag around here somewhere. Ever notice how you can never find anything when you need it? Well...it happens to ME all the time...

Pence. "Thanks Hayner."

Shrug.

Olette. Smiles at me. Funny feeling. But it's nothing. Really. Nothing.That smile didn't mean anything.She has another kind of smile.A really nice one. She used to smile like that at the guy who worked at the merchandise store. Then she smiled at Roxas like that a few times. She even smiled at that one guy, Sora once. And last week, when she was talking to Pence, but of course not me---...right right. There's somethin to do.

Guys...oh...sorry Olette. Pence, Olette, wanna go check out that freaky mansion again?

Olette. "We did that for our summer project, remember? We don't neeed to go there again...do we?" Looks a little scared. Ha. Olette. Scared. What a joke.

Pence. Grins. "I'd like to go again."

Pick up a rubber ball. Throw it against the wall. Catch it. Throw it again. Thwpp. Thwpp. Thwpp.

Come on Olette, you sure you don't wanna come with? It'll be fuuunnnn. Maybe we'll even get ice cream after.

Olette. "I don't know..."

If you come, I'll do my own homework for a week, I promise.

Olette. Laughs. Almost as good as the laugh Pence got. But mine's better. After she stops, she's smiling. At me. "Alright, alright, I'll go too. Might as well get my notebook, in case we'll have to do another project.

I'm going to say something. But Pence says it first. "Come on Olette, for once, don't worry about school and just have fun."

Olette looks annoyed. I'm glad Pence said it. "Fine. Let's go."

We skateboarded through town. Well. I skateboarded through town. Pence and Olette had roller blades. What a pain. All the velcro strapping. Besides. ... I'll come up with another reason. I know. Seifer's not looking. Better go through the Sandlot faster. But Rai and Fuu are looking. I can never hear what Fuu says. Not like I want to anyway. I don't think she likes me very much.

Rai. Yelling after me. "Yo Hayner! Better get back here, or Seifer will crush you, ya know?" Better go back. I bet he's not joking. Pence and Olette. They're at the other side of the square. Olette starts coming closer. She better not. She'll get hurt. Pence pulls her back. Good job Pence. Seifer. He doesn't look angry. Fuu actually has an expression on her face. Too bad I can't tell what it is because it looks almost exactly like the one she always has. Almost. Rai. Standing behind Seifer. He's got that look of a bouncer. Or a bodyguard. Neither of which would be good in this case.

Seifer. Maybe...sad. Pity? Or maybe it's just his normal expression. Not the I'll-beat-you-to-a-pulp one I always see. Better not mention that at the moment. "Hey Hayner. What's up?"

Be careful. Act normal. His club is right there. Not much. Just going into the shopping district, maybe Tram Common.

Seifer. "You seen your buddy Roxas lately?"

Does he want to bust Roxas's ass? ...No...I'm afraid not. His friend...his friend says he might come back. Some day.

"Oh, tha's too bad. Sorry for your loss; Roxas really wasn't so bad."

Oh...it's, uh, yeah...we're okay.

"You gonna be at the Struggle next year, right?"

Yeah, of course.

"Looks like the real competition'll just be you 'n' me. Better start training. See ya around." They turn away.

Obviously, they're done talking to me. Pence and Olette. Pence's mouth is open. He looks like a fish when he does that. Olette. She looks really excited. She waves. I tilt my head in the direction of the shopping district. Time to go to the Mansion. Ha. Maybe we'll see Roxas there. Bet he'd love to hear about what Seifer said. What Seifer said...just me and Seifer. Last year I didn't even make it to the final round; Roxas beat me. This time I'll make it, I know, and I'll face Seifer. No more Roxas...I'll win.

I'd rather lose the tournament.