Author's Comments: Hello! This has been sitting in my USB for a while, so I decided to post it just for the heck of it. I'm thinking of making this a multi-chapter piece with different KH pairings. Hope you enjoy this first installment!

Disclaimer: I do not own Kingdom Hearts or the story of Sleeping Beauty.

"Arrrrrrrrgggggghhhhhh…"

Zexion didn't bother glancing up from his book. "I'd appreciate it if you'd refrain from making such ghastly noises, Demyx."

"But my iPod died!" Demyx whined, throwing his head back against the couch and letting out a long groan. "It died right when my favorite part of the song was going to play!"

The slate-haired man grimaced. Without the iPod to keep his best friend busy, he just knew Demyx would complain about having nothing to do and being hungry and missing his favorite show on TV and wanting to go home during the next hour or two (or more, possibly) that the four of them would spend in the dark without any electricity. To Zexion, that meant less reading time, a whopping headache, and ears itching for relief.

That just wouldn't do.

"You're supposed to be watching your little cousins anyway," he told Demyx as he turned the page. "It's what you're being paid for."

"Demmy!" one of the cousins—the irritatingly deafening one—cried shrilly. "I'm bored!"

"Me too!" the other cousin—the irritatingly absentminded one—chimed in, holding up a few toy horses. "I don't wanna play with these anymore."

"Selphie, Ariel," Demyx moaned, slithering off the couch and slumping next to the girls on the floor, "there's nothing else to do. I don't have any other toys."

Zexion could visualize the drooping shoulders and the disappointed eyes glimmering in the candlelight…but the vision only lasted a few seconds.

"Tell us a story!" Selphie exclaimed suddenly, causing Zexion to flinch in his seat and pinch the page a little too hard.

"A story?" Demyx repeated.

"Yeah!" the little girl screeched. "I wanna hear a story about a princess!"

"And a prince!" Ariel added excitedly.

"And a fairy!"

"And fish!"

"Whoa whoa whoa!" Demyx held his hands up. "Fish?"

The two girls begged. "C'mon Demmy! Please?"

Zexion felt something nudge his leg. When he looked up from the book, he found Demyx staring at him with wide, nervous eyes. Help, they screamed.

Just tell them stories from those old animated movies we used to watch when we were kids, Zexion shot back with a half-lidded glance before returning to his book.

A moment or two of sputtering and then a defeated sigh. "O-Okay…I'll try…"

"Yay!" the girls cheered.

He heard Demyx fumble. "Uh…Once upon a time, there was a…aw, great…"

As expected. Demyx didn't remember any of the animated movies they'd seen as kids. Yet another nugget of proof that Demyx's forgetfulness was his greatest downfall.

Zexion rolled his eyes and stifled a longsuffering sigh. Sometimes he felt like he always had to do all the work.

"Let me." Zexion wedged his bookmark into the spine of his book carefully before shutting it and setting it aside on the couch. He arose and took a seat between Demyx and Ariel. He could handle the absentminded one better than the deafening one.

Demyx blinked owlishly. "You remember stories?"

He shot him a sidelong glare through his bangs. "You'll find out if you keep quiet and let me tell them."

The honey-blond reeled back and held his hands up in surrender. "Touchy."

"Ooh, Zexy! Zexy!" the deafening one squealed, bouncing on her bum. "Tell us a story about Roxy!"

His indigo eyes blinked and widened. "A story about Roxas?"

Her pigtails bobbed as she nodded eagerly. "Yeah! Make him the prince!"

"And make Nammy the princess!" the absentminded one said.

He shared a bemused glance with Demyx before reiterating slowly, "You want to hear a story about Roxas and Namine."

"Yeah!" they cried. "Ple-e-e-e-ease?"

Well. The night just got interesting. Whether the girls intended to pair the two oblivious lovers was beyond him…but the girls asked so nicely. Who was Zexion to refuse such a request?

A mischievous smirk tugged at his lips. "Very well," he murmured, glancing at Demyx one last time to catch the blond's wink. "Once upon a time…"

…There was a king and a queen. The queen had just given birth to a daughter named Namine and the kingdom rejoiced and celebrated. Rulers of neighboring kingdoms traveled to see the newborn princess, bringing gifts and congratulating the king and queen. Among these rulers was the good friend of the king. To unite their kingdoms forever, they decided that the princess would be betrothed to the son of the king's friend, the young Prince Roxas.

The three good fairies also visited the princess. Their names were…

Zexion trailed off, his brow wrinkling and his lips curling into a frown. Should he use the names from the movie or should he insert real people?

"What were their names?" Selphie asked.

His ears ached at the slight screech in her voice. There was no time to insert real people…not in this story, anyway.

Their names were Flora, Fauna, and Merryweather. Each of the fairies bestowed a gift onto the princess. Flora bestowed the gift of beauty. Fauna bestowed the gift of song.

"But Namine doesn't sing," Ariel said.

"In this story she does," Zexion explained as patiently as he could.

"No! Make her good at drawing!" Selphie demanded.

His jaw clenched down on his growl. Through gritted teeth Zexion amended…

Fauna bestowed the gift of art. Before Merryweather could bestow her gift, the room became immersed in darkness at the arrival of the wicked witch Maleficent. The witch was upset at not being invited to visit the princess and so cursed young Namine to die when she touched the spindle of a spinning wheel before the sunset of her sixteenth birthday. Maleficent then vanished, cackling and cursing, and the king and queen were greatly saddened.

Merryweather still had her gift to bestow. To protect the princess, she bestowed a blessing to alleviate the curse. Instead of dying when she touched the spindle of a spinning wheel, Princess Namine would fall into a deep sleep that she could only wake from with true love's kiss.

The king promptly decreed that all the spinning wheels in the kingdom be burned and destroyed, but the three good fairies knew that that would not be enough to stop Maleficent's curse. Thus, with the king and queen's blessing, they took Princess Namine and hid with her in a cottage in the middle of the forest, changing her name and pretending to be her aunts and swearing off magic.

"What was her name now?" Selphie asked.

Must these monsters overcomplicate things? Zexion sighed, thought, and finally said, "Ennami."

"Ennami?" the girls—and Demyx—repeated.

"Is there a problem with that?" the slate-haired bookworm asked.

"Ha, ha, no!" Demyx quickly answered, shaking his head fervently. "Keep going!"

Ennami grew into a beautiful girl who loved to draw and paint and dream of falling in love. On her sixteenth birthday, the good fairies sent her out of the cottage to collect berries. Ennami did as she was told, wandering and dreaming in the forest. Her friends, the woodland animals, listened to her as she mused aloud about meeting the love of her life in a dream.

Then, a dashing young man appeared. He had golden hair, bluer-than-blue eyes, and a smile that rivaled a thousand suns. Ennami was startled and embarrassed that he had overheard her musings but soon the man and Ennami fell in love.

"Roxas!" Selphie cried in delight. "She fell in love with Prince Roxas!"

"Yay!" Ariel cheered.

Well. There went the irony of the story.

Zexion stifled another sigh. It wouldn't have been any use anyway. The girls were too young to know what "irony" was.

Suddenly she remembered that she was supposed to return to the cottage and left without telling the man her name or learning his. She could only tell him to find her at the cottage where she lived.

While Ennami was gone, the good fairies were trying to make her a cake and sew her a gown for her birthday. They argued and without their magic, their attempts were useless. For the sake of pleasing Ennami, they vowed to use magic just this once and made the most beautiful gown and the most extravagant birthday cake.

Maleficent's crow Diablo spotted the magic and realized that the cottage was where Princess Namine was hiding. He flew back to Maleficent and reported this and the witch devised a plan to bring the prince and the princess to their downfall.

When Ennami returned to the cottage, she told the good fairies of the man she met in the forest. Alarmed, the good fairies finally revealed that Ennami was in fact a princess and that she was betrothed to someone else already. Ennami fell into despair for she believed she could love no other.

That night, the good fairies and Princess Namine returned to the castle. Nothing the king or queen or fairies said or did could console the princess. They left her alone to weep for the man.

"Poor Namine," Selphie cooed.

Then, a strange light caught the princess' attention. It was a green orb of light that floated in midair. Mesmerized, the princess followed the light until she came across a spinning wheel. "Touch the spindle," a voice in her head said. "Touch it."

She did as she was told and fell to the ground, drowning in a deep sleep. The fairies found her and took her to her bedroom and placed the entire kingdom in a deep sleep until the spell was broken. As the fathers of Princess Namine and Prince Roxas were falling asleep, Prince Roxas' father mentioned his son being in love with a peasant girl he had found in the forest earlier that day. The fairies realized that Prince Roxas was the man Princess Namine had met in the forest and that he was her one true love—the one to break the spell.

Quickly, the fairies ventured to search for Prince Roxas and found him at Maleficent's castle, bound in chains and weak of spirit. They broke him free and told him of Princess Namine's curse and Prince Roxas escaped the castle with them, vowing to save Princess Namine.

The evil witch Maleficent discovered his escape and surrounded Princess Namine's kingdom with thorns, blocking the way for Prince Roxas. She also transformed herself into a giant fire-breathing dragon. The prince slashed at the thorns with his sword and fought the witch to the edge of a cliff, sending her toppling over to her death.

He quickly made his way to the kingdom and to Princess Namine's side, kissing her lips and awakening her. The kingdom awoke as well and rejoiced for Maleficent was no more. Soon Prince Roxas and Princess Namine married and lived happily ever after.

Just then, the lights flickered on. Zexion's eyes stung at the sudden light but he sighed in relief. There wouldn't be any more storytelling tonight now that the electricity was back.

"That was a good story!" Ariel said, clapping her hands.

"Shh, Ariel." Demyx puckered his lips and glued his upright pointer finger to them. "You'll wake Selphie."

Zexion glanced at the sleeping girl on Demyx's lap. Her chest rose and fell gently with each deep breath she took. A smile tugged at a corner of his lips. No wonder his storytelling went uninterrupted during the latter half.

"I think she fell asleep because of your boring elaborate words," Demyx teased him, smirking as he rose with the girl in his arms.

Instantly the small smile fell. He was not boring. He was descriptive. Before Zexion could tell him this, Demyx beckoned Ariel to follow him to the bedroom. It was past the girls' bedtime.

"But I'm not…sleepy…" the redhead protested, a yawn separating her words. "I wanna hear another story…"

"I'll tell you one tomorrow, okay?" Demyx promised her. "Now come on. Say goodnight to Zexy first."

Zexion cringed at the nickname but politely wished the girl goodnight as she dragged her feet after her cousin and disappeared around the corner. "I wanna hear a story about fish," he could hear her complain.

He shook his head and sighed, leaning against the couch and picking up his book. He was so glad he didn't have any little cousins to look after. He'd had enough with storytelling for a lifetime.

Author's Afterthought: Thoughts? Please leave a review. Thanks for reading!