II. [Text]

[memoryreprieved]

So... I was thinking that. Well, it just seems like it's really important to do the work at school... Anne seems like she always has had good 'grades'. But I've been. Well, I've been going to the library and looking around. Reading books. Things like that. I think I'm starting to understand History better. And English seems to... Well, it's writing

Comments

[Text]

[notquiteanobody]

It's alright. Challo seemed shocked enough with the idea that she left the table. So I asked Quentin about why she'd react like that.

It just kind of... I know we've established that we're each just looking out for the lives we're living, but I sincerely apologize for Lucen's behavior.

I hope that I can make a better impression on your friends in the future.

[If she could see him now, he'd be flushing bright crimson, occasionally giving a glance at his hands, looking somewhere between shamed and... yeah, there's just an embarrassed derp there.]

[Text | A little later on...]

[memoryreprieved]

...It's alright, Roxas. I... To be honest, I'm a little confused.

...But it was something that happened between Lucen and Anne anyway. Not us. So... Don't worry about it. Although we'll have to... I guess we'll have to just prove that things are alright.

[Yeah, she was in the same boat just about on the other end. Although it was more of just embarrassment and confusion. Something about it just... Something told her it was wrong gauging by the reactions.]

[Text | After School]

[notquiteanobody]

Yeah. Probably shouldn't do anything too sudden -it might look odd. Maybe if they saw me -er, Lucen offering Anne an apology gift or something?

I really wish I knew how this stuff worked.

[As he's typing this, he's trying to figure out just what else to do. The boy's gut says he could fill a notebook with all the questions he wants to ask Xion now, but he doesn't want her to get too apprehensive.]

[Text | After School]

[memoryreprieved]

I don't know. I... really don't know how it would work either. I guess... Well, we can still talk in the meantime.

[She sat there for a little while, juggling over whether or not to add anything to that. Part of her wanting to be less distant. But another, well.]

The people you live with. What are they like?

[Text | After School]

[notquiteanobody]

I'll ask Lucen's brother about it. He seems to know a lot. If nothing, it shoudn't raise suspicion because it looks like it's normal for a younger sibling to ask advice of an elder one.

As far as his family goes, they seem like a nice bunch. Aside from my friend Axel, back where I'm from, no one treated anyone else this well.

His brother's kind of funny, usually doesn't seem to worried about things, but he always wants Lucen involved in his more troublesome activities. When I asked the other day, he said something about having more people makes it more fun.

His parents, I haven't gotten to spend much time with. From what I can gather, his father works at some kind of higher-level school called a university. And his mother is an author. She apparently writes fiction novels.

[He debates on writing more, but some things he figures are better shown than described. However, he figures that such a thing would have to wait until he could at least get his alter-ego to publicly make some gesture of apology to hers beforehand.]

What about

[Text | After School]

[memoryreprieved]

[She took a while to even respond to what he wrote. What he had to say... It wasn't exactly what they had been looking for. Their goal had just been to become complete. Something achieved under the wrong circumstances in the very city they had landed themselves in. But from the sound of things. His "brother" in particular. The way he wrote about him... It sounded as if he was pretty attached already. She smiled a little sadly to herself as she wrote back.]

I don't really don't know Anne's parents aside from a diary that I've found of hers. But a lot of it is hard to read. Her writing isn't really clean, so. But she lives with Zack now. A family friend. She doesn't have any brothers or sisters. Not that I know of anyway. But Zack is. He's always looking out for Anne. It's... really weird.

[But in a good way. Kind of reminded her of the prior mentioned pyromaniac.]

[Text | After School]

[notquiteanobody]

[By the time he gets this response, he's back at Lucen's house at his desk doing his homework. The beep of his cellphone receiving a text was proving a welcome distraction from the page of math problems in the book opened before him.]

It's really nice that he's looking out for her. Do you know what happened to Anne's parents? From what I've seen and heard, most people have at least one or the other. It's complicated stuff and Julien gave me a weird look when I asked him to explain it, so there's a lot I don't know. But I know usually if you don't live with at least one of your parents, that means...

[He trails off, uncertain if he should finish. Thinking about it now, there didn't seem like much of a difference between 'dying' as a human and 'fading away' as a Nobody. No human knew if there was anything after they died and personally, something about Nobodies just vanishing when terminated just didn't quite add up to him.]

[Text | After School]

[memoryreprieved]

[Oh, hey, another message. Looking up from her book and checking her phone. Hm...]

To be honest, I really don't know. I haven't asked Zack about them. He.. already worries a lot. You see... He thinks I have a concussion. It's something to do with hitting your head so hard that you forget things. So, I guess I could ask him. But if I did, I just think that he would... be really sad.

...What do you think might have happened to them though?

[Text | After School]

[notquiteanobody]

[It seems he's making slow progress through this homework... it's so mind-numbing, he considers that he'd rather get stuck on a mission where he had to keep out of sight from the Heartless. Thankfully, these little texts were proving to be most welcome reprieves.]

Hitting your head so you forget things?

[He doesn't remember hitting his head, but he's wondering if there's something like that in play in regards to Xion. Maybe that's why he gets the feeling that she knows him from before, but he can't remember her before Haven.]

Well, don't worry about it for now. If Zack's caring for you and you guys are getting along well, there's no sense in upsetting him.

[He's going to brush aside and just see about changing the subject. The whole human-dying-thing and all that doesn't feel like the most pleasant subject to breech. Now who's withholding from who?]

Uhm, are you planning to go out hunting tonight?

[Text | After School]

[memoryreprieved]

[Doing okay herself on the reading, sort of. All but given up on her own math though. Half of it she just didn't understand anyway. Not that she would bother him about it, nope. Already caused him so much trouble. It takes her a little while to notice the next text though, coming along towards the early evening.]

Yeah... You're probably right. ...As for the hunting. I'll be heading out as soon as I finish reading this chapter. What about you?

[Text | After School]

[notquiteanobody]

[By now, he's pushed his homework aside and had been in the process of discovering a portable video game system Lucen had. While the graphics weren't as nice-looking as the ones on the bigger TV, the box that hooked up to that one belonged to Julien... just as well, this one was more convenient because he figures this one could probably travel with him. And it apparently does more than just play games too -spiffy.

He's been waiting for a response on his text though and when he hears his phone beep, he's quick to pause it and reply.]

I should probably go out looking too. For right now, those shards are our only clues to what's going on here.

[He sends that first message and then almost immediately follows up with a second, that strange feeling he was learning was called 'anxiousness' coiling around his gut as he sent it off.]

Would you want to work together this time?

[Text | After School]

[memoryreprieved]

[It takes her a while to make up her mind. Conflicted as always. Because part of her wants to keep an eye on him. But another part feels like-- well. The more she sticks around him as herself, the more questions she'll have to answer. The more she avoids him though, the more he'll wonder if she was really being honest with him when she said he wasn't a pest.]

Where do you want to meet?

[Text | After School]

[notquiteanobody]

[He pauses a moment to think that one over for a little. Haven's proving to be a pretty big place and that just made finding shards all the more difficult. Logically, they should just split up. But as awkward as even a short encounter the night prior was, he found himself wanting her company.

In either case, he'd been observing and searching the business district last night. Someplace different this time -actually, that brought to mind a good question.]

We could meet at the park again. Oh, where have you searched already?

[Text | After School]

[memoryreprieved]

The park sounds good. I didn't really search around as much as I wanted to. Mainly just around Anne's home.

[Leaving out the fact that more than half of that was due to the fact that he had kind of distracted her. Not that... she minded. But. Still. It was a wide area to cover and she hadn't tread much. And that was... problematic considering she wanted to restore Anne's life to her as soon as possible. But then... some people had been around for a long time...]

I'm down to the last few pages of this chapter, so I should be headed over there soon.

[Text | After School] - New Log to Come After Work Today

[notquiteanobody]

[As novel as the little gaming device was, he'd made one last honest effort to try and keep from messing Lucen's life up too badly. He'd been skimming over the literature reading assignment when her reply came.

Really, he'd come to realize that every moment he was running things was another moment potentially not gone the way that boy could have wanted it to go. Granted, just because he'd realized and accepted all of this didn't make him anymore inclined to live a life not his. But it did make him feel oddly more relaxed about the whole situation -if just a little.]

Alright. I'll meet you there in about twenty minutes then?

[Text | After School] - Whoo-hoo~~ I need to still poke that other new log, too! /stares at it

[memoryreprieved]

[He wasn't the only one worried about keeping things together with the life he was currently borrowing. Xion wasn't faring much better. Honestly, she was sweating over the fact that she couldn't get all this work done... And Zack hovering over her when he could didn't help either. Finally though, things seemed to have settled down in the house and Zack had gotten caught up watching television... something Xion found herself intrigued with. But the quiet in her room was more suiting to her.

After explaining that she needed a textbook to study for her test and someone said she could stop by to borrow theirs, she bid him farewell and headed out.]

Okay, I'm on my way now.