Archive of Our Own

Chapter Text

The weather in the Land of Departure was generally more perfect than weather in any real place should be. Warm but with a nice breeze, sunny but the sun was never actually in your eyes. Perfect weather for sparring which, unfortunately, Sora was not doing at the moment.

"Come on, really?" Sora demanded. He was sitting on the steps that led down into the grass of the sparring area, left leg stretched out in front of him with a half-melted bag of ice on his knee.

"Really," Terra said firmly, not even sparing Sora a glance. Terra was focused on Lea and Ventus in front of him, the metallic clanging of their keyblades against each other ringing through Sora's bones like a tuning fork. "Lea, elbows! And your grip's too tight!"

"I know!" Lea snapped, struggling to keep his form while fending off Ventus's flurry of Blitz attacks. Lea switched his grip hand suddenly, a benefit of having fought for so long with both hands, and smashed through Ventus's weak left guard. His height advantage gave the blow enough force to knock Ventus onto his butt in the dust. "HA!"

It did not, unfortunately, knock Ventus's keyblade out of his hands, which he promptly used to hook Lea's ankle and send him sprawling on his back. With the same motion, Ventus hopped back to his feet, while Lea's keyblade skidded out of reach. Ventus stuck his keyblade's tip in the dirt and leaned on the handle, grinning down at Lea.

"Are you even trying?" he asked sweetly.

"Are you?" Terra echoed, not so sweet.

"It's hardly fair that his center of gravity is only two centimeters off the ground!" Lea hollered back. Ventus stuck out a hand to help Lea up; Lea gave him a black look. "Isn't it someone else's turn for this abuse for like five minutes? Or until this guy has a growth spurt?!"

"I feel fine," Sora insisted. He kicked his leg out a little, gesturing with his hands at it. "Look! Sparring's no fun without someone claiming winner, it's much less efficient! And somebody should give Ventus a real workout! He's kicked Lea's butt three times in a row."

"Thanks soooo much!" Lea snapped, struggling to his feet.

"I'm good!" Ventus waved happily. "This is fun!"

"No," Terra said, turning to finally give Sora his full attention. "I said rest, and I expect you to rest." Sora slumped back against the steps with a groan. "Stop that, you're too old to pout."

"I'm really not!" Sora called after him as Terra strode away to correct Lea's stance for the third time. Sora puffed his cheeks and blew an annoyed breath out. Someone's knee jabbed him in between the shoulder blades, and Sora knew who it was before he tilted his head back. "Hi, Kairi."

Kairi grinned down at him, hands on her hips, wisps of hair sticking out all over from being too short to fit in her ponytail. "Aww, won't they let you play winner?"

"Dislocated my knee again." Sora waved off Kairi's frown of concern. "It's healed! I'm fine! But Terra said I'm out until tomorrow, at least. Jerk."

"It's because you won't rest it that it keeps doing that," Kairi reminded, voice sharp. "That's the second time this week! Cure doesn't fix everything."

"It might fix your face," Sora grumbled, still pouting. Kairi cuffed him across the back of the head, then plopped onto the step beside him.

"Quit pouting like a baby and I might show you my new keychain," Kairi said. She reached into her pocket, but kept her fist closed when she pulled her hand out. "Well?"

Sora gave her an extremely fake, over-the-top smile, complete with jazz hands. Laughing, Kairi opened her hand to reveal a short, silver keyblade keychain. The charm on the end looked like an oversized version of Kairi's necklace. "Tada!"

"Cute?" Sora poked the drop-shaped pendant. "So let's see it already."

Kairi held out her right hand to summon her keyblade, at the moment in its base Destiny's Embrace form. It took Kairi a minute to fiddle the keychain's cellphone strap-style loop loose enough to work the pointy edges of the paopu charm through it. "Ugh, this loop. The clips are so much easier." As if to punctuate her statement, she clipped the new keychain on in about one-tenth the time. "There!"

In a shimmer of light, the form of her keyblade changed: the smooth curves of the handguard changed to a circular, spiked stylization of an orange flower, the shaft changing from gold to magenta, the teeth sharpened into something close to castle towers. A particular batch of castle towers, actually.

"Radiant Garden?" Sora asked, tracing the edge of the orange guard. "This is like the flowers that grow all over there."

"Yup!" Kairi looked pleased Sora had figured it out. "I wanted something to remind me of where I came from. Boosts water magic and defense, you know, like the fountains there? I love those. Aqua made it for me."

"Aqua…made it?" Sora repeated, head tilted. "She makes keychains?"

"Yeah?" Kairi giggled at Sora's confusion. "You knew she made the Wayfinders. Did you think she just had a secret metallurgy hobby for no reason?"

"Kind of," Sora muttered while Kairi laughed at him some more. He palmed the dangling keychain charm, examining it thoughtfully. "I never really thought before about making a keychain. All of mine I've either been given or found in different worlds."

"They don't just pop into being, silly," Kairi said. She swung her keyblade back and forth, testing the weight.

"HEY!" Lea shouted, drawing both their attention. When they looked up, he was on the ground again, this time apparently refusing to get up. "A little help over here, PLEASE? Assuming princess tea party time is over!"

"I'm gonna Waterga him right in the face," Kairi said fondly, shouldering her keyblade as she stood up. She looked back down at Sora. "If you're interested in keychains, go ask Aqua about it. You're benched anyway, right?"

"Yeah, sure," Sora hollered after her, loud enough for Terra to hear. "So fighting is out because of my knee, but nine million stairs is totally fine? Makes perfect sense, ok!"

Kairi waved Sora off, and everyone else ignored him since they'd all learned not to give him the satisfaction of paying attention to his pouting. After a minute of watching Kairi and Ventus team up to torment Lea, Sora heaved himself up off the steps and went to go find Aqua.

By the time he'd found her, Sora had climbed enough stairs that he was debating between doubling down on his claim that the ache in his knee didn't exist versus exaggerating a limp for sympathy. Aqua was in the library, re-shelving some books, and she looked Sora over with a critical eye before he had a chance to do either.

"Dislocated your knee again because you wouldn't rest properly, right?" Aqua pushed a book into place firmly enough that it felt vaguely like a threat. "I warned you about that yesterday. Just because idiots can't catch a cold doesn't mean they won't end up with chronic tendon damage."

"Geez," Sora groaned, aggravated. He put his hands on his hips. "Y'know, I pulled you out of Darkness and I'm pretty sure I could drop you back in if I really wanted to."

"Bold words for a teenager who I assumed climbed three sets of stairs to ask me either infinity questions or for a favor."

Sora kicked at the carpet. "It's not always one of those." Sora made big eyes at Aqua until she sighed and ruffled his hair. Take that, Terra. "Kairi said you made her new keychain. Can you tell me about that? How do you do that?"

"You're interested?" Aqua asked. Sora nodded. "Well, it's not that much different than regular synthesis, but there are several skills necessary. It takes a strong imagination to come up with a design rather than following a recipe, and the skills and traits of the keychain have to complement the form. Even once you have the design and traits in mind, it takes strong will to hold all of that together in your mind while you form the magic and bind it to the physical keychain, and let it all set. In terms of physical components, depending on what kind of keychain or skills there's obviously different materials, some common and some rare. Some prefer to start with a physical object to affix magic to, and others start with a strong memory, for instance of a place or a person…" Aqua paused. "You're actually listening to me."

Sora blinked. "I asked you, didn't I?"

"Yes," Aqua agreed, "but usually if I explain something theoretical for longer than thirty seconds, your eyes glaze over until I stop."

"Yeah, that's fair," Sora chuckled, good-natured. "But this is cool. Did Master Eraqus teach you? Can Terra and Ven do it too?"

"We all learned it, but I'm the only one who liked practicing it." Aqua smiled, small and fond, like she often did when Sora asked about her training with Terra and Ventus. "Terra preferred physical training and more offensive magic, and Ventus had so few memories it was almost impossible for him to get anything to hold a shape. He had less patience then, too, but he was so young. He'd do better at it now, I think."

"Can anyone do it?" Sora asked.

"Some have more natural talent than others, or more patience, but essentially, yes, any keyblade wielder has enough magic to make at least basic keychains." Aqua crossed her arms, sizing Sora up. "I can show you, if you'd like."

"Yes!" Sora exclaimed practically before Aqua was done speaking, bouncing on the balls of his feet. "Yes, please! It sounds really interesting."

"It'll take more than an afternoon," Aqua warned, waving for Sora to follow her out of the library.

"Aw, I'm benched anyway," Sora reminded, trailing along behind her. "Might as well do something worthwhile."

Aqua led Sora down a few hallways and into a room he'd never been in before. It was small verging on cramped, or maybe it just felt that way because most of the floor space was occupied by a large drafting table, another larger table covered with synthesis materials and tools that Sora couldn't begin to guess at the purpose of. A furnace occupied the whole corner that reminded Sora of the Moogles' little shop in Traverse Town. The floor was cool stone, easy to clean and not flammable, and the ceiling was high. Huge, curtainless windows stretched the length of the wall beside the forge, and Sora wondered exactly how hot it got in here when that thing got going.

"You really do make them," Sora said, almost to himself as he examined the things on the table. Synthesis items and pieces of metal were scattered across the table in untidy piles; right next to a stack of flat, unworked iron pieces was a keychain charm of the same material twirled somehow into a delicate spiral. "Sorry, that's silly, you said you did."

"Seeing is believing," Aqua agreed from her drafting table. There was a row of leather-bound books shelved haphazardly against the corner, held in place by a bookend shaped like a Mastery Mark. Aqua pulled one book out and flipped through the pages, looking for the page she wanted. Sora came to peer over her elbow and realized it was a sketchbook, the unlined pages full of doodles of keyblades and charms, some with notes, some inked in properly, some unfinished scribbles. She set the book down when she found the page she wanted. "This is the one I've been working on."

"It looks like Ventus's," Sora commented, and it did, with the one-sided grip that curved up towards the teeth in a smooth line. It wasn't as blocky as Ventus's base keyblade, though, the edges more jagged, the form lighter. It was labeled 'Spark Raid' and there were a few other notes that seemed to have to do with thunder magic, although Sora couldn't read some of Aqua's quick, cramped handwriting.

"Good eye," Aqua praised. "Ven's had to repair his keychain twice now from using Thunderbolt form too often. I thought it was time for an upgrade. Want to see what I have so far?"

"Heck yes!" Sora beamed as Aqua told him to drag the stool from the drafting table over to the other table. Aqua picked up the half-done charm to show him, only a vague outline at the moment, and went back to work on it while she patiently answered Sora's near-infinity questions.

The afternoon flew by, Sora not even noticing the slide of the sun over the windows as they sat shoulder to shoulder. Aqua had just finished showing him how to attach the c-rings for the chain and handed over the pliers for him to do the last two himself when Ventus poked his head in the door and said dinner was almost ready.

"We'll be down in a minute," Aqua called over her shoulder, nudging the keychain over so that Sora's body was blocking it from Ventus's view. "No peeking."

"Aww, come on, can't I see yet?" Ventus wheedled, but a stern look from Aqua kept him in the doorway rather than coming any closer. "Aquaaaaa."

"Done!" Sora announced. He pulled his hands away to let Aqua see, and a warm sunburst of pride lit in his chest at her approving nod. Sora stretched out his stiff shoulders, wincing when his neck cracked, and unwound his feet from where he'd hooked them over the stool's rung.

"We'll enchant it tomorrow," she told Sora. Sora nodded as he started hopping off the stool. "Wait, be careful—"

Sora's ankle was asleep from holding one position too long, and his stiff knee gave out, dumping him on the ground with a crash. "Ow."

"No wonder you're benched, if you can't handle a stool," Ventus said from the doorway, making Sora mutter that everyone was a comedian.

The next day it was raining anyway, the steady, pattering kind that meant to go on all day, so nobody was out sparring. Lea headed back to Twilight Town after breakfast, while Terra corralled Kairi and Ventus into the library for some long-overdue keyblade lore homework.

"And you need it worse than anybody," Terra said to Sora, who groaned.

"Sorry, Master Terra," Aqua interrupted, teasing with a perfectly innocent expression. "Sora's helping me this morning." Sora's whoop of victory was interrupted by Aqua dropping a stack of plates in his hands. "After he helps with the dishes. And no magic this time, I don't have Master Yen Sid's brooms around to sweep up another disaster."

"That was at least sixty percent Kairi's fault!" Sora protested as Aqua pushed him towards the kitchen.

Finishing the keychain took until after lunch. The spellwork was too complicated, too delicate for Sora to help, but it was still incredibly interesting to watch as Aqua layered thunder magic in between thunder and gust shards. A wellspring crystal was at the base of all of it, flickering temperamentally the entire time Aqua was essentially building a magical house of cards over top of it. Aqua drew a sharp breath suddenly, making Sora worried the entire thing was about to fall apart, and then all at once the entire spell did collapse in on itself, exactly like a house of cards, but one where all the cards fell down into a neat stack, perfectly shuffled.

"Whew!" Aqua said, running the back of her hand across her damp forehead. Sora leaned closer to examine the keychain, which was shaped like a stylized atom symbol. The Wellspring Crystal sunk in the center of it was no longer flickering, but glowing steadily.

"It's still glowing," Sora said, resisting the urge to poke it.

"It'll take the spellwork a few hours to set firm and bond permanently to the physical keychain," Aqua explained. "An expert can layer more spells or materials in before the initial layers set for more complicated effects. Spells hold together better if bonded while 'wet' but you also risk magics bleeding together too much and producing unexpected results or even becoming completely inert." Aqua stood up, leaning backwards to stretch out her spine. "I'm sorry you could only watch all that. I feel like I didn't teach you anything."

Sora tilted his head back to grin at her, eyes sparkling. "No way, it was awesome. I want to make something! Can you teach me how to do this?"

"Of course," Aqua agreed, smile tired but openly pleased.

"Oh man, it was so cool," Sora gushed to Riku on the phone later that night, flopped on his back in bed. "When Ven clipped it on, his keyblade went all lightning bolt zigzag! It pumped up his Aero like crazy, and he nearly took Terra's eyebrows off with a Spark Raid! You should have seen his face!"

"You sure seem excited about it," Riku chuckled, smile crinkling the corners of his eyes just enough for Sora to see it over the Gummi video connection. Riku was sitting comfortably slumped in the beanbag, the familiar walls and bookshelves of their room in the Mysterious Tower visible over his shoulders. "You really sat there for hours watching Aqua? I don't believe it."

"Believe it, mister." Sora stuck his tongue out. "It was so amazing watching her layer all that stuff together, all the magic and tiny synthesis pieces and they're all trying to squirm away, but she told it what to do and it did. It came out almost exactly like she sketched it! You remember when we used to play with clay and nothing ever came out the way it looked in your head?"

"You always ended up rolling a big worm," Riku said fondly. "If your first keychain turns out like a big worm, send me a picture."

"Your face is a big worm," Sora retorted without any heat. "When I'm a worlds-famous keychain artisan, I'll remember this abuse."

"You think wheat bread is artisan, you boob." Riku yawned, ruffling a hand through his hair. "It's nice to hear you really excited about something. And really nice that it's something that might keep you off that knee."

"How do you even know about that?" Sora groaned, throwing one arm out dramatically.

"Kairi."

"Kairi," Sora echoed, deeply betrayed. "Bet she left the part out where it's her who dislocated it the first time, with one of her twirly…" Sora wiggled a few fingers. "…bullshit moves."

Riku sighed through his nose. "She did leave that out, as a matter of fact. Hey. I miss you."

"Me too." Sora rolled onto his side, propping his phone hand on the pillows so it was like Riku was there next to him, sort of. "Are you going to sleep soon? Gimme a head start and you won't have to miss me."

"You're on," Riku agreed immediately, matching Sora's lopsided smile with one of his own. "You've got until I shower and brush my teeth. And try not to dream about Monstro again, it's gross. You always get the smell exactly right."

"I promise nothing," Sora said, snuggling down into his pillow more comfortably. "Love you. Just in case."

"I love you, too. Sweet dreams."

Sora dropped the phone after the screen dimmed, wriggling under the blanket and a little bit skeptical he was going to fall asleep that fast. He was still too excited about new keyblade forms and new magics, mind racing in little circles. But when he got warm and comfortable, his spare pillow propping up the slight ache of his knee, the tapping of the rain against the window lulled him to sleep eventually.

"Took you long enough," Riku murmured suddenly in his ear, close behind him. "Show me this thing you were describing so badly."

"In a minute." Sora turned and stretched onto his toes for a kiss; he hummed into it happily when Riku wrapped arms around his waist to heft him higher. Keyblade forms were exciting and all, but Riku was Riku and the first order of business in any dream was turning Riku's eyes from aquamarine to bright pink.

The next day, Sora came down to breakfast to find Terra and Aqua debating the best way to split Sora's time, as well as Aqua's. Sora only half-listened as he shoveled eggs into his mouth between yawns.

"We can start tomorrow," Aqua decided in the end. "I want to look up some things to make sure I'm not forgetting any basics, and I'll call around to ask if anyone else is interested."

"Great, that means I get you all day. We'll fix your form yet!" Terra turned his ominous smile from Sora to Ventus. "You too."

"Uuuugh," Sora and Ventus both groaned.

Terra was surprisingly lenient about freeing Sora from a few hours of combat training a day for forging lessons. His only stipulation was that Sora had to keep up with his form drills on his own so that he didn't slip back into his old, self-taught stance that put too much strain on his wrists and knees.

Aqua explained that most of the keychain basics would only take two or three weeks to nail down, and after that Sora could come back to it on his own time and ask her questions anytime he needed. Magic lessons usually happened in the afternoon anyway, when some of everyone's excess energy had been burned off by physical training, and Aqua said that keychain forging would tire out Sora's magic just as well as battle spellcasting.

To Sora's surprise, when he showed up to Aqua's workroom the next morning, Roxas was already there, leaning against the wall just outside the door. Roxas and Xion mostly were enjoying their lives as regular Twilight Town teenagers, but once in a while they tagged along with Lea to the Land of Departure and joined in on some training. Xion, more than Roxas, wanted to improve her keyblade skills; Roxas generally seemed content to keep the other two in sight and practice just enough to keep from getting entirely rusty. He hadn't even sparred with them that morning, just sat on a batch of steps and watched, calling out unhelpful advice to purposely distract Lea.

"Hey!" Sora called as he trotted up to Roxas, holding out his fist. Roxas let Sora dangle a second before tapping his knuckles against Sora's, face saying he was just humoring him. "You just hanging out while you wait for Lea and Xion?"

"No," Roxas said. "Aqua called to ask if anyone wanted to make keychains, and I said I wanted to try. That's why Xion and I came this morning. What's the matter, wanted private lessons?"

"No!" Sora shrugged, examining Roxas's neutral expression. "You aren't usually that into learning more about keyblade stuff, is all. But now we get to hang out, so that's great! We don't hang out enough."

"Yeah, I guess." Roxas's stiff face thawed, and he offered Sora a small smile. He pushed himself off the wall and reached for the door handle. "It's just us two, so come on."

"There you are," Aqua said when they came in. The work tables looked much more organized than when Sora had been in here two days ago, the surface of the table swept clear and all the metal and synthesis materials organized into neat stacks. "All ready to start?"

"Yeah!" Sora exclaimed, dragging Roxas along by the arm when Roxas wasn't moving fast enough for him, distracted looking around the room.

"Sure," Roxas agreed. "I brought my keychains like you said." He dug in his pockets and pulled out keychains one at a time until four were lying on the table. Sora only recognized the twin to his own Oathkeeper charm and the one shaped like Roxas's zipper pull; beside that was a yellow star charm and a starburst made out of something black and shiny. "I lost a lot of mine when I gave up my own body, and Xion's borrowing a few."

"These are fine," Aqua assured, tapping a finger on the starburst one thoughtfully. "Sora?"

"Hm?" Sora had been staring at the star charm, something about it pulling his attention even though he was sure he hadn't seen it before. "Oh, right." Sora's keychains came out of his biggest pocket in a tangle of chains, ten or so of them balled together from riding in his pocket all day. "That's the ones I have with me here. There's a bunch more at the Tower." He snuck a guilty look at Roxas, but Roxas's face showed only mild curiosity as he examined Sora's messy pile. "I, uh, have a…lot of them."

"You should take better care of these," Aqua scolded, deftly teasing the keychains apart from each other. "If they get too bent up, they'll stop working."

"Sorry," Sora said, chagrinned. A few of them weren't in great shape already, in need of polishing or all nicked up; on more than one Sora had fixed a loose chain link by just biting down on it. He shuffled his feet when Aqua gave him a look like she knew every stupid thing he'd ever done to them.

Aqua had the keychains untangled in another minute and was sorting them to either side. The group on the left included Pumpkinhead and Divine Rose, while Fenrir and Sora's Oathkeeper went to the right. She finished by sorting Roxas's keychains the same way, sliding everything but the black starburst to the right. "Here we are. Can either of you tell me what makes these two groups different?"

Sora and Roxas examined the piles. It seemed more or less random to Sora, a mix of physical and magic attributes, made of different materials, different sizes and lengths.

"These ones are all places, right?" Roxas asked, pointing to the left pile. "The other ones aren't."

"Exactly!" Aqua said. Sora looked again and realized that Roxas was exactly right. "Excellent, Roxas. The two most common kinds of keychains are those that represent an important place, and those that represent strong memories. It doesn't take any special training to create that kind of keychain, which explains why Sora ends up with a new keychain in practically every world he visits."

"I've been making these?" Sora demanded, face scrunched. Roxas picked up Divine Rose and examined it dubiously.

"That's hardly the most impressive thing you've made real by accident," Aqua pointed out; Roxas rolled his eyes. "Some keychains already existed as you were given them, like this one." Aqua tapped Divine Rose, still in Roxas's hand. "But some of these, yes, you made them. At heart, keychains are just a way to focus the power of your heart through your keyblade in different ways. Your keyblade has enough magic to affect any object you clip to it, if your feelings or memories are strong enough."

"Huh," Sora said. "So if Roxas goes to all the worlds I have, will he end up with as many as me?"

"Nobody in any world needs as many keychains as you've got," Roxas informed him. Sora stuck his tongue out.

"It's certainly possible," Aqua agreed. She picked up the black starburst. "This one is for Twilight Town, right?" Roxas nodded. "So Roxas is capable enough, clearly. There are drawbacks to these keychains, though. Sora?"

"Well.." Sora rubbed the back of his head, thinking. "They're not that strong. I always have to get the Moogles to upgrade them a bunch. And sometimes they look…really stupid."

"The frying pan one," Roxas said.

"The frying pan one," Sora repeated in tones of deep aggravation.

"No control over form, weak abilities," Aqua nodded. She clapped her hands together. "So! Our first lesson will be to try and do mindfully what you've already been doing rather chaotically. Think you two can handle a little homework?"

"Hit us," Roxas said staunchly, folding his arms. Sora nodded, grinning. "It can't be worse than algebra."

"I'm sure I could cough up a little math if you wanted. No?" Aqua laughed at Sora's wrinkled nose. "Magic it is, then. You two agree on a world, pick a physical object from there as a base, and then we'll try to shape a keyblade suited to it. Get some basic synthesis materials from that world, physical attribute ones are easiest. It'll help if you have an idea in mind when you're collecting materials. Both of you have good, strong imaginations, so I'm sure you'll think of something. Any questions?"

Roxas put up his hand. "Sora shouldn't be allowed to drive the Gummi ship."

"That's not a question!" Sora pulled out the Gummi ship keys and jingled them cheerfully.

"Sora, are you using the Wheel of Fate keychain as the Gummi ship keyring?" Aqua demanded, rubbing her head.

"Maybe?" Sora offered.

"Yeah, that's it, I'm taking a dark corridor," Roxas announced, turning on his heel to go.

"Noooo, Roxaaaaas!"

The two of them decided on Twilight Town with a lot less squabbling than deciding who got to drive the Gummi ship. Roxas suggested the tunnels as the best place to gather synthesis materials quickly, then the woods after that or the old mansion if they needed to. Between a nest of Shadows in the tunnels and an overgrown patch of Creeper Plants in the woods, it didn't take long for them to both have a pocketful of Power and Dark Shards.

"Think we need anything better?" Roxas asked as they paused just outside the mansion gates. "Might be some Dusks inside for Twilight Shards."

"Nah, Aqua said we'd be fine with anything from here. Let's head back." For a few minutes, the only sounds were their sneakers crunching through the leaves. "Hey, Roxas. Do you really do algebra homework?"

Roxas huffed a quiet laugh. "Yeah, I really do. Sometimes. Sometimes I copy Xion's. Sometimes Hayner copies mine. It's nice."

"It's not," Sora disagreed, thinking of afternoons of middle school homework at his kitchen table that he wouldn't relive for a million munny. "Math is the worst. Did you really come from me?"

"Not the math, idiot," Roxas corrected. "It's nice having something mundane to complain about with my friends. Understanding everything they're talking about. Doing the same things as them and being in the same places. You know?"

"Oh." Sora thought about complaining about Yen Sid's reading assignments with Riku, and comparing sparring bruises with Kairi. He didn't love those things, but he understood how stuff like made you feel closer. "Yeah, I get that." Sora jingled the shards in his pocket thoughtfully. "It's nice doing this with you too. Did you figure out what you're going to try and make yet?"

"I've got an idea, yeah," Roxas answered. "You?"

"Hm, well…" Sora didn't answer right away as they went from the woods back down into the tunnel passage. Roxas didn't rush him. "If it's what I think of when I think of Twilight Town, it's got to be the station clock, right? The first time I came here I kept getting lost, but you can see that from anywhere so I could always reorient myself if I looked up." The tunnel ended, and they stepped out into the light, the noise of Tram Commons muffled at the end of the alleyway. "But I don't know what to bring back to represent that, though."

"Actually, I think I know just the thing," Roxas said. He strolled ahead without looking back, trusting Sora to follow. After weaving around various people and dodging the tram, Roxas stopped at his destination, Sora bumping into his back.

"The Accessory Shop?" Sora asked, tilting his head. Roxas pointed through the window, and Sora lit up. "That's perfect!"

Mission completed, they returned to the Land of Departure, or RTC'd as Roxas always called it no matter whether they were coming back to a castle or not. Aqua held up the item Sora had handed her, a gold bell on a red braided cord, the kind meant to be hung on a cell phone. "A bell?"

"It's a replica of the bells on the Twilight Town clocktower," Sora explained. "It's a souvenir you can only get there, so that should work, right?"

"It'll be interesting," Aqua agreed, handing the bell back to Sora. "Roxas?"

"I have this." Roxas handed over a blue crystal the size of a large marble. "It's definitely from Twilight Town, and it's already got a hole drilled in the bottom."

"That's the jewel from the Struggle Champion trophy, isn't it?" Sora asked. Roxas nodded.

"If it's special to you, you might not want to use it on this first try," Aqua warned, holding it up to examine the hole drilled in the bottom. "You should save it for when you've had some practice."

"No, it's okay," Roxas said, shrugging. "I've just been carrying it around. It would be nice to use it for something."

Aqua walked them through the basic spellcasting needed to fuse their synthesis materials to their object in order to make it into a real keychain. The important thing, she reminded them, was that they try to keep the shape of their new keyblade form firm in their mind while they were doing it, rather than just letting the magic take its own shape chaotically.

"Will over power," she cautioned them. "The stronger your magic is, the harder it is to keep it from running away with you."

"It's kind of like casting a Gravity spell," Roxas said, brow furrowed in thought. "Guess that makes sense. You're trying to smoosh everything together."

"Oh god, I really will end up with a big worm," Sora grumbled. Aqua gave him a questioning look, but Sora shrugged and said it was nothing.

"Let's just try and see what happens, all right?" Aqua encouraged. "Physical attribute keychains are the simplest to get right, but even if it goes wrong, we'll just try again. And in this case, 'wrong' most likely means another ridiculous-looking form change, you're almost sure to end up with something. There's basically no way you could, say, blow up a handful of Power Shards."

Roxas shuffled several steps further away from Sora.

"Hey!" Sora protested.

"I didn't say a single word," Roxas pointed out, rolling his crystal between his hands. Aqua had epoxied a post into the hole on the bottom so they could attach a chain of gold s-links that reminded Sora of the original trophy. "I want to go first."

"Be my guest," Aqua said. "Three or five shards, always odd numbers, and it's most stable to split them evenly aside from deciding which type should have the odd one."

Nodding, Roxas slid three Power Shards and two Dark Shards out of the little heaps he and Sora had made on the table. Because his crystal was round, there was no way to layer his shards over top of it sitting on the table, so he had to cup his items between his hands, one over and one under like he was keeping fireflies trapped. Aqua had said it was fine to do this barehanded for simple projects like this, but that for more volatile ingredients they would definitely need work gloves.

With Roxas's hands covering the actual fusion, there wasn't anything to watch other than Roxas's face. At first his expression was tense as he muttered his way through the spells, squinting in concentration, furrowing his brow harder and harder. Then suddenly his expression cleared, as if he'd solved a puzzle all at once, eyebrows lifting in surprise. When he uncupped his hands, the shards were gone and his crystal was glowing softly in the center of his palm.

"It worked! Uh, I think." Roxas looked up at Aqua, unsure.

"You think?" Aqua asked.

"No, it did," Roxas said with more confidence. "I felt it. It felt like…well, you'll see."

"Ok, my turn," Sora said. He picked up three Dark Shards and two Power, just to be different, and cupped them in his palm along with the bell. He took a deep breath. "Here I go."

Sora pictured the clock tower in his mind, the details of it sharp from having just been there, the layered circles of its face, the way the sunlight cast deep shadows between the sharp angles of the architecture and gleamed warm bronze on the bells. Once he started on the magic, though, it was harder than he'd expected to concentrate on both things at once, not to let one or the other take over. The shards between his palms didn't move so much as vibrate, a hum that he could feel through his hands instead of hear, until he had to grit his teeth against the buzz of it. It got harder to hold everything together the more magic Sora poured into it.

Folding paper flowers, that's what it was really like. Sora had done loads of them as a kid, every Islander did; when you tried one you'd never done before, there was usually a part where the paper resisted taking shape and you weren't sure where to put your fingers or how hard to push, afraid of squishing the whole thing and wrecking it. But then, all at once, you'd get it right and the paper would collapse exactly the way it was supposed to, along the lines you'd already folded, and there'd be a flower in your hand, like magic.

Just like that, Sora felt the magic and the shards and the bell in his hands all give, folding in on themselves like he meant for them to do. When he cautiously parted his hands and peeked between them, there was only the bell left, shimmering copper as if the afternoon sun was on it. Sora grinned up at Aqua and Roxas, delighted. "Tada!"

"What next?" Roxas asked, still rolling his crystal between his palms. The glowing had almost stopped on his; Sora resisted the urge to blow on his like on something too hot to eat.

"We go test them, of course," Aqua said. "Physical magic sets fastest, so we don't have to wait." Sora and Roxas grinned at each other.

"Race you," Roxas said, not waiting for an answer before dashing towards the door.

"You didn't say ready set go!" Sora hollered, only two steps behind Roxas because he'd invented that trick. Behind them, Aqua shouted that she wasn't healing anyone who went headfirst down the stairs. Sora thought he had a lock on victory because he knew where in the staircase he could throw himself over the railing to drop directly to the ground floor without breaking an ankle, but Roxas cheated by using a couple line-of-sight Teleports.

"You didn't call no Teleporting, so I can't be cheating," Roxas said smugly. He pushed open the door and held it for Sora. "Ladies first."

"And Lea calls me a princess, geez," Sora grumbled, shoving at Roxas's shoulder on the way by.

Outside and down a couple of half-sets of stairs, the swordsmanship lessons seemed to be on a break anyway. Lea was sitting on the grass in his T-shirt, Terra kneeling behind him, using one hand to pull his shoulder back and the other hand pushing in against his shoulder blade.

"Don't push, just lean," Terra was saying as Sora and Roxas got close enough to hear. "You're using your own bodyweight to stretch it out. It hurts here, right?" Terra pushed two fingers down, into the space under Lea's shoulder blade, and Lea grunted a pained yes. "Right. It's basically impossible to stretch that muscle out yourself, so you need someone to help. Xion, you can feel it on Ven, too right?"

"I think so," Xion answered. She and Ventus were sitting beside Terra and Lea, Xion trying to imitate what Terra was doing with his hands and Ventus's shoulder being prodded. "Does that hurt?"

"No," Ventus wheezed, eyes squeezed shut.

"It's because you use that stupid backhanded stance, you get that knot," Terra scolded with half of his attention, most of his focus still on Lea. "Roxas, come here and look at what I'm doing."

"You're just jealous of my cool style," Ventus retorted through gritted teeth. "Ow! Ok ok, switch me, I can't take it, ow." Ventus looked up at Sora, rolling out his shoulder. "Hi! You guys are done already? Blow up the whole place or something?"

"Nope!" Sora held out his bell keychain triumphantly. "We're out here for testing. Want to see?"

"A clocktower bell?" Xion asked. Sora dropped it into her hand to examine. "Roxas, what did you make?"

"You'll see in a second, won't you?" Roxas answered, letting Terra push his fingers down into the right spot on Lea. Lea yelped. "Yeah, I got it. Thanks." Roxas straightened up and kicked Lea gently in the butt. "Out of the way, I want to test my keychain."

"That's what we're here for, after all," Aqua announced, finally catching up to them. She sat on the steps much more gracefully than Ventus flopped himself onto them beside her, complaining that Terra was a dictator. Aqua ruffled his hair. "Roxas?"

"Here goes nothing," Roxas said, once Terra and Xion had also stepped out of the little sparring area. He summoned his keyblade and undid the base mouse head charm, then clicked on his new crystal. Immediately a little explosion of blue and pink balls of light rushed up the length of his keyblade as the form change took hold.

It was a Struggle Bat. An absolutely faithful replica of Roxas's favorite Struggle Bat from last summer, from gold handle to blue foam shaft. Sora burst out laughing and couldn't stop, bracing his hands on his thighs. He wasn't laughing a second later when Roxas jammed the tip of the bat in the dirt and sent out a Stun Shockwave that rooted Sora's feet to the ground. Before he could unstick himself, Roxas followed it with a flurried Blitz attack and sent Sora sprawling hard onto his butt.

Roxas slung his Struggle Bat up against his shoulder and turned to grin at Aqua, one hand on his hip. "So?"

"Decent power, form that complements ground attacks, and it certainly is from Twilight Town," Aqua assessed, chuckling a little herself. "Was it the form you were trying for?" Roxas nodded. "Good. Think it has any abilities?"

"Strength plus, maybe," Roxas said, swinging the bat over the back of his hand and catching it neatly. He looked at Sora climbing painfully to his feet. "A Struggle Bat shouldn't hit that hard."

"Felt like it knocked more energy or magic out of me than it should have," Sora said, dusting off his pants. "You know how during Struggle you lose orbs? Bet it ups whatever you knock out of Heartless."

"Huh," Roxas said thoughtfully, looking it over more carefully. "Have to try it and see."

"Might get a Dusk to laugh itself to death," Sora teased, earning himself a whap to the face. The chirpy sound effect of the foam bouncing off him was even the same as Sora remembered it.

"I think that's definitely a success for a first try," Aqua interrupted. "Sora?"

Sora called his keyblade and undid Oblivion's crown keychain, tucking it safely in a pocket that snapped shut. His bell still had the loop attachment, so it took him a second to nudge the loop through his keyblade's metal circle and then work the bell through it. Once he pulled it tight, magic hummed against his palms and flashed orange, catching Sora like the sun in his eyes. He blinked the glare away.

His keyblade certainly contained a lot of components of the clocktower, if in a somewhat impressionistic configuration. The handle was like the iconic top of the tower, the two bells to either side like a sword's cross-guard. The length of the blade looked like the body of the tower itself, with the several circle clock faces at the tip. Where keyblade teeth usually cut out to the side, Sora's had three clock hands all pointed at jaunty angles.

"Ok, sure," Sora shrugged. It had been worse, surely. He swung it back and forth a few times, testing the weight and finding it a bit heavy but nothing like, say, Fenrir. He called to Roxas, "Ready?"

Roxas took up his own stance, twisting his hands around his keyblade like a batter. "Yup."

Sora charged in directly, not seeing a need for subtlety. The clang of his keyblade against Roxas's had a musical, chiming quality to it, the weight of it satisfying even if Sora couldn't swing it very quickly. The slowness of it was a problem against someone as fast as Roxas, but if he could just hit him head-on…wait, magic. "STOP!"

"Grrrgh," Roxas growled, frozen mid-step. It should have only lasted a second; Stop wasn't Sora's strongest magic and he hadn't even hit Roxas square, but Sora got a solid three hits in before Roxas unfroze and tipped over, keyblade skidding out of his hands.

"Stop!" Sora called again cheerfully, really getting Roxas good that time. Roxas glared as Sora cast it a couple more times until he finally ran out of magic. Sora paused for a second, taking stock of how he felt. He could probably nail Roxas again, if he really wanted to. "Pretty sure this thing has Haste!" He nudged Roxas, still unmoving, with his foot. "C'mon, I didn't get you that hard."

Roxas managed one very slow blink that promised absolute murder when he unStopped.

"He's gonna kiiiill youuuuuu," Xion chanted.

"What? No, we're just fooling around, he wouldn't—" Sora caught a burst of movement out of the corner of his eye. "Uh-oh, Roxas, wait—"

Sora definitely lost the next round, feeling like he'd had more than a couple blue and pink spheres knocked out of him by the time Roxas had him on the ground, squishy blue bat planted firmly in Sora's chest.

"Stop~," Roxas chanted cheerfully, then turned to walk away, leaving Sora frozen on the ground.

"With a struggle bat, embarrassing," Lea chuckled, holding up his hand for a high-five as Roxas approached and dropped onto the step beside him. Xion wasn't even trying to muffle her giggles. "Now that deserves some ice cream."

Aqua meanwhile got to her feet and walked towards Sora. She leaned over him, filling his field of vision.

"So how'd I do?" Sora asked, conversationally, through teeth stuck shut.

Aqua waved an impatient hand for her own keyblade and tapped Sora in the chest to cancel Roxas's magic. "I'm interested in how you think you did, actually."

"I think it went great!" Sora said, in the same voice he used to present report cards to his mother. "I made a keyblade, hit Roxas with it, and nothing blew up. A+!" Aqua continued to stare at him. "A-?"

"Does the A stand for 'Awfully Questionable?'" Aqua asked. "You made a magic keyblade instead of a physical one, which is not at all practical and clearly too heavy for you, and there is no way you can convince me that's the form you imagined. To be honest, I'm not even sure how you managed this."

"Ugh." Sora let the fake smile slip off his face as he hauled himself to a sitting position. "Guess I'm not cut out for this."

"You certainly are," Aqua said crisply. Sora squinted at her. "You pumped enough magic into that bell to get a magic keyblade out of purely physical synthesis materials. I could drop you off in the Dwarf Woodlands with nothing but acorns and you'd come back with a keyblade the size and shape of an oak tree. The problem is, you don't have any control over it. You're just letting your magic run away with you."

"Oh." Sora ruffled the back of his hair uncomfortably, not sure if he was being praised or scolded. Aqua stuck a hand out.

"Want to try again?" she asked, expression softening.

"Yeah." Sora nodded, mollified. He let Aqua haul him up and she gave him an approving pat on the shoulder.

"Good. Only perhaps let's try imagining something shaped like a weapon this time. A clocktower, honestly."