Kanashii koto ha kitto
Konosakinimo ippai aruwa
My Darling, Stay Gold
Kizutsuku koto mo daijidakara

(I'm sure there are a lot of sad things
Waiting for us up ahead
My darling stay gold
Because pain is precious too...)

. . . . . . . . . . Ten . . . . . . . . . .

I met her ten days before my birthday.

It was the café, the old place that looked like it was going to fall apart but me and my friends didn't really care because it had the bestdonuts on the planet. Unfortunately everyone else thought the same so it was crowded every morning. I'd been sent away from our usual spot with the excuse to go pick up some breakfast, but I knew that the others just wanted an excuse to make me leave. Not that I wasn't wanted, mind you, but because they were more likely than not plotting something retarded for my birthday and they wanted it to be a secret.

I took a number from the counter and looked around the place, packed with people and no empty tables, and I sighed. It was just my luck to be trapped in this place and forced to wait for hours, just to pick out a box of donuts.

Then I saw her.

She was sitting at a table set for two by the window, staring absently and watching people go by. She looked my age but she didn't seem like most other teenagers--her eyes reflected something odd as she looked around the room. She had shoulder-length blond hair, was dressed in a simple white dress covered with a denim jacket, and had a blue-and-white shoulder backpack hanging from the back of her chair. A full minute passed and I knew she was sitting there alone.

"Hi there."

Her head jerked up and suddenly I was chastising myself--STUPID idiot STUPID what the heck STUPID are you doing STUPID--but it was like my body was on autopilot and I was watching myself talk. "Do you mind if I sit here?"

She gestured to the chair. "Go ahead."

I took the seat opposite her and then we were stuck in one of those godforsaken awful awkward silences where no one knows when to speak and everyone ends up feeling stupid. Although she didn't look like she felt stupid at all, just resumed her people watching with that strange look in her blue eyes.

"Are you from here? I haven't seen you around here before." The words came from my mouth before I had a chance to think about them, but I tried to hide my growing embarrassment. If she saw she didn't say anything about it, just smiled at the question (and hopefully not me) before saying "No, I'm not. I'm new."

"How old are you?"

"Fifteen."

"Cool! I'm fifteen too. Actually, I'm going to turn sixteen in ten days, so my friends are going to be throwing me a party and--" I shut up and felt my face grow red as I entered "babbling idiot" stage and words like idiot moron shut the heck up while you still have the chance ran through my mind. I was embarrassed but I couldn't help but talk to her, sitting across from her in that cheesy old café. There was something the girl that made me feel connected to her in a way. It was weird.

"Really?" She giggled and brought up a hand to cover it up and hide it from me. "We have the same birthday, then." She stopped laughing but a gentle smile remained on her face as she held out her hand to me. Her skin was pale--not sickly pale but the normal, not-tan pale skin of a person that doesn't hang around outdoors--and I noticed she didn't wear any make-up, unlike most of the girls who went to my school. "My name is Naminé."

"Roxas," I introduced myself, taking her hand. We shook, and I felt a weird jolt of electricity or something pass between us, but Naminé didn't say anything about it so I passed it off as nerves or something. Then a number was called and Naminé stood up, grabbing her bag with a simple "that's my number."

She began to walk to the counter but suddenly she turned around and came back to me, pulling a pencil and a blank, unlined scrap of paper from her backpack and scribbling numbers on it. "You can call me if you'd like," She explained, writing her name hurriedly in cursive and drawing a heart above the i. "It was nice to meet you, Roxas."

"Nice meeting you too--" I began, but she was gone, lost in the crowd.

. . . . . . . . . Nine . . . . . . . . .

I didn't remember her until nine days before. I was looking through my pockets (mainly out of boredom) at the usual spot while the others were chatting and suddenly I was pulling out the scrap of paper with her number out of my pocket, crumpled up.

I unfolded it and gasped. I'd forgotten about Naminé, and she seemed so much like that kind of person that I couldn't forget no matter how I tried. I was obsessing over that so much that I pulled my cell phone out of my pocket and dialed the number before Hayner and Pence and Olette could even ask me what I was doing.

"Hello?"

"Naminé?"

"Yes?"

"It's, er, Roxas. You know, from the café yesterday?" I shut my eyes and crossed my fingers and prayed that she hadn't forgot about me.

"Roxas!" She half-shrieked over the phone, and I hoped that meant she was happy to hear from me. "I thought you'd forgotten."

"Um, I did kind of. I just remembered now. But now I can ask you…" My voice trailed and I tried to think of the reason I had called her in the first place. Hayner and Pence were gaping and Olette, the only one who had any idea of what was going on (woman's intuition, I suppose), was laughing. My eyes wandered to the stack of extra party invitations beside me. "If you wanted to come to my party, in nine days. I know it's on your birthday too, but--"

"I can't." Her voice was so direct it caught me off guard, stunning me into silence. She noticed it because she quickly followed up with "but how about we meet at the café tomorrow morning? Usual spot, same time as yesterday, my treat."

"Oh, o-okay."

I could practically see Naminé smiling on the other line and the happiness in her voice only helped form the image. "It's a date?"

"It's a date."

"See you tomorrow, then!"

"Bye." I clicked the cell shut and looked up. Olette had stopped laughing but was still smiling, Pence still looked shocked and Hayner was the only one who spoke. "Did you just make yourself a date in five minutes flat without telling us anything?"

"Possibly," I answered, face turning red.

Olette started laughing again.

. . . . . . . . Eight . . . . . . . .

The others tried giving me a hard time for meeting Naminé that morning but I didn't let them. To be honest I didn't even try listening to them; I wasn't mad at them but I was thinking about Naminé and not much else.

The café wasn't that packed, probably because it was Sunday and no one needed a dose of caffeine before heading off to work that day. Even though the place was half empty Naminé had claimed our table by the window, wearing another white dress, this one with a black jacket over it. There were two steaming mugs and two donuts on the table, pushed to the center, but Naminé wasn't eating. Instead there was a sketchbook set out in front of her with a box of crayons.

"Hey." I touched her shoulder and smiled when she glanced up, smiling back. She was stuffing her sketchbook and crayons into her bag when she gestured to the seat across from her. "There, sit down." When I did so she passed a mug and a jelly donut over to my side of the table, taking the others on her side. We were quiet at first--I was starving and hadn't had breakfast so I took a bite of my donut while Naminé sipped at her mug, which I had figured out by then was hot chocolate.

I was trying to eat the donut without spraying jelly all over the table/my clothes/my face when Naminé said, "Aren't you going to ask why I can't go to your party?"

"It's your birthday too," I remarked, reached for my hot chocolate and took a drink. It nearly scalded my tongue and I had to cringe to keep myself from spitting it out and embarrassing myself, but Naminé noticed my expression anyway and laughed, making me blush. (Why did I always make a fool out of myself in front of her? Why?)

"I figure you have your own plans," I choked out when I had recovered.

Naminé shook her head. "No, it's not that. My parents wouldn't care." She tucked her hair behind her left ear and paused. "Are you going to ask?"

"Do you want me to?" I was careful to blow on the hot chocolate this time.

"Yeah."

"Okay then, why?"

I'm not a very attentive person (according to my friends, anyway), but even I could see how Naminé got really tense, biting her lip and looking down at her mug as if it would tell her what to say. When she finally gathered herself she locked eyes with me, head still bowed.

"Roxas, I'm going to die in eight days."

That I didn't understand at first, just kept drinking my hot chocolate. The words didn't really sink in until I had put down the mug. "What?"

"I'm going to die in eight days," She said simply, voice really calm for someone who was going to die.

Needless to say I was shocked and it was a good thing I'd put the mug down, because I was waving my arms like a crazy person. "What do you mean? How can you? You look fine--"

"It doesn't make a difference." Her head lifted and she locked eyes with me again. I wanted to pull away--this meant bad bad bad bad news, it had to--but I couldn't and I was drawn to her for reasons I didn't fully comprehend.

"You're going to die too."

How someone could say something like that, and so calm, was beyond me. I must have really freaked out, because suddenly Naminé's hand was on mine and she whispered, "Roxas, are you all right? You look really pale."

Truthfully, I was freaked out and a little dizzy, but I tried to ignore it as I said, "How can you say something like that?"

"I-I'm sorry, but it's the truth. You're like me… Can't you feel it?"

Sure enough, I could feel the same sensation as before--my entire arm tingled and I felt some strange emotion I couldn't quite figure out--but I withdrew my hand from hers, pushing my mug toward the center of the table. "I don't know what you're talking about."

"Roxas…"

"I have to go."

She shut her eyes as I stood and reached into my pocket, forking over some cash for my share of the breakfast. When she opened them they radiated with something--sadness or sympathy, I didn't know, and I didn't want to care. "I'm sorry, but you have to know. If you want to know more about it… you can meet me at the station the day after tomorrow, and I can give you proof."

I didn't know exactly what she meant by proof, but I didn't press the subject--rather, being the coward that I am, I muttered a simple "I have to leave" and ran off out of the café.

. . . . . . . Seven . . . . . . .

Hayner, Pence, Olette, and I sat in our usual spot with four sea-salt ice creams between us, licking them fast so we wouldn't make a mess. The four of us had sea-salt ice cream all the time, so much that our parents said we were going to turn into ice cream someday. None of us would have minded.

Pence was always the first to finish, then Olette, then Hayner, and I last, savoring the flavor. All the while we'd be talking--talking about school, plans for summer and plans for weekends, anything really.

I wasn't really a part of their conversation, but thinking about the strange one I'd had with Naminé yesterday. She'd seemed really nice, but then she'd just completely freaked out on me and it was really weird. I mean, I couldn't deny the fact that I was completely drawn to her, especially by that electricity thing when we touched. I'd just met her, but I felt as if I knew her my whole life, with her blond hair, pale skin, blue eyes, her habit of messing with her hair with her left hand and her way of (more than slightly) freaking people out with her silent presence.

"So," Hayner said, when he noticed I had finished my ice cream and was just twirling the ice-cream stick in my hand, "How was it?"

I jerked my head up, realizing that I hadn't been paying attention again and had all my friends staring at me, waiting for me to tell them about yesterday. I sighed and tossed the ice-cream stick behind me, hearing it thwack against the brick wall before hitting the ground. "Fine."

Hayner rolled his eyes at my answer and leaned back against the wall, hands behind his head. "Yeah, that explains a lot."

"So, is she coming to your party next week?" Olette asked.

"Nah, she can't." I shrugged as if it were no big deal, even though the reason Naminé had told me kind of was. Everyone was eerily silent after that. It was weird, because it usually took a TV or something to get all of us to shut up like that.

I was thinking about how creepy and antisocial we were all being when something flashed, blinding me and sending multicolored spots before my eyes. I shouted and brought my hands up in front of my face and heard Hayner and Olette scream too.

When the spots all disappeared I glanced up to see Hayner jerked upright and Olette rubbing her eyes. Pence chuckled nervously, holding one of those old cameras that develop the film by itself. In his other hand he was holding the picture, shaking it so it would dry faster. "S-sorry, guys. I don't know how to work the flash on this thing yet."

"What are you, the freaking paparazzi?" Hayner grumbled, eyes shut. He reached up to rub his eyes but lost his balance on the crate he was sitting on, hitting the ground and causing Pence, Olette and I to start laughing as he fumed.

"We want lots of pictures and memories and stuff, right?" Pence asked, aiming for another picture of the three of us. This time he tried to get himself into the picture too, by sticking his head out and holding the camera from a distance. The bright light flashed again and all of us whimpered, even Pence, and he nearly dropped the camera. "Pe-ence!" Olette warned, trying to sound angry but laughing too hard to be mad.

Hayner didn't have to act like he was mad, though, as he stood up, half blind and scrambling for Pence. "Give me that retarded camera before I have to make you."

Pence shook the new picture with one hand and held the camera aimed at Hayner with the other, finding a way to handle the camera with one hand and snapping another picture. I'm pretty sure everyone in Twilight Town could hear us, Hayner yelling and Pence running from him and me and Olette laughing so hard we thought our sides were going to burst.

. . . . . . Six . . . . . .

I don't know why but I decided to follow Naminé's instructions and head to the train station. I didn't believe her, I didn't want to believe her, and I didn't want anything to do with it anymore. But for some reason I gave some excuse to Hayner and Pence and Olette and headed off to the station.

It was busy, with people heading off to work and vacation and wherever they were headed. I looked around and didn't see Naminé anywhere, so I sat down on a bench and started feeling nervous, wondering if I was late or if she was late or if she was just messing with me and wasn't going to meet me at all anyway.

I'd been sitting there for what felt like forever (but was really only about three minutes) when someone cleared his throat. I looked up from my people watching and came face-to-face with a person I'd never seen before.

He was taller than me (even when I wasn't sitting down, I could tell) and even though he was a boy he had weird, shoulder-length silver hair. His yellow shirt had no sleeves and had a giant black X on it, and he also wore jeans and an armband on his left wrist. He noticed I was watching him and rolled his blue-green eyes. "Are you Roxas?"

"Y-yeah," I answered.

He didn't say anything about it, but grabbed my arm and yanked me upright, ignoring me as I cried out and nearly fell over. His arm steadied me, and that was when I felt it: a tingling electrical feeling (not unlike what I felt when I touched Naminé) where he had grabbed me. He must have felt it too because he let go of me and rubbed his hand against his jeans. "Nam' was right," He muttered, mostly to himself.

"Huh?"

He jerked up from his trance and locked eyes with me the same way Naminé had, although he was more glaring than anything else. "I'm Riku," He said. "Naminé sent me to convince you. Although I could just knock some sense into you, instead, if you want."

"O…kay…" I took a step backward, trying to figure out the easiest way I could get away from him without causing a scene. Apparently Naminé didn't want to deal with me, so she had sent this guy instead. "Where's Naminé?"

"Does it really matter? The real thing is that you're making Naminé mad, and consequently ticking me off." Riku crossed his arms against his chest, ignoring the people watching him and giggling as they walked by (they were a bunch of girls who went to my school). "Everything Naminé said was true. You probably know that, but you just don't want to believe it."

Sick and tired of Riku and his jerky attitude, I pushed past him and tried to walk out of the station, but he followed me. "I don't know what you're talking about."

"Yes, you do. You know about Naminé." He sighed, exasperated, and bowed his head. "I'm like her, too."

"You're going to--" I said before I could catch myself. I stopped hearing his footsteps behind me and turned, seeing a strange expression on his face, torn between anger and sadness.

"In six days," Riku clarified, snapping out of it. "Everything Naminé said was true! If you'll just wait she can explain--"

I narrowed my eyes, temper rising. "No thanks."

"Hear us out, damn it," Riku growled, grabbing my wrist again, stopping me from moving. I felt the same shock as before and paused, surprised and fuming at the same time.

"Riku, I don't think violence is going to get us anywhere." At Naminé's voice both of us jumped and Riku even gasped a little in surprise. Naminé ignored both of our reactions, taking Riku's free hand in her own and grabbing mine with the other. The three of us stopped on the middle of the sidewalk, holding hands, as all the people walked around us.

I didn't care; the shocking sensation radiated from each of my hands, but it wasn't bad at all. It actually made me relaxed, and the others seemed calmer too. Naminé smiled and Riku's grim expression lightened a little.

After a long pause Naminé let go and Riku released my arm from his grip, but the smile remained on Naminé's face, unlike Riku who looked as awkward and uncomfortable as I felt. "See, guys? It's true. We're connected."

. . . . . Five . . . . .

I didn't talk to Naminé or Riku much after that, just exchanged phone numbers with the two of them and went off to find my friends. Turned out Seifer had ticked off Hayner again, so we were going to confront him on Wednesday, five days before my birthday.

Seifer and Hayner have been rivals since… well, forever. No one can remember the exact details but there was always something going on between them, and Pence and Olette and I were always dragged into it. It usually wound up with the four of us against the three of Seifer's gang: Seifer himself, Rai (a big guy who wasn't very bright) and Fuu (a girl who didn't talk often). Seifer had another follower, a little boy named Vivi, but Vivi was easily scared and didn't like fighting that much.

Seifer and his gang were usually found around the Sandlot, so that was where we went first. Seifer didn't disappoint and like always he was sitting in the corner, Rai and Fuu and Vivi nearby. He was talking and Rai and Vivi were nodding, listening intently, while Fuu just sat there. Seifer's head jerked up when he heard us coming and he stood, grinning.

Hayner snapped and ran over to them, leaving me and Pence and Olette to follow as he launched into a rant about whatever Seifer had done this time, relying on the rest of us to support him. I didn't know what he was talking about--whatever it was, I'd been meeting Riku when it had happened, and wasn't paying attention when the others were clueing me in--so I just watched as Hayner yelled and Seifer laughed at him. Of course, they weren't the only ones to speak: Pence and Olette backed Hayner up while Rai spoke for Seifer and Fuu stood back, eyes spitting cold fire. I really hadn't realized how much Seifer's gang hated us.

My mind was elsewhere: on Naminé, Riku, and the strange electricity thing. It wasn't just that feeling when our hands touched, though, because for some reason I felt like I knew them--not that I'd just met them, but that I had known them for years and years and (although I didn't want to admit it) even better than I knew Hayner and Pence and Olette. Riku's hostile attitude problem, Naminé's quiet demeanor… they were all second nature to me.

"Roxas!" Hayner protested.

I jumped back to Earth. "What?"

"Aren't you going to say anything to them?" He demanded, waving an arm in Seifer's general direction.

"He's just still mad because I kicked his butt in the Struggle Tournament last year," Seifer jeered. I was about to protest when I collapsed.

Okay, I have no idea what happened, really, and all I have is what Hayner and Pence and Olette have told me, along with what little I could remember. But I was about to speak when my head started pounding and I got really dizzy like I had been spinning in a chair a thousand times and was watching the world spin. I must have tripped or something, because suddenly I was on the ground.

Seifer and his gang apparently left as they saw the "drama unfold". Hayner and Pence and Olette started panicking but I didn't really pay attention to that. Instead I was focusing on the pain: it felt like my head was going to explode while the rest of my body felt really sore, flinching with every heartbeat. I was going to open my mouth to speak or whimper or cry or do anything at all when I realized I couldn't, and I started coughing or choking on air or something.

Just when I thought that it was all over and I was just going to roll over and die then and there the pain started fading. I mean, I still felt really sore, but I started registering everything around me even though I was still coughing. I blinked and suddenly I could see drops of something on the ground: it was red and it was liquid. It was blood, my blood.

Olette was the first to notice this and she completely freaked out, ordering Pence to go get help. He was about to leave when I finally found my voice and hoarsely choked out an order for him not to go. The three of them watched me carefully as I found the strength to sit up, still sore and tired and wiping blood from the corner of my mouth. "I'm f-f-fine," I protested.

"Hayner, let's go get him some water or something," Olette suggested, and the two of them ran off. Pence sat next to me, still watching me. "You sure you're okay?"

"Yeah," I said, although I was panting and trying to pull myself together. Just when I thought I was okay something began to ring loudly, freaking me out and making me cough all over again.

It was my cell phone, although it took me a moment to figure it out. I scrambled for my pocket and opened it before it could go to voice mail, not bothering to check who was calling. "Hello?"

"Roxas, are you okay?" It was Riku, and his voice was all strained and worried.

"Yeah," I stammered. It felt like the only thing I could say. "W-why?"

"Because Naminé passed out for a moment."

My eyes widened as I took that in while Riku talked to someone on his end. "Don't worry about that right now," He was saying, but whoever was speaking won him over, because he finally spoke over the phone again. "Naminé wants to know if we can meet you somewhere tomorrow."

"S-s-sure."

"Where?"

Before I could think I was giving him the directions to the usual spot, and Riku wrote them down, told me what time they'd be there and hung up without saying good-bye.

"Who was that?" Pence asked when I pocketed the phone.

"No one," I answered and sighed, seeing Hayner and Olette running back with a bottle of water.

. . . . Four . . . .

The others were still a little worried about the little episode I'd had yesterday, but when I told them they could meet Naminé, all of that stuff was forgotten and it was like old times again.

Before Naminé and Riku had the chance to show up Hayner, Pence, and Olette left, saying that they were going to get some ice cream and "leave us alone". They were teasing me but I didn't care. I was just happy that things were willing to return to normal.

Of course, that was before Naminé and Riku showed up at the usual spot. Riku was dressed in the same outfit he'd worn two days ago and Naminé was back to wearing the denim jacket with her dress; both looked awkward when they looked around the place.

"Come in," I coaxed them, and they took their seats: Riku on the crate Hayner usually sat on and Naminé on the couch beside me. "We've got plenty of time to talk," I continued, feeling weird because I was the one comfortable for once. Being in the usual spot had a habit of doing that to me, because it was so familiar. "My friends won't be back for a while. They're out getting ice cream."

Naminé nodded and reached forward to squeeze my hand once, giggling as the electricity shot through it. "I take it you feel better," Riku remarked.

"Yeah," She nodded. Riku looked at me. "And you?"

"I'm fine," I said quickly.

"I passed out and Roxas started coughing up blood," Naminé said, summing up the day before. "And a while before that, Riku threw up and felt like his head was going to explode."

Surprised, I glanced at Riku. His gaze read 'don't mess with me', so I decided to keep my mouth shut. "Could you explain to Roxas what we already know?" Riku asked, a little impatient. "Get it out of the way already."

"If you don't care," Naminé answered.

"Trust me, I don't."

"All right." She turned to me, finally setting her bag on the floor and shrugging out of her denim jacket as she spoke. "It's not gonna seem real, Roxas, but it fits. It makes sense, it has too. The attack yesterday only proves that what he said was real…"

"If only that guy would stop talking in those damn riddles," Riku interrupted. Naminé looked at him, and he shut up, holding his hands out defensively with a simple "go on, I'll be good."

"Roxas, do you know about spirits?"

"What?"

Naminé giggled at the confused expression on my face. "Spirits. Ghosts. They're things that are rumored to exist, but we can't see them." She sighed, buying herself time as she found the right words. "They're called lots of things… gods in ancient mythology, spirits… although immortal might be a better word. They don't have godly superpowers and they can't be seen by humans."

"Then how do we know they exist?" I countered without thinking, reverting back to my not-gonna-believe-a-thing mode. Riku saw my stubbornness and narrowed his eyes, but Naminé just shrugged. "We don't. But we have to."

"My turn," Riku interrupted. Naminé sat back as he stood up, pacing as he spoke. "But just like ghosts, these… immortals have the ability to appear as humans. Not possession, per se, but more like taking another form. But the spell doesn't last forever… and the form, the body or whatever you want to call the things they're controlling just drops dead even though they live on."

"And you think that we're these bodies," I finished.

"Yeah, basically," Riku answered. Both of us kept our voices calm but the two of us were staring daggers at each other, tension pressing down on us like a weight. We didn't really hate each other--not like Hayner and Seifer hated each other--but we didn't exactly like each other, either. I think rival was a good term for it.

"C'mon, guys." Naminé jumped up and grabbed me by the hand, getting off the couch (and dragging me along with her) so she could grab Riku too. "It's okay. We'll always be together. And," she added for me, "no matter what, we'll figure this out four days from now."

Naminé and a grudging Riku unfortunately left shortly after that. It wasn't really that bad until I remembered that I was supposed to introduce Naminé to the others; I told them that she had to leave and I could tell by their faces that they were beginning to doubt that Naminé was a real person.

After hearing Naminé and Riku's explanation, I was beginning to doubt her existence too.

. . . Three . . .

"Roxas! Roxas! Here!"

I was finishing my ice-cream bar when suddenly a box was thrown into my lap.

I glanced up to see Hayner and Pence and Olette, all grinning (and Pence with his camera at ready). Sighing, I dropped my ice cream stick and picked up the box. "Why are you guys giving this to me now?"

"We can't wait," was Olette's explanation. "Well, they can't wait," Hayner corrected, but I ignored him because he looked just as excited as the others. "Open it!" Pence ordered, holding up the camera.

I lifted the lid of the box and the camera's flash went off, but this time I was prepared and held the lid over my face as a shield. Pence "awww"-ed in disappointment as Hayner and Olette cracked up and I looked inside the box.

Inside was a brand new blue-and-yellow Struggle bat. I took it out and swung it around in the air a couple of times to test it. "Wow, sweet!"

"With that thing, you're definitely going to wipe the floor with Seifer in the Struggle Tournament next week," Hayner grinned. "At least, if I don't get to him first…"

I nodded. In last year's tournament, I had beaten Hayner in the semifinals, lost against Seifer in the final round--and Seifer still reminded me of it. This year would be different.

Wait. The Struggle Tournament was next week.

According to Naminé, I only had three days.

I moaned when reminded of it and tossed the bat up and down in my hand, trying to disguise my emotions from the others. They weren't paying attention, rather coming up with ideas and ways to gloat when I finally beat Seifer.

What would everyone say when I was dead?

My parents would cry, of course. Olette would probably start crying too. Pence would get all quiet and weird, because there was no cheering anyone up after something like that (then again, maybe he'd cry; I didn't know). Hayner wouldn't want to show sadness but would be angrier than ever, and even Seifer wouldn't mess with Hayner when he was in a mood like that.

Speaking of Seifer, he would remain silent, having nothing to say about me. Rai would say something stupid--"well, it isn't our fault, y'know?" or something to that effect--and Fuu would mutter "moron" while rolling her eyes (whether that word was directed at me or Rai, no one would ever know) while Vivi would be the only one generally sorry. The gang's words would get them in trouble with my friends, and not just Hayner--we were all very protective of each other like that.

"Roxas? Are you paying attention or what?"

"Oh, yeah." There was no time to sulk and be emo like that--plus, who ever said those things Riku and Naminé had said were true? I just had to make the most of it as it was, that was all. "Come on, Hayner, get your bat and let's practice."

"Heck yeah! You are so going down this time!" Hayner jumped up and began searching for his bat, Pence got his camera ready, and Olette sat back, ready to watch. "And Pence, if your retarded camera makes me lose, I am personally going to smash it with Roxas's new bat!"

. . Two . .

Not many people get up at four in the morning.

Heck, I don't think anyone gets up at four in the morning. It's too early and too dark to do anything interesting. The world is stuck in sleep mode at four in the morning.

So when my cell phone started ringing at four in the morning, you can bet that I was confused. I thought it was part of a dream first, but then I opened my eyes and looked around the darkness of my room and saw that my cell was glowing and vibrating and ringing at four in the freaking morning.

Who calls at four in the morning? Half asleep, that was the only thought in my head at the moment I opened the phone and groggily muttered a hello.

"Roxas? Are you there?" The voice was broken and rough, and at first I thought I just had really bad cell phone reception.

"Yeah."

The person on the other line must have been able to tell I didn't know who was talking because he said quickly, "it's me, R-Riku." He practically choked out his name.

"Riku?" It couldn't have been Riku--at least not the Riku I knew. There was no rude or sharper edge to his voice, like all the other times I'd talked to him. This Riku was tired, broken… scared.

"I-I-I--" He couldn't get the words out and suddenly he was coughing over the phone. I pulled the phone away from my ear and waited until it stopped before talking. "Where are you, Riku?"

"S-s-sandlot."

I suddenly got an awful feeling in the pit of my stomach and nearly fell back on my bed because of it. But instead of letting it affect me, I began pulling my jacket on with one hand. "I'm coming. Just wait there. Did you call Naminé?"

"Y-yeah…" He stammered, and suddenly he was coughing again. I heard a thud and suddenly a dial tone, flipping the phone shut.

By now I realized that I was basically sneaking out of the house at four in the morning, but the fact still didn't fully register as I ran downstairs. Both of my parents were fast asleep at the moment, and they didn't normally worry about me sneaking out anyway. Dressed in my pajamas--an old t-shirt and shorts--with my jacket on, I pulled on my tennis shoes as fast as I could. After a moment, I scrawled an Out with my friends, be back soon note on a piece of a paper and put it on the counter, in case I was back late. I didn't know what my parents would think when I woke up, but it was better than just disappearing.

As soon as I was sure I wasn't going to wake anyone on our street, I took off running. The Sandlot wasn't too far from my house, but I felt like I'd taken too long to get ready, and I still had that really bad feeling. No one was out and not even all the streetlights were on, so I didn't have to worry about being noticed--especially by Seifer's gang, who hung out in the Sandlot and was the only group I was worried about.

Naminé showed up at the other entrance, dressed in a white nightgown and waving around a flashlight. I waved to her when suddenly she shined her light on him.

He had his back against the wall of a building, with a trashcan beside him and a plastic shopping bag clutched in his left hand. He had his knees drawn to his chest and his head buried on top of them, and he was shaking--really, literally shaking, so much that I could see it from a distance.

Naminé reacted first, taking off with a run towards him. I finally reacted and followed; I was thinking a steady stream of oh crap oh crap oh crap and not much else.

Riku was shaking so hard I could practically hear his teeth chattering. Naminé tried to push his hair out of his face when he moaned, surprising both of us, and lifted his head. His face was bleached and pale except for red--blood--on the corner of his mouth. He stopped shaking a little and his eyes lightened when he saw the two of us but he was still so pale and hurt that the feeling in my stomach worsened.

Naminé's breath caught and she chewed her bottom lip, thinking of something to say while her blue eyes blinked rapidly. "We still had another day," She whispered, voice barely audible. Riku's mouth turned up in a grim smile and he leaned his head up against the wall, groaning a little as he did so. His voice was rough and shaky. "S-since when has anything gone acorrdin' to p-plan?" He asked, words slurred.

"Wait… what?" Things were finally beginning to make sense as I glanced from Riku to Naminé and back again. This was real, it was all real, and it was happening right now. Riku tried to glare at me, but it was hollow, with none of the usual contempt behind it.

Naminé was about to say something when Riku suddenly pitched forward, gagging and coughing so bad it made both of us jump. Naminé tried to push Riku's hair away from his face while I held the trashcan at ready in case he needed to throw up or something.

He didn't need it, but he was trembling and it didn't seem like he would ever stop coughing. Naminé glanced up at me, her eyes shining with unshed tears that only made me feel worse. So I did the only thing I could think of to do, and found their hands and grabbed them. Naminé gasped as the usual feeling flowed through our clasped hands.

At a loss for words, I'd done it in a last-ditch effort to calm everyone down, and it did… kind of. Naminé took Riku's other hand and completed the triangle, and the three of us did nothing but sit there and breathe (panting in Riku's case) for what seemed like the longest time but was only a few minutes. But we calmed down a little bit.

"Riku, what's that?" Naminé asked suddenly, breaking the silence. She let go of my hand--but still held onto Riku, and so did I--to touch the back of his neck. I strained to see, and then I saw what she was pointing at: there was a long cut bleeding on the back of his neck. A small chunk of his silver hair was gone too.

I was about to ask Naminé what she was doing when I realized that she wanted to keep Riku talking: keep a conversation, keep anything going, to make sure he was paying attention. Anything to prevent him from focusing on what was going on.

"Y-You really don' wanna know," Riku remarked, but spoke anyway, even if he had to pause to cough or catch his breath every few words. "M-My old man got home late las' night, like 'e always d-does. He was th' same as always. This time he s-saw me 'n he started r-raving, 'you look like a girl! Ya gotta cut your hair! Ya gotta cut your hair!' F-Finally 'e got the idea to do it 'imself." He sighed, only to start coughing again.

"Riku…" Naminé muttered as he did so; I didn't know whether she was referring to the incident or the current situation, but it didn't matter. I didn't say anything, just stared. I didn't know what I could say.

"He t-tried. I dodged. He missed… m-mos'ly. So I snuck ou' and decided t-to go get some stuff." He was talking about the bag next to him, and he let go of Naminé's hand to hold the bag limply out to her.

She took it when he suddenly pitched forward, coughing and choking harder than I thought possible. Naminé jumped and scrambled for his free hand, and I tightened my grip. Blood splattered the ground and stained Naminé's nightgown. The three of us were stuck, listening to Riku and focusing on the electric sensation in our hands.

Suddenly Riku stopped coughing, squeezing his aqua eyes shut. He was back to leaning his head against his knees, but everything was eerily quiet. He was gripping my hand tight, so hard I thought his nails were digging into my skin.

But suddenly the feeling began to fade.

Riku's hand went limp in mine.

I stared into space, disbelieving, for who knows how long. Suddenly I heard something and realized Naminé was sobbing, hands clasped in her lap, tears falling and streaking her already bloodstained nightgown. I couldn't say anything, stunned and at a loss for words. Finally I crawled over to Naminé and wrapped my arms around her. She buried her head into my shoulder and sobbed. I took one look at Riku's body and cried too.

"We have to leave," She said finally, sniffling and untangling her arms from mine.

"What?"

"We have to leave before anyone else shows up." She wiped her eyes with the back of her hand. "He'll… disappear, in about an hour or so. There's no reason for his body to be here, once it all wears off and he's… gone." She took the plastic bag Riku had given her in both hands. "But we still have another day to go, Roxas."

. One .

When my friends and I got bored, we'd always go hang out on the clock tower by the train station and watch the world go by. Our parents never liked us going up there but we never cared. Together the four of us would sit at the top, watching the ant-sized people scurrying below, talking and laughing and eating ice cream.

It took a bit of coaxing to get Naminé up there but finally she gave in, stepping out hesitantly and staying as far as she could from the edge. I laughed and sat down, swinging my legs back and forth, and she giggled nervously in response and sat down next to me. "It's nice out here," She noted, looking out toward the sky. It was probably around nine or ten in the morning, but I didn't know the exact time. My party was supposed to start at three o'clock.

"Happy birthday," I said.

"Happy birthday," She answered with a smile, setting her bag down behind her.

"I brought something," I continued, and pulled out the two ice-cream bars I'd brought along and handed one to her. She took a lick and seemed surprised by the flavor.

"What, have you never had sea-salt ice cream before?" I asked. She shook her head. "Nah. It's good, though."

The two of us sat in silence after that, eating our ice cream. When we were both finished we set the sticks beside us and Naminé put her bag in her lap. "I've got stuff, too."

"Huh?"

She opened her backpack and pulled out the crumpled plastic bag Riku had given her yesterday. I flinched when I saw it but she didn't give any reaction, digging around in the bag until she found a box and handed it to me. "Here."

"What is it?" I asked, but I was already opening the box and looking inside, so Naminé didn't need to answer. Inside was a necklace--a crown-shaped pendant on a chain. I lifted it out of the box. "What's this from?"

"I don't know. I found it in the bag," Naminé explained. She moved her hair out of the way so I could see a silver star-shaped necklace around her neck. I fastened the chain around my neck as she spoke; it took me a couple times to get it right. "I don't know why, but I think it was a birthday present."

"Oh." I put my hand around the crown, feeling the cold metal dig into my skin a little as I watched Naminé empty out the plastic bag. First were some bandages and a thing of disinfectant, reminding me of the incident Riku had told us about him and his father. "Was that… common? Between Riku and his dad."

Naminé looked down, watching the people scurrying around below us, to work or vacation or whatever. "…I think so," She admitted.

"How long did you know him? Riku, I mean." I was treading on dangerous ground here and I knew it but that didn't stop me from asking the question. It was obvious that Naminé and Riku had been close friends and I didn't know how Naminé would react to me talking about her. But she seemed calm about it, willing to answer it without even hesitating. "About two weeks, I think. A few days before I met you."

That surprised me but I shut up about it, remembering that I'd felt like I knew the two of them better than I knew my other friends despite only knowing Riku and Naminé for a week at most.

"There's something else in here," Naminé said, breaking the silence that had settled over us. She dug around in the bag and came out with a medicine bottle.

"What's that?"

She read the front of the bottle. "…It's sleeping pills," She put it bluntly, shaking her head. "To cure people with insomnia and stuff like that."

I blinked. "Why did Riku have those?"

"He must have taken them from his dad's medicine cabinet. The bottle's nearly empty." She sighed. "Riku and I learned about how we die--when the spell can't sustain your body anymore, you just shut down. There's no way to stop it, so we were trying to find out a way to make it less… painful. We wondered what would happen if we were asleep when the spell wore off, if we wouldn't be to feel anything." She tried to open the bottle but couldn't, so I took it from her and opened it and poured the contents into her cupped hands. Four white pills poured out.

"Two for each of us," Naminé decided, separating them in her palm. "It might be too much, but I don't care and it's not like it's going to matter." She glanced at the watch on her left wrist. "It's about ten-thirty now. I think the spell wears off at the same time we had the attacks five days ago… which was around six minutes after eleven." With her free hand she began digging around in her bag, pulling out a half-filled water bottle. "We better take them now."

I took two of the pills from her hand and she took hers, popping them into her mouth and following with a drink of the water before handing it to me. Slowly, I did the same, and Naminé began gathering up her stuff.

After that the two of us sat in silence, both thinking. I wondered what Naminé had planned for her birthday but didn't ask anything, stuck deep in my own thoughts. What would they do when I didn't show? Would they look for me? Well, of course they would. Only Hayner or Pence or Olette would have the idea to check the clock tower, though. Although (even if they remembered it) I would probably be gone by the time they actually came up here. By the time they came to the clock tower all they would see was Naminé's bag and two Popsicle sticks.

I knew we wouldn't be there. I'd checked out the Sandlot and saw that Riku's body had disappeared, just like Naminé had said.

It was beyond weird, but I trusted her. Seeing Riku had made me believe.

Time seemed to drag on forever. Finally I withdrew my legs from over the edge and leaned back against the wall of the clock tower, leaning my head back. I wasn't exactly tired yet but it seemed like the thing to do, and Naminé scooted next to me, making sure her bag wouldn't fall off the edge. After a moment, she leaned her head on my shoulder.

The next ten minutes we spent sitting there, talking--talking about pointless things like school and friends and random, normal stuff like that.

Naminé had moved to Twilight Town about fifteen days ago, with her parents thanks to her father's job transfer. She was a little shy and hadn't had many friends at her old school, much less here. She had eventually met Riku but her parents hadn't liked him and his attitude that much. Her parents, she explained, were more of the controlling kind.

I didn't have an interesting story like Naminé or a traumatic one like Riku, so instead I told her about Twilight Town. I told her about Hayner and Pence and Olette, and even Seifer and Fuu and Rai and Vivi. She listened intently, not even caring that she didn't even know any one of my friends at all.

Eventually we ran out of steam. Naminé had her eyes shut, and she hadn't moved at all, and I finally stopped when I started yawning. Naminé's plan was working.

The clock struck eleven.

I jumped at the sound, but Naminé didn't move. I thought she was asleep until she spoke, eyes still shut. "I'm glad I finally got to meet you, Roxas," She said, smiling, reaching forward to squeeze my hand.

"Me too," I said, leaning my head up against hers. I shut my eyes, blocking out the daylight. It was the middle of the day but the sun didn't distract me, not even from the top of the clock tower.

I must have really been tired. Naminé didn't let go of my hand, finding comfort in the electricity that raced through our palms. "Good night, Roxas."

"…Night."

.

He'd been waiting for what seemed like forever.

Normally things like forever didn't even matter him. Days and weeks passed by in a blur. He had no need to rush or make plans or have somewhere to be.

The problem was, spending all that time with no one but himself got boring for a while.

Thirty-one hours passed like thirty-one years to him. But there was nothing he could do about it, so he sat there and waited, fingering the bat-like sword charm clasped around his neck.

But time passes, and finally those thirty-one hours did pass, and he finally saw them appear. Both the boy and the girl were asleep, leaning on each other against the wall. Grinning with relief that the wait was finally over, he ran over and kicked the boy's leg. "'Bout time the two of you showed up."

The boy's eyes flew open and he grinned. "Aw, poor Riku. Did your poor little Repliku malfunction again?"

Riku frowned and kicked him again. "Stop calling it that."

The boy turned and shook the girl's shoulder. "Awake yet, Kai? Yo, Kai-ri…"

The redhead's eyes opened slowly and she jumped. "Oh!" She exclaimed, but smiled. "Riku! Sora! That was fun, wasn't it?"

"It was okay," Riku muttered. "Apart from the stereotypically-sucky-home life-thing, anyway. Oh, and the whole dying bit."

"You need to work on keeping Repliku from falling apart like that," Sora jeered, the playful smile never leaving his face.

"Would you please stop calling me--him--that?" Riku rolled his aqua eyes. "Roxas's is no better. He's nothing but an annoying, absent-minded moron… then again, I guess he really is you."

Kairi giggled while Sora's smile faded; he lunged as if to hit him but Riku jerked away, smiling. "You're the moron," Sora retorted. "Your other is supposed to have the same personality as you, 'cause you're the one controlling it 'n all, but Repliku looks the exact same as you do. You must have no imagination whatsoever."

"At least I didn't follow that retarded 'stick an x in your name and make it into an anagram' trend."

"Do you guys have to argue about everything?" Kairi sighed, feigning annoyance.

"Yes," Sora and Riku said in unison, looking up and forgetting the argument.

"Well, fine, whatever." She stuck her tongue out at the two of them and remembered the necklace she was wearing. "Thanks for this by the way, Riku."

"Oh yeah. You're welcome," Riku said quickly. "It was one of those spur-of-the-moment things."

"To commemorate the first time we ever actually met each other? As our other selves?"

"Er, I guess."

"Aw, Riku does have a softer side."

"Shut up."

"But the best part was definitely meeting each other," Kairi said. "I just wish we would have sooner. We should try and meet each other earlier next time."

"I thought our goal was to live longer and keep the spell from falling apart," Sora reminded her.

"Well, meeting each other was better, wasn't it?"

Kairi frowned when neither boy answered. "Well?"

Finally, Sora nodded. "It was cool," He admitted.

"It's better when we know each other. And being a teenager is perfect. Heck, we look like teenagers anyway!"

Riku smiled a little at Kairi's excitement; it was contagious. "That's our plan when we get to do it again?"

"Of course! It may not be another fifty years or so, but what's wrong with planning early?"

The three stopped talking and looked around, momentarily happy to be back at Destiny Islands and back in their original form and back with each other, always together, friends forever.

Forever never ended, but they could manage.

"Happy birthday," Sora smirked. Riku and Kairi reached out to hit him in the shoulders, ignoring his whimpering and complaining that they hit him too hard.

If someone had been watching them, they would have seen momentarily as things changed. They would have seen Sora's hair change and lighten a shade, seen Kairi's hair change from red to blonde, seen the trace of a jagged scar on the back of Riku's neck and a strange patch of silver hair cut shorter than the rest.

Forever was a long ways away, but they had things to do to pass the time.

Daisuki dakara zutto
Nannimo shinpai iranaiwa
My Darling, Stay Gold
Mujakini waratte kudasaina
Itsumademo…

(I'll always love you
So there's nothing to worry about
My darling stay gold
Smile innocently for me forever...)

A/N: Omigosh, this is the longest thing I have ever written. Ever. I started it around New Years but, if you oly count the days I was actually writing it, it would've only been like three days.

It's also the most randomest thing, I think. I have no idea where I came up with the idea, but I sure hope it makes sense. ...My favorite day was 2 because I love picking on Repliku... :) ...And yes, I know I screwed up the layout of the Usual Spot. Oh well.

Both lyrics are from Utada Hikaru's "Stay Gold" (more specifically, the karaoke version). I don't own anything, so don't act like I do.