One Change - A KH "What If?" (DISCONTINUED/MOVED)

358(2)

Day 31

Roxas walked through the forest of Wonderland, heading back to the castle.

As he was about to leave, he heard a noise.

Looking behind him quickly, he didn't see anything besides Ikrux, who was a few steps behind him.

And then it happened again.

"R..." Ikrux mumbled.

Roxas stared down at the smaller boy, shock making it hard to speak.

"R...roxas." Ikrux managed to say.

Roxas released the breath he didn't know he was holding. "Mhm?"

Ikrux looked up at him, the ghost of blankness still fresh on his gaze. "Roxas... that's you, right? Your name?"

Roxas nodded. "So, how about we do another sweep of the forest and then leave?"

"Sounds... nice."

Roxas smiled slightly.

The two of them walked through the forest, though nothing challenged them.

After leaving the Tea Party Garden, Roxas asked, "so, we'll leave now?"

"S-sure." Ikrux stammered.

Roxas nodded, and started walking for the exit to the forest.

He didn't put much thought into his wandering.

All he hoped was that Ikrux wasn't too far behind.

Ikrux. There was something about him. Roxas felt like he'd known him before, which was impossible, since they'd just met about two and a half weeks ago.

"Roxas! Look out!"

Roxas turned around only to find Ikrux pushing him, and then doing a jump and swing move on a heartless.

"Whoa, Ikrux. That was pretty nice." Roxas said between breaths. "Hey, are you okay?"

Ikrux nodded slowly. "Yeah, though my arms do hurt a little from the amount of force I swung with. But I'll be fine."

"I'll teach you how to get around that the next time we go train." Roxas took a mental note of the moment, "but for now, I know how to help with that."

Roxas bent down a little, running his fingers along Ikrux's arms, feeling for pressure points and pushing on them to release some of the tension.

And then he realized that Ikrux hadn't made a single noise. The other boy should have at least responded by flinching when he had hit some of the spots.

Looking up, he saw a near blank look on Ikrux's face, and realized his mistake.

Roxas stood upright again, backing away with a groan. "Sorry, I should have asked first."

Ikrux hummed. "It's alright. Just ask next time, okay?"

"If there is a next time." Roxas mumbled under his breath.

A long silent moment passed, and Roxas could almost recognize Ikrux, but almost as a different person. The name started forming, clear in his mind.

"Roxas. So, we were going to leave?"

"Right."

"Oh wait!" Ikrux blurted. "I saw something on our first mission."

"Which was?"

"There were three kids on top of the tower thingy, and they were eating something."

Roxas tilted his head to the side, raising an eyebrow. "Okay...?"