Me: (peeps through curtains) Heeelllloooo? Anybody there?

(crickets start chirping)

Me: Where'd the cast go?

Digitaldreamer: (coughs and tries not to look suspicious)

Me: Oh wait.... I don't really have a main cast for this fic. Okay everyone let me lay down the facts over here.

(crickets stop)

Me: This fic is made up of a bunch of one-shots. And before you go reading any further, if you haven't read Revenge of The Darkness, then get your ass over there right now and read it because these fics contain MAJOR ROD spoilers. Now, if you have read ROD, then these ficlettes are about different days during Sora's training to become King XP. None of them really have a lot in common with each other except for the fact that it all takes place in Disney Castle. The chapters may or may not go in order; I have come up with new ideas at random times. This fic was brought to you by:

Author: Me

Editor: Digitaldreamer, she whom will KILL YOU AL- (cough hack) I mean, write fics and edit them…yes…

Me: Well, that's it. Please enjoy! (bows as readers ignore the stupid author notes and read the real story)

Class

"... Agrabah has a population based on many merchants and there has been a 40 decrease in tax debt since Sultan Aladdin has taken charge. He has responsibility, unlike SOME RULERS!"

Sora's eyes popped open as Professor Stewlart shouted out the last part of his sentence. "Wha?" Sora mumbled, stiffling a yawn; he had been dozing off in a nap.

"I'm trying to teach you about Agrabah!" Stewlart snapped.

"I know all there is to know about that world. I've been there before, remember?" Sora said, rolling his eyes.

Stewlart smirked. "Then please tell me the punishment for stealing an item of 300 munny's worth."

Sora thought hard before saying, "Why would I need to know that?"

Stewlart's face reddened slightly in his anger. "What if the Sultan decided to change the penalty, huh? And he asked you for advise and you have no idea what the original law was?''

"Then I'd be in deep shit," Sora said cheerfully.

Just then, Queen Minnie cleared her throat from the doorway. The bickering duo turned to look at her.

"Good evening your majesty," Stewlart said with a small smile; Sora just smiled and waved.

"Sora, the King would like to speak with you," the Queen said.

"Yes!" Sora exclaimed, ecstatic that he was leaving his class early; it got extremely boring when he was the only one there. Sora had been taking lessons for a month now, and thought that he was doing rather well. He exceeded his own expectations by showing up in the first place. Professor Stewlart said that an empty box was smarter then Sora. When asked, King Mickey told Sora that Stewlart had trouble taking a liking to anyone, but Sora still didn't like the duck-teacher very much at all.

"But your highness," Stewlart cried, "he is already behind in his training as it is!"

"Sora is excused from that for today," Minnie replied as Sora grinned broadly. "Follow me."

"See ya!" Sora said with a snort of laughter as he followed his Queen, leaving behind a very enraged teacher.

"So, how goes the training?" Queen Minnie asked.

"Okay, miss," Sora said. He'd been told to be polite, which he found quite easy to do with Queen Minnie; she was just as nice to him right back.

"Donald tells me you are skipping out on classes," she said.

"Oh, that," Sora said dully, his mood dropping. "Well, it just gets so frustrating. I can't just keep to the same schedule every day!"

"I understand that," Queen Minnie replied as they took a right and climbed a spiral staircase. "But what I don't understand is your behavior the rest of the time. You seem to be getting more aggravated. Is there something else bothering you?"

The truth was that there was something bothering Sora. He got letters from his friends twice a week. Although it did mean they thought of him, the adventures they had and wrote about made him feel a bit left out. "I guess I'm just a little homesick," Sora murmured.

They walked in silence for a while, neither knowing what else to say. Sora was the one to break the silence. "Queen Minnie?"

Minnie looked up at him. "Yes?"

"How come I can't go to visit my friends?"

Whatever she had been expecting, this wasn't it. "Oh," she said in surprise. "Well, you'll have to bring that up with the King. I don't know why."

She came to a halt in front of a large, white marble door with blue gems lining the outside. "The King is in there," Minnie told him. "I'll see you later, Sora."

Sora waved good bye to her and pushed the doors open. Stepping over the threshold, he found himself in a medium sized room with hard wood floors, a giant red rug in the middle and two blue sofas in the middle. On one of them sat King Mickey Mouse.

"Sora!" he cried. "I was wandering if you got lost."

"Sorry," Sora said. He strode across the room and sat down on the other couch and looked questioningly at the mouse, waiting for him to start.

"Well, Sora, tonight they are having a gathering, like a party or something, over in Disney Village," he explained.

Sora nodded. Although he had been here for a month, he had found himself too busy to go and visit the village where the Disney villagers lived.

"Well, we have been waiting for quite some time to discover the future King, as have the people on this world," he said. "And since you've arrived, it's time ya meet 'em."

"So all I have to do is show up at this thing tonight and see everyone?" Sora asked, eyebrows raised.

"Errr... no," King Mickey said sheepishly. "Ya have to do something else. You need to make a speech."

"I have to WHAT?!" Sora exclaimed. "A-a speech? For what?"

"To formally announce your title as the future King," Mickey said promptly. "These people will be under your direct control, they have a right to meet the new ruler."

Sora stared blank faced, not liking the idea of making a speech in front of all those people. "Can't you do it?" Sora asked pleadingly. "How come you can't tell them who I am?"

"Because nobody knows you as much as you know yourself," King Mickey pointed out. "C'mon Sora, you're gonna have to make a lot more speeches in the future, ya might as well start now." He stood up. "Now if ya'll excuse me, I hafta get some details sorted out."

He made to leave but Sora called him back. Mickey turned around and Sora said, "I have a question for you first."

"What is it?"

"Well... I just wanted to know why I can't visit Riku and Kairi," Sora said softly.

King Mickey looked at the young teen with a look of pity in his eyes. "I'm sorry, Sora," he said as he put a hand on Sora's shoulders. "But with the world borders back up, we can't possibly get you anywhere."

"But you have other people coming over here from different worlds!" Sora insisted.

"Those are special cases," King Mickey explained. "We can't have people transporting from world to world, it breaks all of our laws and customs. I'm sorry Sora; we just don't have enough magic or power to transport you back and forth. It may even crack the barriers between the worlds." He patted the boy's shoulder awkwardly. "I'm sorry, Sora. I really am."

Sora just sighed heavily and nodded. King Mickey swept out of the room with Sora behind him. They trampled down a few flights of steps before they heard calls:

"PARTY!"

"PARTY!"

"Oh no," Sora murmured.

"Ah, they're here," King Mickey said happily. "We invited down members of the Realm to the party."

But Sora was hardly listening as he backed away slowly from the door from which the voices floated out of; he knew who was behind them. The next second the doors burst open revealing two teens; a brunette in a long jean skirt and silky red belly shirt. Then came a blond wearing blue stretch pants with glitter rolling down the side and wearing a blue shirt, one sleeve going to the wrist and the other cutting off right below the shoulders. Oh yeah, did I forget to mention that they have wings?

The two girls shrieked when they caught sight of Sora and instantly threw themselves upon the Keybearer. "SORA!" they squealed as they both glomped him.

"Hey Fire, hey Crystal," he grunted as he attempted to lug them off of him. He hadn't seen them in two weeks; other angels came down to deliver his letters for him.

"We've missed you!" Fire said.

"Missed me?" Sora said as he finally managed to pull them off of him, "You just saw me two weeks ago!"

They pouted. "So we don't get a hello kiss?" Crystal asked.

"Nope."

"Damnit."

"Out of lessons already, Sora?" Goofy asked. He and Donald had come over to the group when they heard screaming; turns out, it was just Fire and Crystal.

"Ready for your big speech?" Fire asked cheerfully.

Sora snorted. "I'd rather be stuck in a cage with a lion."

"With or without the Keyblade?" Crystal asked.

"Without," Sora replied dully.

"That's not one of your choices," Donald pointed out.

"I have a choice?" Sora asked, excited.

"Nah, it just seemed like a good thing to say," Donald said, shrugging his shoulders. Everyone fell anime style.

Three Hours Later...

Sora trudged into his room after a long talk with King Mickey as to what Sora should say during his speech. Personally, Sora thought anybody could have said it; why did he have to?

His eyes traveled over to his large bed to see an outfit laid out for him by the maids. Picking it up, he saw that it consisted of dark blue jeans, not very baggy, a white t shirt and a black leather jacket with a picture of a red Japanese dragon on the back. Chains hung down loosely from the pockets of his jeans and jacket. Sora smiled to himself; they had no clue what was going on inside of his head but they sure as hell could understand his taste in clothes. He usually liked his pants more baggy then these, but since he was going to a party it was perfectly understandable.

He quickly dressed and ran a comb through his spiky locks. He made sure that the oathkeeper was secured tightly around his neck and he exited the room. He was told to meet them all at the Castle doors before they went down to the village, the place where the festivities would be taking place.

Sora hopped onto the banister and slid his way down the stairs, hopping off just as it reached the last stair. He trotted through the large doorway to see Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Daisy and Goofy standing there waiting for him.

"You're late!" Donald snapped.

"I'm not late, you're all early," Sora retorted.

Fire and Crystal eyed his new outfit and both let out a low whistle. Sora rolled his eyes. "Get a grip, you two," Sora advised. Turning to King Mickey he asked, "We going now?"

"Yup," the mouse said cheerfully. "We were just waiting for you!"

The guards opened the door and the night air whipped the faces. "It's a nice night out," Sora murmured, wings rustling in anticipation.

Daisy's eyes narrowed. "Don't even think about flying away, Sora. We're keeping an eye on you."

"I feel so loved," Sora said sarcastically, rolling his eyes. They walked down the beaten path towards the village, which was now alight with color. While they walked closer still, Sora heard music growing louder and louder, along with the talking of crowds.

"So this is the village," Sora said, nodding as they entered a well lit area filled with stands giving out food and a stage up front. Right now a DJ stood there playing the music, but Sora knew he would be up there soon.

"Yup," King Mickey said proudly.

"Ah, sire! Nice to see you here," a voice said. A man walked up to them, grinning cheerily as he gave a small bow.

"Hello, Chet," King Mickey said. He said to Sora, "Sora, this is the mayor of Disney Village. He helps control things around in the village."

"Ah, your young majesty," Chet said with another bow to Sora. "We've been waiting to meet you."

Sora forced back the resentment of being called 'majesty' and pulled on a polite smile as he shook the man's hand. "Nice to meet ya too."

"Sure is a nice turn out," Chet said to the King, motioning to the party going on behind him; several people had turned around to stare at the group, their eyes darting to Sora. He could hear whispered snatches of conversation:

"Is that him?"

"The one with the brown, spiky hair?"

"Is that the new King?"

"Are you sure?''

"Who else could he be?"

Crystal also heard them. She twitched in annoyance and finally shouted, "YES, HE IS THE FUTURE KING! DO YOU HAVE A PROBLEM WITH THAT?!"

Everyone went quiet. And I mean dead quiet. You could hear a pin drop on the grass in all the silence. Everybody was now staring at Crystal, and then moved their eyes slowly to Sora and keeping them there. He was a punkish looking teenager, he sort of stood out.

"Whatever you do, Crystal, don't bother to keep your voice down," Sora hissed.

"Oops, sorry," Crystal murmured, her face turning a bright red.

"What are you all looking at?" Donald snapped at the people. A moment later, the chatter arose again although people still seemed to be keeping an eye on him.

"Err, anyway," King Mickey said hastily, changing the subject, "are we standing here all night or what?"

Sora, Fire and Crystal began to walk off but not before King Mickey said, "Sora, you need to be up there on the stage by 8:30!"

Sora groaned; he had hoped that the King had forgotten about this. "Alright," he called back.

"Hey," a shy voice said to them.

Sora looked up to see a group of girls around his age staring at him. "Errr.... hello," Sora said, blinking.

"Oooh, you're a cute one!" one of the girls exclaimed. "Are you single?"

"Back off, he's taken!" Fire snapped.

"Yeah, and if he wasn't he'd be mine!" Crystal continued. Then the two angels dragged Sora off leaving behind the disappointed girls.

Sora raised an eyebrow at Crystal. "I'd be yours?"

"Well, duh," Crystal said, blinking cutely at him. "I'm really into the hero types."

Sora stepped away from her slowly. "C'mon, let's go find something to do."

They just walked around slowly, mingling with the crowds and trying not to catch much attention. It wasn't very easy because girls kept on coming up to flirt with Sora. It was about 8:00 when a few teenage boys actually decided to talk to him.

"So, you're the new guy, right?" a dirty blond haired boy asked Sora. "Oi, Marc, I found him!"

A teen who looked to be a bit older then Sora came up to them. He had long, black hair and bright green eyes. "Your majesty, welcome to Disney."

Smiling and shaking the boy's hand, Sora said, "Hey. And it's just Sora, no 'majesty' or 'sire' or any of that shit."

Marc chuckled slightly. "Fine by me. Oh yeah, and the dunce next to me in Sean."

"I'm not a dunce!" Sean snapped.

"What does 'dunce' mean then?" Marc asked, eyebrow raised.

"Err...." Sean murmured, thinking.

Sora laughed at their argument. He hadn't laughed in a while now, it felt kind of strange.

"So, where are ya from?" Marc asked.

"Destiny Islands."

"Cool," said Sean, grinning. "I've never been to an island before."

"Yeah, it's really nice over there," Sora said, eyes misting. "It's always sunny, huge oceans, palm trees... everything."

"How'd you end up here?" Marc asked.

"He got dragged here," Fire said.

"Yeah, threw a little tantrum when he found out he had to stay here," Crystal added, chuckling.

"I did not!" Sora said, blushing a bit. "I just needed to sort things out for myself."

"I see what you mean," Sean said, nodding. "If I lived in a place like that, I would never want to leave."

"Finally, somebody who agrees with me," Sora said. "It sucks. Ya need to take these lesson things for years until you become King. Word of advice for you two, never get a Keyblade."

They all laughed and Sora felt a tap on his shoulder. Turning around, he saw Donald standing there, glaring at him. "Come on, you need to go up now!"

Sora groaned. "Already?" he exclaimed. "Can't I..."

"No!" Donald snapped. "The King said I could use magic to force you over there if I need to! Now move it!"

"Hey, you can't talk to the king like that!" somebody yelled.

"I can do whatever I want!" Donald snapped back. "And he's not the King yet!"

The somebody shut up.

Sighing, Sora said good bye to his new found friends and trudged off reluctantly behind Donald. He considered running, but running never solved any problems. He followed until they reached the stage where the DJ was preparing to turn off the music as soon as the song ended. Gulping nervously, Sora saw King Mickey motion his hand at him, signaling Sora to come over.

"Are ya ready?" King Mickey asked as Sora finally reached him.

"As ready as I'll ever be," Sora admitted. "What am I supposed to say to them?"

"I dunno, improvise."

"Improvise?!" Sora exclaimed.

"Just tell them about yourself," King Mickey told him. "Answer their questions as best as you can, reassure them that you are a good person who can fulfill the job in a few years time. Don't act stupid, we don't want to start a panic."

Sora nodded, not sure at all that he could do this. "Okay," he said as the DJ cut off the music. People went quiet and looked expectantly at the stage.
Mickey gave Sora a little nudge forward and Donald and Goofy nodded encouragingly at him. Sora took a deep breathe and walked up the few stairs and stood on the center of the stage. "Errr... hey," Sora said nervously. A few people chuckled and King Mickey slapped his forehead.

Sora cleared his throat and said a bit louder, "Alright people, I'm supposed to be giving a speech up here. Only one problem. I have absolutely no idea what to say. You all probably are wondering if you're going to have a strict ass ruler in a few years. The answer to that would be no. Umm... and other questions?"

"I do!" Fire exclaimed, raising her hand.

Sora sighed. "Yes?"

"Almost the entire female population at this party is wondering the same thing.... ARE YOU SINGLE?"

"No, I'm not," Sora informed them. All the girls moaned in disappointment. "Any other questions that don't have anything to do with my love life?"

A few girls' hands went down and some people laughed. Feeling a bit more confident, Sora nodded at a man who had his hand raised.

"Pardon me, your majesty, but what makes you think you're fit for the job? I mean, there are hundreds of world's out there, all ending up in your control. Do you think you can handle it?"

"Well first of all, I didn't exactly volunteer for the job," Sora told them all. King Mickey made slitting motions across his neck, and Sora figured out what it meant; don't tell them how much you don't want the job. "I'm not the most serious person out there, but I never let anything or anyone get away with something evil without them facing me first. I'm not unfair and you can ask anyone who knows me, but I'm damn stubborn. I'll stick to something until it's through, so you don't have to worry about me giving up. I think I can handle the pressure." Sora grinned as Donald and Goofy gave him the thumbs up.

"Oh yeah, and if you all don't mind, don't bother calling me 'majesty' or any of those titles. I'm not the King yet, that would be him." Sora nodded towards King Mickey. "If you wanna call me anything, others call me 'Sora', 'lazy bum', 'kid' and 'hey you!'."

Almost everyone laughed and Sora took the chance for a quick glance at King Mickey. The mouse rolled his hand as a signal to wrap things up.

"Alright, just one more question," Sora said hesitantly.

"What's your main goal at the moment?" somebody asked.

"Well," Sora said, "my friends back at Destiny Islands. They want me to train hard, even if it means having to actually listen to my teacher. They want me to be my best, and my main goal is to listen to them. I'm trying to complete my training as best as I can so that someday I can see them again."

Sora held back his sadness at his last few words. He then went on, "Well, that's all I'm gonna say right now. I'll be in the village every now and then, so you can ask the rest of your questions then. 'Til then. See ya."

Sora jumped off the stage and a sound greeted his ears that he wasn't quite expecting; applause. Everyone was cheering, and Sora suddenly felt that his speech was worth it.

King Mickey made it even better by saying, "Well done, Sora. You did even better then I thought you would!" Donald and Goofy patted him on the back and Fire and Crystal fought their way through the crowd to hug him.

Guess it wasn't so bad, Sora thought as he grinned at the others. Now to just stick to what I just said.

End

Me: FIRST ONE-SHOT COMPLETED!

(army of schizophrenic squirrels and demented French bunnies clap)

Digitaldreamer: (falls over and passes out from lack of sleep)

Me: (throws bucket of water on Digital) Well, now to go and write the first chapter of Flickering Light. Farewell, everyone, and please review! (poofs out of sight)