Stepsiblings
A Kingdom Hearts fanfic by Raberba girl

Part 6 is dedicated to Infamousplot

Summary: Saïx & Xion's father is engaged to Axel & Roxas's mom. Saïx is not looking forward to gaining brothers, but he's just gonna have to get used to it. Modern AU, obviously platonic AkuSaiRokuShi.

Part 1

I am not one of those teenagers under the illusion that life should be fair, but that didn't mean I had to be happy about it. "Axel can be in a tutoring session, partying with college girls, or setting something on fire for all I care. Why do I have to baby-sit his little brother when Xion's not even here?"

"Because I asked you to," Father said sternly. "Xion may be at a slumber party, but we still need someone to watch Roxas while we're out, and you know we can't afford unnecessary expenses right now."

"Hiring a baby-sitter for a few hours is not going to make a difference in when you can get married," I muttered, but then winced. I had inherited my eyes from Father. Being able to freeze people in their tracks with a single look can be rather ego-inflating, but it's quite a different matter when you're the one on the receiving end. I could practically feel his golden glare burning into me, even though I was looking at the floor. "All right. All right. I'll keep an eye on Roxas during your date."

"Excuse me?" Father rumbled in his dangerous voice.

I quickly forced myself to meet his eyes and schooled my voice to sound as compliant as I could get it. "Forgive my disrespectful demeanor, sir. I happily accept the charge that has been given me."

"Better. Now get downstairs, we've kept them waiting far too long."

Lea was sitting on the living room sofa when we came in, the engagement ring gleaming on her hand as she held Roxas in her lap. Though she was crooning to him as she stroked his hair, he still looked slumped and doleful. His posture mirrored my own feelings.

"Darling!" Lea exclaimed happily when she saw my father. He smiled in return, transforming his face. "Are you ready to go?"

"At your word, my dear," he returned. He had never been that doting with my own mother.

"Don't go away, Mommy," Roxas mumbled.

"Oh, sweetheart," she murmured, squeezing him tight. "Mommy's just gonna be gone for a little while, don't worry. You're gonna have so much fun with Saïx that you won't even remember I'm gone, right?"

Roxas cast a doubtful look at me. I did nothing to support his mother's claim.

"Saïx," Father growled.

I forced a smile onto my face. "Yes. We'll have lots of fun."

Roxas went pale and clung tighter to his mother, which rather amused me. "I want Axel," he whimpered. "Saïx is gonna eat me."

Well, that was a new one.

"Don't be silly, precious! Saïx is a very nice young man, and besides, Axel's busy studying so he can pass the exams this time and not be grounded the rest of the school year. He should be along in a little while. Now, give Mommy a kiss and say good-bye."

"Don't wanna."

"Roxas, my sugarcake," Lea cooed, her voice oozing sweetness even as a hint of steel crept into it. "Mommy really, really doesn't want to have to get mean, but-"

Roxas abruptly slid from her lap and ran upstairs.

Lea gave a rehearsed-sounding sigh. I'm pretty sure she was going for exasperated affection. "Children can be so silly...but, tee hee, that's why we love them!" She smiled up at my father. "Shall we go, darling?"

"Here's your coat, sweetheart," he said, holding it open for her without a trace of impatience in his expression.

I listened to them leave the way much younger children often strained to listen for their parents' return. As soon as the sound of their car had faded into the distance, I went back up to resume work on the essay I had been trying to write for school.

I was not left in peace for long. As soon as I heard my bedroom door creaking open, my grip tightened on The Scarlet Letter in irritated anticipation.

"Saïx."

Ugh. If Roxas always said people's names in that sullen little voice, I could start to see why Axel gushed over him like an idiot. Unlike me, Axel had a weakness for cute things.

"You're supposed to be baby-sitting. You have to come play with me."

"What I have to do is my homework. Go away."

"You're mean."

"You catch on quickly." I put the book down and started typing the quote I had needed and finally found.

"I'll tell Mommy that you left me all alone."

"Good. Perhaps they won't trust me to baby-sit you in the future."

"I don't like you."

"The feeling is mutual."

"Don't use big words."

"It's not my fault you don't know what they mean."

"I'll ask Axel."

That made me smile. "You can try, though I doubt he'll be able to help much with that small brain of his."

"Axel's smart," Roxas growled. "He knows everything."

"Why is he in tutoring, then?"

There was a long pause. Then I heard the sound of my door slamming shut, and Roxas giving it a violent kick. I smiled again.

For a little longer, I was able to keep working undisturbed, but then a scream tore through my concentration. I threw the book across my desk and ran downstairs, cursing. I should have at least brought my work into the dining room, I shouldn't have let a five-year-old roam the house freely. Lea would kill me when she returned, and then Father would make sure I had a miserable afterlife.

"Roxas!"

He sat on the hearth next to a bag of marshmallows, cradling his hand against his chest with huge moist eyes.

"What did you do?"

He said nothing, but the little fire crackling in the grate was answer enough. I snatched him up, marched into the kitchen, sat him on the counter beside the sink, turned the cold water on, then tried to wrestle his injury free. "Give me your hand."

"Don't hurt me."

"I'm trying to help you. Give me your hand!"

"No! Don't hurt me!"

I pried his left arm away and pinned it to the side, trying to maneuver his right hand into the stream of water. "Is this the one you hurt? Come on, Roxas, we need to be quick."

"Stop it! Mommy!"

"Be quiet, your mother's gone."

That was when the tears he had been holding in his eyes began to slip down his face. "I want Axel," he whispered.

"All you've got is me. Deal with it." We did not speak for a while, the sound of running water the only thing to break the silence. Finally, I pointed out, "It doesn't hurt, does it?"

He looked away sullenly. I cautiously let go of his left arm, which he rested in his lap. At least he wasn't stupid enough to try to fight me again.

"All right, I'm going to put some ice on it now," I said, turning off the faucet.

"Don't-"

"I'm not." It had been foolish to let him be frightened of me earlier. Of course he didn't trust me now, when I needed him to. "Here's a washcloth. Dry your hand."

By the time I had wrapped up a few ice cubes, his face was starting to pucker. "It hurts," he whimpered.

I took his hand and gently pressed the bundle of ice against the swollen white welts that had formed on his palm. "Well, that's what happens when you stick your hand in a fire."

"I didn't stick my hand in the fire!" he cried indignantly. "I'm not stupid!"

"How did you burn yourself, then?" I challenged.

He looked away again and muttered, "Didn't know the poker would get hot that fast."

He was so small. Of course he wouldn't have enough strength to wield the implement by its handle. "Well. Now you know."

Without looking at me, he reached out his free hand until he had grasped my sleeve. Then, to my surprise, he tugged me closer and put his face against my shirt. I couldn't understand why until he began to make quiet, very muffled sobs. With a resigned sigh, I rested my own free hand against his back, patting him like my mother had used to do to comfort me when I was very small.

After I went to all the trouble of bringing my schoolwork downstairs and setting up one of my sister's Disney videos for Roxas, he ended up falling asleep on the couch beside me about fifteen minutes into the movie. Since it was too much effort to relocate back upstairs, I turned the volume down until it served as white noise rather than a distraction, and continued working.

It was nearly 10:00 when a car pulled into the driveway. I went to go open the door before Axel could even start his usual obnoxious doorbell-ringing. "Here, this is yours," I said, thrusting the still half-asleep Roxas into his brother's arms. Good riddance.

"Rox-my-socks!" Axel exclaimed. I resisted the temptation to roll my eyes in response to the most idiotic nickname ever inflicted on a child. "You fell asleep, buddy?"

Roxas blinked sleepy blue eyes at him. "Axel." He pushed his bandaged hand up in front of Axel's face. "Look."

I went back to unplug my laptop and pick up my papers.

"Ehhhh, what happened to you?"

Had to get out of the room before Axel found out...

"Me and Saïx tried to toast marshmallows, like you showed me last time."

I froze in surprise, nearly dropping the laptop cord that was bunched messily under my arm.

"You and Saïx tried to toast marshmallows?"

I looked up to find Axel staring at me in understandable astonishment. "Roxas burned his hand on the poker," I said. Not a lie. But why in the world had Roxas...?

"You burned your hand?" He sounded exactly like a horrified mother exclaiming over her injured child.

"Yeah, but Saïx fixed it."

"I applied ice," I corrected, finally managing to get all my things gathered in my arms. "He still has blisters."

"Aw, man, let me see, kiddo."

I was finally able to escape back to my room as Axel began to gently unfasten the bandage.

It was difficult to concentrate. Just when I managed to calm my thoughts and get back into writing again, there were footsteps in the hall, and my door burst open without being knocked upon first. "I'm taking Roxas home now," Axel announced.

"Good," I said through gritted teeth, not bothering to turn around.

Axel walked farther into the room. "Saïx," he declared, "I've decided that I don't hate you anymore."

"I'm thrilled. Now go away."

"Yup," he continued, completely ignoring me as he sat on the edge of my desk. "You're still a stuck-up nerdy rich boy, but anyone who'll take care of my little brother the way you did can't be all bad."

"I happen to need that symbolism chart you're sitting on."

To my surprise, he pointed at my face and said triumphantly, "I knew it! Your 'Rawr, I'm a jerk' thing is an act."

"What?"

"Your cheeks are all pink."

"They are NOT," I growled, just barely stopping myself in time from raising a hand to my face. "And just so the record is straight, Roxas got hurt in the first place because I was holed up in my room, neglecting to notice that he was starting a fire downstairs."

"Yeah, that was dumb of you," he said readily, smacking a fist against the side of my head. "Dumb of him, too, but since I already chewed him out and forgave him, I guess I'll forgive you, too." He hopped off my desk, scattering papers in his wake. "Well. Like I said, gotta run. I'll see you around, Sai."

I turned around in my seat to face him as he walked out the door. "Do not call me that."

"Fine, guess I'll have to settle for Sai-in-the-sky, then," he called back, already down the hall.

"Axel!" If he was this bad now, I could just imagine how nightmarish it was going to be once we became brothers. "Axel!"

Part 2

A few weeks later, I woke up to the sound of my sister's warbling voice. "Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you...!"

Groaning, I rolled over and blearily tried to focus on her. "Xion?"

Her face broke into a smile as she stood there beside my bed with a tray in her hands. "Happy birthday, dear Saïx, happy birthday to YOU!" she finished, much too enthusiastically for this hour of the morning.

"Ugh, go away..."

"I can't go away, it's your birthday!"

"Xion-"

"Sit up!" She put the tray on my bedside table, not even seeming to notice that she had knocked off my radio clock and cell phone in the process, then climbed onto my bed. She seized my arm and a handful of my hair.

"OW!"

"Sit up, sit up, sit up!"

I surged up, seized her, and pinned her to the bed, wanting to hit her. Unfortunately, I'd either have to settle for something stupid like tickling, or be mature and refrain from retaliation. "Don't do that," I growled.

She giggled a little nervously. "Sai-Sai, it's your birthday! Happy birthday! I made breakfast for you!" She pointed.

I looked over at the tray, paying attention to it for the first time. On it was a package of Pop-Tarts, a bowl of cereal that had already gone soggy, one of the plastic sippy cups that Xion had grown out of, and an ice cream bowl containing a slightly battered yellow dandelion resting in water.

"Ta-da!" Wriggling out of my loosened grip, Xion stood up on the bed again, pushed me until I had moved to sit against the headboard, then carefully picked up the tray and set it on my lap. "This is your special day, so you get to eat breakfast in bed," she announced importantly.

I sighed. This was not something we had ever done in our family, so she must have picked it up from somewhere else. "Xion, you watch far too much television. We don't do breakfasts in bed."

"Yes, we do!" she cried. "Roxas says that every time someone in his family has a birthday, they get breakfast in bed!"

"Roxas's family is not our family."

"Well, they will be," she pouted.

I winced. "Don't remind me."

"Why would I have to remind you? I thought you already knew that. Daddy's gonna marry Lea, and she and Roxas and Axel will come live with us, and we'll all live happily ever after!"

"Your definition of 'happily ever after' differs drastically from mine."

"You're so grumpy. Sai-Sai, can I have one of your Pop-Tarts?"

"Not if you call me 'Sai-Sai'."

She tipped forward and caught herself with her hands on my shoulders, causing the tray to wobble dangerously. "Saïx, my best big brother in the whole wide world, pleeeeaaaase let me have a Pop-Tart?"

"Just take them both." I had a great disdain for the things, anyway; Xion was the only one in our family who ever ate them.

"Yay! I love you!" She kissed me, then plopped down on the bed and reached for the silvery package.

"Ugh." I scrubbed at my cheek, wishing that my sister wasn't so...little sisterish.

After struggling with the package for a minute, she held it out. "Sai-Sai - I mean, Saïx, best big brother in the world, can you please open this for me?"

I did so.

"Yay! I love you!"

"Stop saying that."

"Well, it's true. Here, eat your cereal," she said eagerly, pushing the bowl and its disgusting milk-drowned contents closer to me.

"How about you try eating it?" I challenged.

"But it's yours!"

"Take a bite of it. I dare you," I added, having learned that this was often an effective persuasion for some reason.

She peered doubtfully into the bowl. "I don't want to eat it. It looks gross."

"Yet you expect me to eat it?"

"Well...I guess not. Drink your juice, then!"

Reluctantly, I unscrewed the lid of the sippy cup and swallowed a little bit of orange juice. At least it tasted fine, though Xion was sadly lacking in vessel-choosing skills.

"Do you like your flower?" she asked.

"It's a weed."

"It's a flower! It was the only one I could find. Daddy gets mad if I pick the bigger ones."

It was true, I remembered. Father never allowed Xion even to come near his professionally tended flower beds. It was true that young children of Xion's age were destructive, but...

I lifted the dandelion out of its ice cream bowl, shaking off the excess water. "You're right, it is a flower."

Her eyes widened. "I...I'm right?"

"Yes." I looked at her. For the first time this morning, I was beginning to realize how thoughtful it had been of her to prepare all this. She was ludicrously bad at it, but...she had done it all for me. Besides, she was only six years old, it was her first time attempting something like this, and she had done it all without help. "Thank you, Xion."

Her eyes lit up. "You like it, Saïx?"

"Yes. You may give me a hug, if you wish."

She threw her arms around my neck, and I was quite surprised at how little I minded when the trayful of various liquids went flying.

Part 3

"Hey, Saïx, there's a weed stuck to your shirt."

"Your powers of observation are astonishing." I finished stacking my textbooks and shut the door of my locker.

"Wait, you mean you seriously came to school with a dandelion pinned to your shirt on purpose?"

Axel never did know when to drop a subject. "I need to get to class. Go find your actual friends and stop pestering me."

"Dude! School doesn't start for another twenty minutes!"

"Chemistry tutoring, on the other hand, started ten minutes ago." Trust that sister of mine to make me late, though even the apprehension of looking so irresponsible wasn't enough to ruin my good mood.

Of course Axel followed me down the hall. "What the heck? I saw your last report card, you got a B in chemistry! Why d'you need tutoring?"

"Because it's not an A."

"Geez, you're such a perfectionist! There's nothing wrong with a B, Saïx."

"Tell that to my father."

He actually stopped walking for a minute, falling several paces behind. Then I heard his rushed footsteps as he ran to catch up to me. "Saïx. Wait a second. Hold up. Is he expecting me to start making all A's once we move in with you guys?"

This time, it was my turn to stop. I met Axel's anxious gaze squarely, and smiled. "I'm going to give you a piece of brotherly advice: Study hard." I continued on again, listening in satisfaction to Axel's outraged swearing echoing through the hall behind me.

I received strange looks and nosy questions about the dandelion all day, but one golden-eyed glare was almost always enough to get them to shut up. This little scrap of good humor belonged to me and her, no one else.

After school, as had become our practice, Axel and I walked together to go pick up the children. Xion caught sight of us as we were signing them out with the after school care supervisor at the head of the playground. She came flying toward us with a beaming face and outstretched arms, Roxas right on her heels.

"Saïx! You came for me!"

I frowned, a little puzzled. "Why wouldn't I? I always come for you."

"Heeeeyyy, Rox-my-socks!"

"Axel!"

Xion and I looked over as Axel swept up his younger brother into his arms with one easy movement, both of them laughing and practically radiating affection. Xion stared at them so longingly that I finally sighed and placed my hands under her arms. Her eyes shot to me in surprise.

"Come."

A huge smile broke over her face and she gave a little hop, allowing me to easily swing her up and rest her weight against my hip. "How was school today?" I thought to ask.

"It was fun! We learned about-" She suddenly broke off. "That's my flower!" she exclaimed in amazement, reaching out gently to touch what was left of the dandelion's tiny, battered yellow petals. "You...you really wore it all day?"

"I said I would. I find it insulting that you think I wouldn't keep my word."

Her eyes filled with tears, which surprised me until she wrapped her arms around my neck and squeezed tightly. "I love you, big brother," she whispered in my ear.

Finding it difficult to breathe through her crushing embrace, I looked up to find the other two watching us with infuriatingly knowing grins. I narrowed my eyes at them in my fiercest glare, causing Roxas to hide his face against his brother's shoulder, but Axel only laughed.

Part 4

"Angelic" was not a word I would have ever thought to use in conjunction with my younger sister. However, watching Xion pace ceremoniously down the chapel's central aisle at our father's wedding, seeing the look on her face as she scattered flower petals with all the grace of a queen...

Well. Let's just say that, for whatever inexplicable reason, that was the first term that came to mind. 'I'm glad she's not embarrassing us,' I thought. Then felt just the smallest bit guilty as she spared a smile for me before taking her place among the bridesmaids.

At the reception afterwards, I was trying to convince Lea's irritatingly uncouth cousin that my facial scars were not the result of a gang fight, when Axel suddenly barged up between us and seized my arm. Not that I recognized him at first - the image of Axel in a formal suit was just too bizarre for me to get used to. "Sai! You gotta come see what my little brother and your little sister are doing!"

'So much for not embarrassing us.' However, my apprehension was abated (slightly) when we approached the dance floor and passed a cluster of variously-aged cooing females huddled near one corner of it.

"Ooohh, they are so cute!"

"That has got to be the most adorable thing I've seen at a wedding."

"Mom, you're filming this, right?"

"Awww, they are absolutely precious!"

By the time Axel and I got a good view, the children had paused. "No, Roxas," Xion commanded, "you have to stop doing that! I know the steps, so I'm the boy; you don't know how to dance, so you have to be the girl and let me lead."

"I'm not a girl," Roxas objected.

"You're the girl in the dance. If you try to dance against me, you'll mess it up!"

"But-"

"Come on, Roxas," Axel called. "Be a man and be the girl." He laughed at his own remark, which had been too witless to even qualify as a bad joke.

"Just relax and don't try to steer," Xion instructed. "Feel where I'm moving you."

Roxas sighed. "Okay."

They began to dance again, their two tiny figures now waltzing around their corner of the dance floor with all the grace that could be expected of a five-year-old and a six-year-old.

It felt strange, watching them together. "Axel," I finally murmured. "What you said earlier was wrong."

"Huh?"

"He's not just your brother, and she's not just my sister. Not anymore."

Axel smiled at me, catching on at once. "Yeah. They're ours, right?"

I sighed. "Unfortunately, yes."

Axel punched me lightly in the shoulder. "Why's that 'unfortunate,' bro?"

I hesitated, wondering if I should settle for the obvious retort...but, no. Just this once, at our parents' wedding, I would give him the truth. "Because it gets harder when there's more to care about."

I expected him to laugh and make some flippant remark, not merely nod and agree, "That's true." Then he smiled and held out his hand. "Dance with me."

Part 5

I woke up on a Saturday morning to find Roxas in my bed again. "Wake up. Wake UP."

I had all but shoved him to the floor when he finally opened his eyes. "Hi, Saïx," he mumbled sleepily.

"Go back to your own room and don't ever let me catch you in here again," I hissed.

He blinked muzzily at the windows, which were growing bright with the rise of the sun. "'Kay," he agreed, as if that meant anything. He wandered away.

I got to my feet and climbed up to haul Axel out of bed. He was even worse than Roxas - he didn't wake up until I had tossed him to the floor and kicked him a few times.

"Stop kicking me," he mumbled, curling up.

"Axel, I'm fed up with this. We're switching bunks."

He peered up at me blearily. "What? Why?"

"Because that idiot little brother of yours keeps coming in here every time he has a nightmare and crawling into bed with me, since he's too lazy to climb up to you."

"So? You're his big brother, too, right?" Axel climbed into my bed - well, his, now. The lower bunk. "Way too early for this, Sai. I'll see you around noon." He pulled my pillow over his head and went back to sleep.

"Axel!"

Part 6

You would think that a kindergartener and a first grader couldn't get far on their own. Yet they were not on the playground or anywhere on campus or in any of the streets and yards we searched, and finally Axel gasped out "I need a break" and just sat down on the sidewalk as if he was too tired to take another step.

I stared down at him. He had seemed far more upset than I was over the disappearance of our siblings, and I currently had too much adrenaline in my blood to even think of wanting to rest. How could he want to do this now, before we had found the children? "Hurry," I said.

I was soon pacing impatiently, resenting the wasted time. There were too many unpleasant possibilities for what those two could be up to by now, or what had happened to them, while we were just idling here uselessly...

The temptation to kick him was growing stronger. "Get up. You've had enough time." He did not respond. I stooped down to seize his shoulder, and was startled at the noise he made. He had not been resting after all.

Crouching there in indecision, I finally settled myself and relaxed my grip on his shoulder. "Axel," I said, trying to make my voice gentle. "The sooner we can get back to searching, the sooner we'll find them. It does no good to linger here."

"He means everything to me," Axel managed, finally breaking down completely once he had spoken aloud. I could barely understand him when he added, "I'll die if I lose Roxas."

"Don't be ridiculous. For one thing, they might not even be in danger. We won't know unless you get up now and help me keep looking." I paused. "At the very least, just follow me while I look." Somehow, it didn't feel right to simply abandon him there in his grief, even if that would make my job easier.

Axel wiped at his face, trying to pull himself together. "No. I'm helping, too. Just g-give...give me a minute..."

By the time it finally occurred to me to check the abandoned property behind the elementary school, we had discovered the hole in the fence that a reasonably-sized six-year-old could squeeze through, we had scaled the fence, and were met with the sight of his brother and my sister scampering around in oblivious contentment, Axel's mood had swayed from extreme distress to outright fury.

"I'LL KILL YOU," he bellowed.

Both children screamed as if they thought he was playing, fleeing up into a tree house that looked like it had been constructed decades ago.

Axel surged forward, but I quickly put a hand on his shoulder to restrain him. "Axel. Calm yourself. Let me handle this."

"Get Roxas down here so I can thrash him," Axel snarled.

"Shut up and go wait over there."

Axel whirled and stomped over to the porch of the dilapidated house, hurling himself down and turning his back like a sulking child.

I climbed up the tree house steps carefully, hearing them creak under my feet. Fearing that each step might give way beneath me, I held on tightly with my hands and rested as much weight as I could on my arms when I got to the top.

Xion and Roxas were crouched together at the far end of the tree house's dim interior, giggling in anticipation as they watched me.

I gazed steadily at them until their smiles had faded. Roxas caved quickly; Xion, more used to my and our father's strange eyes, lasted a little longer, but eventually she, too, grew silent and apprehensive.

My voice was quiet when I spoke. "You told no one where you were going."

Xion immediately began to squirm, recognizing that she was in trouble, but Roxas was not as familiar with me yet. "'Course not," he said defiantly. "They would have stopped us."

"Obviously," I agreed, so cuttingly that he wilted and shifted a little, as if trying to hide behind Xion. "Did it ever occur to either of you that it might be important for the adults to know where you are?"

Xion knew when to give in. "S-Saïx, I'm sor-ry," she wailed, large tears starting to roll down her cheeks.

"Grown-ups just ruin all the fun," Roxas muttered sullenly.

"Saïx, don't tell Daddy!" Xion sobbed. "Please don't tell Daddy!"

"You say this, yet I don't see you making any attempt-"

She immediately scrambled toward me. I grasped her arm firmly near the shoulder, supporting her as she threw her legs over the edge of the tree house floor. Then I swung her down, letting go at the moment when she could drop lightly to the ground with the most ease. I fixed my gaze on Roxas again.

He shrank back. "Go away."

"Your brother was worried."

A little remorse finally began to creep into his expression. "I- We- Nothing bad happened."

"We didn't know that. How were we supposed to know that?"

There was a long pause. "Is Axel mad at me?" Roxas finally whispered.

"He wasn't joking when he said he wanted to kill you."

The boy's face drained of color. Recognizing this as the moment to back off, I returned to the ground and looked at Xion, who retreated a few steps but continued to fix her huge pleading eyes on my face. She flinched a little but didn't resist when I took hold of her chin and leaned close, forcing her to keep meeting my gaze. "Never do that again."

"I won't," she whimpered. "I won't, I won't, I won't, Saïx do you still love me?"

My grip loosened in surprise. She immediately wrapped her arms around my waist and hid her face against my stomach, starting to cry in earnest. "Xion...I..." Awkwardly, I rested both hands against her back. "Yes."

I looked up to find Roxas creeping cautiously past me. As soon as he saw me glance at him, he bolted away, slowing down when he approached his brother. "Axel?"

"I'm too mad to even look at you right now," Axel growled, his back still turned and his arms now crossed.

Roxas stood there in complete dismay. "Axel! Axel, don't be mad, I didn't mean to-!"

"Shut up!" Axel yelled.

Roxas's shoulders hunched. Then he crept close and hesitantly grasped a bit of Axel's sleeve in his hand. "Alexa," he whispered, "I'm really, really sorry."

There was a long pause. Then Axel whirled on him, his turn now to look horrified. "I told you never to call me that in front of Saïx!"

I raised an eyebrow. "Alexa?"

"He couldn't say my name right when he was a baby!" Axel fumed as Xion began to giggle.

"Alexa's a girl's name," she pointed out.

"Thank you for letting me know that, Xion," Axel said in exasperation.

"Alexa's still easier to say," Roxas mumbled.

I sighed. "Well, I'll have to save that interesting piece information for future use. Right now, it's getting late, and Father will be home soon-" It was amazing how fast my sister and brothers could move when they had the right motivation.

o.o.o

Author's Notes: I take no credit for the "Alexa" bit. XD

Let's just ignore the fact that Sai's dad is rich enough for each of the four kids to have their own bedroom...

This fic was originally supposed to be for Fire & Moonlight. I had envisioned making the "Yours," "Mine," & "Ours" themes a set of three focusing on AkuSaiRokuShi (with the titles referring to Roxas & Xion from Saïx's perspective), but I had a huge fight with the word limit. There was just no way I could fit the concept into a grand total of 1,800 words, even when I tried making "short" and "long" versions. I was very upset for a while, but eventually I came up with a completely different idea for that set, and decided to just post these stepsibling stories together as an unrelated, multi-part one-shot. I guess I'll grudgingly admit that it's better this way, but it was incredibly frustrating to get to this point. *sigh*

Anyway. My KH OTP is platonic AkuSai, my OT3 is platonic AkuRokuShi, so I guess it was inevitable that they'd eventually produce an OT4 together. ^^;

...I didn't intend for Xemnas to be Saïx's dad. I don't WANT Xem to be Sai's dad, ugh. But...the way I wrote it...he very well could be. DX But he doesn't have to be, so there!
...Though if their dad really is Xem, then they definitely also have an Uncle Xigbar. XD

If I ever get ideas for more ficlets in this universe, I'll add them onto the end of this story as new chapters.