Thank you ImagineMusic and Harmonious Wolf for reviewing the last chapter. And thanks to all of you lovely readers!

I do not own Kingdom Hearts. I do hope I can magically obtain about five hundred dollars so I can own a next gen system and KH3.

xxx

Realization

Roxas sat on his couch seething in the direction of Namine's voice. She had already apologized, but he could tell she was amused by the situation.

"You got to admit, his reaction was kinda funny," She said nonchalantly.

He did find it a little funny. But he wasn't going to tell her that.

"Look, you just complicated everything. Now I have to deal with a ghost raving paranoiac. He's already obnoxious enough to begin with," Roxas replied.

"Hey it's not my fault you let bothersome people into your apartment."

"He's my best friend. But I don't know how he got another copy of my key without my knowledge. What was he even doing here?" He said as he rubbed his temples.

"He was in your fridge when I saw him. Before I scared the shit out of him, that is."

"That bastard. I keep telling him I don't need his help," he groaned.

"Help? Oh, so he was putting food into the fridge. Nice guy," Roxas could hear her light footsteps come closer until he felt a weight next to him on the couch. "I almost feel bad for freaking him out. But in my defense, I did it for you."

"For me? How did I benefit from this?" He said incredulously.

She then explained to him how Axel thought Roxas was cheating on his girlfriend and that pretending to be a spirit was the first thing she could think.

At the mention of his girlfriend, Roxas' shoulders slumped. His angry features slowly transformed into glum ones. He then sighed and got up from the couch and headed towards the kitchen.

He opened his fridge and found a brand new carton of sea salt ice cream.

Puzzled by the sudden silence, Namine asked him if he was okay. The blonde simply nodded as he pulled out the ice cream and grabbed a bowl.

"Um, so since this red-haired dude is stocking you up on food, am I free to raid your fridge?"

Roxas perked up and realized he had never offered Namine anything to eat. He forgot that she would need sustenance, her being invisible and all. He felt guilt creep up into his stomach.

"Because I made bacon this morning after you failed."

She did not. She ate his bacon. His. Bacon.

"We need to set some ground rules in this apartment," Roxas said as he looked into his freezer to see how much bacon was left. "First of all, don't touch my bacon."

Namine giggled and Roxas gave her a look that told her this was not a joking matter.

"Second, no magic unless you tell me in advance," He said as he cringed at the small amount of bacon left. "And only if I say it's okay to use it."

"Wait so let me get this straight," Namine said as he scooped ice cream into the bowl. "This is a world where magic doesn't exist? At all?"

It never occurred to Roxas to question where exactly Namine was from. He was really in shock when she first appeared, and he'd be lying if he said he still wasn't apprehensive about all of this.

"There are illusionists, but no one like you," he said warily.

Namine was silent, she was most likely pondering.

"Where… Are you from?" Roxas asked precariously.

"I'm from this place called Hollow Bastion. Have you heard of it?" Roxas shook his head. "Oh… then I transported myself really far…"

The room was quiet and tense. Roxas realized just how big of a dilemma this was.

Namine was really lost.

She had no one else to go to, no one to help her.

How long would she stay with him? How long would he be able to keep this a secret? It's barely been a day and she's already made a scene.

Roxas ran his hand through his hair and assessed his situation and felt a great weight on his shoulders.

He placed the ice cream back into the fridge and went back to his seat. Suddenly losing his appetite, he handed Namine his bowl and she muttered a thanks.

He just stared at what looked like a floating bowl of ice cream in silence.

He wondered just how much was going to change.

xxx

"There are no ghosts in my apartment."

"Yes! Yes there are! The fucking lamp was floating! Fucking floating!" Axel exclaimed as he waved his arms in the air frantically.

"Axel, calm down." Xion said, obviously exasperated by her spiky-haired best friend.

"Guys. I'm not making this up."

"Can we talk about this after work? You're scaring away the customers." Roxas said, feeling slightly sorry for his friend. The poor guy was just in the wrong place at the wrong time.

"Please, this bookstore is evil and doesn't deserve customers." Axel said, finally dropping the subject of ghosts.

"That may be true. But I'd rather not get fired from my only source of income. Although, I have been thinking about getting a second job." Roxas admitted.

"What?" Both Xion and Axel both yelled at the same time.

"That's ridiculous!"

"You are working way too hard!"

"You barely have free time now, why would you kill yourself?"

Roxas' two friends berated him, just as he expected. He simply sighed and rubbed the bridge of his nose.

"I know my life has been hectic lately, and it's definitely not getting any easier. But I'm low on money, and It'd be nice to have some extra change." Especially with a second mouth to feed, he added mentally.

"If you'd just let us help you-"

"No." Roxas didn't let Axel finish his sentence, having heard it plenty of times before.

"Why can't you just find a roommate? We both know that's the easier solution." Xion tried to reason.

Roxas couldn't tell his friends that he already had a roommate, as unexpected as she was.

"Look guys, stop worrying. It's almost halfway through my final year of college. In a couple of months, I'll graduate and I can find a real job. I can survive by then."

"But I thought you wanted to go to grad school first?" The redhead questioned.

"Well I decided that I might as well get a job with my engineering degree," Xion was about to object, but Roxas wouldn't let her. "I know I told you I didn't want a job in my major, but I figured I'd make some good money first. If I hate it, I can save up for grad school and get my masters in a different degree."

His friends were contemplating his words, but Roxas could tell they didn't want him to go through with his plan.

"I don't think it's the best thing for you to do since you're just going to be miserable. But if it's what you want, then I'll support you Rox," Axel said with a sad smile and Xion nodded dolefully.

"What made you change your mind all of a sudden?" Xion asked.

"It just seemed like the smarter thing to do. I don't have parents to fall back on. I'm definitely not going to ask Sora for help, especially now since he finally figured his own life out. And you know I'd never ask you guys for money." That was his default answer.

"I just wish there was an easier way."

"Me too," Roxas agreed.

xxx

When Roxas returned to his apartment, it was about eight o'clock in the night. As soon as he stepped into the apartment, he became prudent.

It was entirely too quiet in his house. Maybe Namine was sleeping, or in her temporary room. He couldn't tell and it bothered him.

"Namine?" He said quietly into the house.

"Yes?"

"Shit!"

It turned out that she was a couple of feet from him and the closeness of her voice startled him.

"Sorry, I'm never going to get used to being invisible." She said dejectedly.

"Well I'm never going to get used to you being invisible either."

"Yeah." There was an evident amount of spunk and mischief missing from her voice.

"You okay?" Roxas asked her.

"Not even a little."

He didn't know how to respond to that. It's been awhile since he's had to comfort a girl, given his situation with Olette, and he became uncomfortable. He didn't want to just ignore her, but at the same time he didn't owe her anything. Were they even friends? Did she even want solace from him?

Confused and tired, he decided to make dinner instead.

"I hope you're okay with pasta. Because that's all a college student can afford to make."

"Pasta is fine."

When he finished cooking, they both sat down at the dining table. When Namine picked up a pasta noodle with a fork and placed it in her mouth, it simply disappeared with the rest of her. Roxas found this a bit creepy, but strangely he also found it interesting.

"Stop staring at me. It's weird."

He snapped out of his gaze and felt slightly embarrassed. He averted his eyes and stared instead at his plate before he finally picked up his own fork.

He cleared his throat awkwardly.

"So, uh, does everyone know magic in Hollow Bastion?" He tried to create small talk.

"Well everyone is capable, but magic is actually not that popular where I come from."

"What?" He cried out in surprise. "So anyone can do magic but most of them choose not to? Why?"

"Well the Board of Magic education make it so unnecessarily difficult to learn magic. You're not allowed to take a class on magic until you are eighteen. Well, you're technically not allowed to use magic at all until you're eighteen, but I sure as hell didn't follow that rule." Roxas found that amusing and not at all surprising. "Magic is actually kind of looked down upon in society. They say magic is deceitful and that this characteristic is reflected on a person."

That's complete bullshit, Roxas thought, but didn't voice his opinion.

"People aren't legally allowed to be experts in magic until they are really old, which sucks. And I found out why you should never try advanced spells…" Namine fell silent.

"Well I mean, you can still do pretty amazing stuff." Roxas said truthfully.

"I can't do any of the exciting spells, I just know a bunch of useless ones." She retorted.

"Useless? You cured me of a skull crushing migraine last night. How the hell is that useless? And this morning, you fixed that cup. If anything, I'd say those spells are a shit ton better than knowing how to teleport."

Namine laughed softly.

"Thanks."

Roxas smiled in return.

xxx

A/N

Hey guys, it's been sooooooo long. It's almost been a year…

First of all I just want to say I'm so sorry. I honestly was so busy this past year. I'm most likely to be just as busy this year, but I found inspiration to write again, so hopefully I won't go missing again.

I'm going to try my best to update frequently, because I really do want to finish this story, so I'm crossing my fingers that writers block doesn't hit me again. And if it does, I hope it won't last as long as it did.

Secondly, I apologize for the shortness of this chapter. I promise the next one will be longer.

Thirdly, thank you to anyone who has read this chapter. It really makes me happy that some people actually want me to continue writing ^_^

On another not, WHO'S EXCITED FOR KH3? I know I am. I just wish I had moneyyyy. Too many amazing games are being announced and I'm just here hoping to win the lottery while I play the nintendo 64.

Well anyways, I'm done rambling. Thanks again to anyone who has followed/favorited/reviewed. You are awesome :)

Feedback is always welcome.