Fast Food Madness: The Epic Return V2

Roxas arched an eyebrow at Sora slightly, wondering if his friend was going to pick back up from where he left off. "You know," he continued, "since he thought you wouldn't come back from the mission." This was pretty much the point where Sora stopped earlier, just as Namine arrived. Roxas wanted to get back to that point, because he was very interested as to how the Heartless had anything to do with this.

 

Namine glanced up at Roxas, seeing his arched eyebrow. It seemed like he was trying to figure out something, but Sora either didn't know what that was or he didn't want to say it. Her sky blue eyes went back to Sora, her gaze full of curiosity.

"Right. The mission," Sora mumbled, frowning as he gazed down at the couch. He needed to fill in Roxas and Namine on what the mission was for Nathaniel, and how that involved the Heartless. "...The mission didn't spark up at a random time," he said, lifting his eyes to look at Roxas and Namine on the couch. "The Heartless were summoned by Nathaniel's father in order to draw me away from Kairi and allow Nathaniel to grow close to her."

 

Roxas's arched eyebrow came down, the boy's eyes sharp at the information. "What?" he hissed. "They were summoned?" Nathaniel's father summoned the Heartless to draw both Sora and him away just so his son could carry out his deceitful plan? Roxas was separated from Namine for some guy's stupid quest for his queen?

 

Namine gasped in surprise, her wide eyes staying on Sora. The Heartless weren't just rising up? This was all a part of a plan to draw him away from Kairi? It all made perfect sense to her now, so much sense that she felt sick to her stomach.

Sora nodded, eyebrows furrowed in seriousness as he looked at Roxas. "Yes," he said simply, though there was bitterness in his voice now. He was so mad that Nathaniel's plan to draw him away had worked; if he had stayed, none of this would have happened. Kairi wouldn't have been in pain; Sora wouldn't have had a new personality; Roxas and Namine would have been able to be together and happy.

 

Roxas's hand on Namine's upper harm curled into a fist, but the boy tried to make his anger subtle next to her. However, he didn't think it was going to work for long. "You're kidding me, right?" he said then, his voice tight with anger. Roxas's eyes were locked on Sora, the boy not able to believe this.

 

Namine felt Roxas' hand become a fist, and then she heard the anger in his voice. Uh-oh, she thought, tensing at his tone. He was starting to get very angry, and that was something she hated to see. It had been a while since she saw his temper, and she had no desire to see it now.

Sora shook his head solemnly, frowning. "I wish that were the case," he said honestly, unable to tear himself away from Roxas's stare. There was something...different, in his eyes. The hue was the same, but there was something deep inside his blue orbs that had Sora concerned. Darkness.

 

Roxas's eyebrows furrowed over his eyes. His head was instantly filled with terrible thoughts. I was taken away from Namine because of Nathaniel's stupid idea to get Sora away. I went through two miserable months because of him. And I changed because of it, when I didn't want to. I dealt with all that pain of regaining my memories and became different, which hurt Namine too.

 

Sora blinked, remembering one of the last things Nathaniel had told him before he died. And that was about Roxas having darkness inside of him. Sora had refused to believe him at the time, and he would have shouted his defense at Nathaniel if the Prince hadn't continued speaking. But now that Sora saw Roxas when he was agitated, he couldn't help but feel a little concerned.

 

"You mean to tell me that the whole point of that 'mission' was to get you away from Kairi, and I was dragged along for the ride?" Roxas said to Sora, his voice having gotten a little higher as his anger became more apparent. His eyes stayed on Sora, despite the fact that he could feel Namine's tense form beside him.

 

Namine tensed up even more, hearing the raw anger in Roxas' voice. Please don't freak out, she told him mentally, though there was no way that he could hear or desires. She wished he would calm down, though; anger wasn't going to change anything.

Though Sora wouldn't have thought of it in such simple terms, what Roxas said was correct. And unfortunately, he couldn't rearrange the words to make it sound better. "...Yes," he finally said, frowning. He was unhappy about it too, but Roxas was really taking it badly.

 

Roxas ground his teeth together, finally tearing his eyes away from Sora as he glared at the fist his hand on the armrest had formed. He didn't move, too mad at the situation here. The whole mission had been a lie, and he wasn't even supposed to really be there, but he was taken anyway...because he was Sora's Nobody.

 

"Sorry," Sora said immediately, seeing how angry Roxas was. "Believe me; I wish it hadn't happened." Their time away had been full of trials, and the time here had been full of complications as well. He could see why Roxas was upset, but the way Roxas looked at him had Sora suspected that his friend was angry at him. Why? He couldn't have controlled any of this; he couldn't have stopped it from happening.

 

Roxas brought his arm from around Namine's shoulder and leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees as he lifted his sight to Sora. "Sorry doesn't cut it," he snapped, looking at his friend with hard blue eyes.

 

Namine was forced to move when Roxas did, her arm moving away from Roxas's stomach when he withdrew his arm and leaned forward. Roxas, please, she pleaded silently, watching him cautiously. Sora was under enough stress; he didn't need his best friend flipping out at him too.

Sora blinked, sitting up a little bit as he looked at Roxas. "I couldn't have changed any of this; you know that," he told his friend, trying to calm him down. Sora wished he could take it back or change it in some way; Kairi was hurt because of everything, as were Roxas and Namine. Sora was hurting too, but he was trying not to let his friends see that.

 

"You know those two months were awful," Roxas said, his tone still hard and strict. "You know how painful that was." He was referring to his memories coming back to him. That process had been long and painful, and it was still painful because his memories haunted him at times. He tried covering up to his best ability when he was around Namine, and sometimes it worked. But now, he didn't care; he was too mad to care.

 

Sora furrowed his eyebrows in seriousness, able to see that Roxas was seething with anger. "I know," he said honestly. "It was hard on all of us; especially you. But there's nothing any of us can do to change that now." He wanted Roxas to put the past behind him, and he actually wanted the same for himself. He wanted to move forward, but the past was in the way.

Namine looked from Sora back to Roxas, not knowing what they were talking about. Roxas had never opened up as to what happened during those two months, and she had wisely left the topic alone. But now that it seemed to be coming into the open, she didn't know what to expect.

 

"That's the problem!" Roxas's voice had risen to a new level, and once the last word left his mouth, he ground his teeth together. He tried controlling his anger, but these days it had been hard, and he knew exactly why. He lowered his eyes from Sora to the floor, shutting his eyes for a moment as he tried to calm himself down.

 

Sora blinked, seeing that Roxas was trying to calm down. He could see why he was worked up; Sora remembered how much pain Roxas had been in when he was recovering his memories. But the time had also been very hard on Sora--Castle Oblivion wasn't a pleasant experience. "Just don't forget that you weren't the only one who suffered during that time, Roxas," Sora said in a calm, low voice. "We all did."

 

Roxas didn't say anything. Instead, his eyes remained closed and his fists tightened. Maybe it was hard on everybody else too, but he felt he had it the hardest. He discovered a part of himself he never knew, and he was still trying to see who that guy was, who he was being now. His past life had been hard, and this one was only continuing to get harder. Maybe his pain wasn't done yet...

 

"I know how you feel about what happened," Sora said softly, diverting his gaze to the couch beneath him as he spoke. "I went through something a lot like it, remember?" Of course, he was referring to Castle Oblivion, where he had regained a lot of unpleasant memories and created a lot of awful ones as well.