ANY AND ALL FLAMES WILL BE READ, PUBLICIZED, MADE FUN OF, AND THEN LAUGHED AT UNTIL WE GET BORED AND/OR ANOTHER FLAME COMES ALONG! Thank you.

Train tracks clattered underneath him, but he hardly heard a sound. Roxas felt so tired. All he wanted to do was sleep. Something was pulling on his sleeve, trying to wake him. He brushed it away. Whatever was happening would have to wait until he woke up.

Roxas's blonde hair was messy from laying his head against the window behind him, but it was normally, so it didn't matter. His clothes were torn on the knees and a bit shabby, but what did he expect? He was an orphan, so he couldn't even buy something decent.

Why was he so tired? Oh yes, he ran to the station to catch the train. Where was he going? Twilight Town. Why though...? He tried desperately to recall, but his brain was slow with drowsiness. He was being put into foster care, with someone with the last name Yoake... Would they be nice? He didn't know.

The tugging on his sleeve didn't stop. Roxas opened one eye lazily to stare into the green eyes of a child. Her hair was a deep red, and as they went through a tunnel, it seemed to turn a deep purple. She was wearing an overall jumper over a white shirt with an ivory colored bow on the collar. "Mr., are you getting off at Twilight Town? The conductor just came by and said we'd be getting there soon."

Roxas blinked. Was she there when he got onto the train? He honestly couldn't remember. "Thanks." He picked up his backpack that lay forlorn on the spot next to him.

The train slowed to a halt at Central Station. Walking off the train onto the platform, Roxas noticed the little girl was following him. She had to be about six or seven. What could she be doing here by herself?

She clasped his hand, as if expecting him to help her to her destination. "Where are you headed, all alone?" inquired Roxas.

"My grandma's. This is the first time by myself!" she said with a huge, hundred-watt smile. She was missing her front tooth.

"Really? Well, can I join you for a little bit? I don't know my way around at all." They'd already left the station and gone into the warm, setting sun. It was a beautiful sunset. "Did you get visited by the Tooth Fairy?"

The girl's smile widened as she nodded. "Yup! I got a whole two quarters!"

Roxas chuckled as he followed the child. "My name's Roxas. What's yours?" But the girl shook her head, saying she shouldn't tell strangers her name. She was an odd little girl.

They continued, talking about different things that interested the little girl and occasionally stopping so the girl could tie her little pink shoe. In the end, Roxas had to help her, since she was so bad with knots. When they reached a street leading off in another direction, the girl let go of his hand. "I can get there on my own now! Thank you, Mr. Roxas!" she said, waving behind her as she ran toward her grandma's house. She tripped over an uneven brick in the road, stood up, brushed herself off, and continued on her way.

Roxas chuckled to himself as he pulled out directions scribbled on a folded paper. They started at the station! He turned to go back, but realized that he didn't know his way back there either! "Now what do I do...?" That was obvious. Try to find someone to ask for directions.

He wandered around for a bit. No one was around. Everyone was inside for dinner. That sounded good just about now...

He was so busy thinking about what a mess he'd gotten himself into that he hadn't noticed that he'd walked into an alleyway. Then he got the feeling one gets when being followed. He spun around, half expecting a monster to jump out at him, but that was an absurd idea. He turned back to the way he was going and bumped into someone.

"Who are you?" the boy asked coldly. He wore a long coat with a blue shirt that showed his midriff. On his head was a knit hat with a kanji on it, but Roxas was too busy backing away slowly to read it. "Well? Are you going to answer, or not?"

"Answer Seifer, y'know?" called a voice from behind Roxas. Three people were standing there now. A tall, muscular man with brown hair and tanned skin was the one who'd spoken.

"Name," said the girl with short, blue hair. She was wearing all blue, which only made her red eyes stand out. She seemed to be a girl of little words.

The final of the group was a short boy. He wore a hat and coat with a bunch of buckles, and the hat shrouded his face in shadows. He just held his hat as he shook his head.

"Uh..." Roxas was doing his best to look brave, but unsuccessfully.

"Seifer! What are doing here?" snapped a voice from behind the redheaded boy in the hat. A boy with blonde hair and amber eyes dashed up. He was wearing camouflage pants and a vest. Following him were a girl with brown hair and emerald eyes wearing an orange flower print shirt and a boy with black hair in a headband and brown eyes wearing a red jersey that had Dog Street written on it.

"Mugging people? That's not nice!" shouted the girl.

"Feh, yeah right. I've just never seen his face around here before," answered Seifer with a frown.

Roxas felt dizzy suddenly. Whether from fear of the half a dozen people around him or from his being tired he didn't know, but he collapsed into a heap on the ground.

Roxas awoke to see the girl watching him. The boy with dark hair and the boy with the blonde hair were talking, the one pointing at the piece of folded paper.

"—my address!" he heard the boy saying. "Who the heck is this kid?"

"He's awake!" cried the girl happily. She smiled as he sat up. "Hi! My name's Olette, and these guys here are Hayner and Pence." She pointed to the blond boy and the dark haired boy in turn.

"I'm Roxas. Um..." He dug into his pockets to find the sheet of paper, only to discover that Hayner had it. "Oh, I'm looking for that address. Do you know how to get there?"

"And why do you want to go to my house?" Hayner asked coldly.

"Oh! Uh... I was told to come here because of foster care and everything..." his voice trailed off as he said this.

"Oh yeah! You said something about that the other day, remember Hayner?" said Pence with a grin. "You probably forgot, knowing you!"

"I didn't forget!" lied Hayner through his teeth. "Come on, it's getting late. Follow me."

Roxas followed Hayner, hoping for no more trouble would find him. He seemed to be having bad luck that day.

The sun was like half a gold coin on the horizon when they reached Hayner's house. The shadows were lengthening, only serving to frighten Roxas for some reason he didn't know. He wasn't afraid of the dark last time he checked.

Roxas entered the kitchen to find a tall woman with platinum colored hair just putting food on the table and a man with a darker shade of yellow hair sitting at the table, reading the newspaper. Both glanced up as they saw Roxas and Hayner enter.

"Where have you been!" shouted the woman. "You are late!" She stressed every word.

"Sorry Mom! I bumped into Roxas here on the way home," Hayner jabbed his thumb in the air toward Roxas.

"Oh! The boy we're supposed to keep an eye on," said the man, Hayner's dad, from behind the newspaper. He turned the page and didn't even glance up again.

"Dear..." said an exasperated Mrs. Yoake. "Never mind. Let's just eat. Then you can show Roxas around the house, all right Hayner?"

"Fine Mom..." grumbled Hayner.

Mrs. Yoake and Mr. Yoake chatted about work. From the sound of it, Hayner's mother was a newspaper editor, and his father was a conductor on a train that ran from Central Station to Sunset Station.

Roxas was done long before anyone else. Though he'd been starving before running into Seifer and his gang, he didn't really feel like eating now. His stomach churned at the sight of the food.

"Are you feeling all right, Dear?" questioned Mrs. Yoake. "You're awfully pale."

Roxas shook his head. Was he getting sick or something? On his first day in Twilight Town? He thought back the small girl he'd walked to her grandmother's. He hoped he hadn't gotten her ill too.

"Well, the best cure for being under the weather is sleep," stated Mr. Yoake, eating another forkful of the pan-fried fish. "Why don't you show him to his room, Son?"

Hayner looked up from his dinner. "Fine, but you'd better leave me some more food!" He stood up and signed for Roxas to follow him up the stairs.

As they went down the hallway, Hayner pointed out the bathroom, his own room, and finally Roxas's, which was across the hall.

"This is normally the guest room, so it's not very colorful," Hayner explained, opening the door to reveal a plain and dull looking room. There was a window pointing out over the street below next to a bed with clean sheets. The window interested Roxas the most. It was the kind that opened sort of like a door instead of pushing the bottom up for air. "'Night, Roxas."

"Thanks," Roxas yawned back. His eyelids were heavy with sleep as he dropped his bag onto the floor and curled up on the bed. He didn't bother changing into his pajamas, and just let sleep take him in its comforting arms.

I hope you liked this chapter of this fic! There is a reason for Roxas's return, but what that reason is, you'll have to wait to find out! See ya later, gater! Thanks for reading!