SELF-INDULGENT AUTHOR NOTES: So, I was playing Kingdom Hearts, and Tigger bounced up to me and did his T-I-double-GUH-ER thing, and I thought, man, wouldn't it be awesome if he met Axel and they both introduced themselves by spelling their names? Then this happened. It's my very first Axel-centric fic. It was originally written as a one-shot, but it's so long I decided it worked better split into two chapters. Enjoy! :)

The Wonderful Thing About Axel: Part 1

'Twas not very often that the World That Never Was was much of anything. The place had, of course, come by its memorable moniker for a reason. The inhabitants too rarely begged to be described, more or less content (for they could not feel contentment) to languish away doing nothing at all, except maybe going out on a mission or three more out of a need to do something than any drive to find their missing hearts. As such, the World That Never Was could ordinarily only be described as a rather bleak and boring place.

That day, however, was different. On that day, the World That Never Was was in complete disarray. It was hectic, crazy, wild, and panicky, to the extent that if one were in the habit of observing the World That Never Was and the Nobodies therein, one might well believe that the World was ending entirely. The issue at the heart of the chaos was rather simple, really, but being as dull as it was, even simple issues were enough to throw the World That Never Was completely off-kilter.

That bleak and boring day, Axel was singing.

Luxord was the first to discover the problem and sound the alarm. The singing had been going on long enough by then, however, that the raucous and unpleasant noise had already banged and clanged its way into the ears of every member of the Organization. Thus, it was a confused pack of Nobodies that struggled their way to the meeting room, some even too disoriented to teleport, stumbling down the halls of the castle like the hounds of heck were at their heels.

"Is everyone here?" Xemnas tried desperately to get order in his ranks, while Saïx performed a quick headcount. Everyone was present and accounted for, except of course Axel, who never came to these meetings anyway and was not particularly welcome at this one. After a few minutes the group had quieted down, but they still remained bunched together in the safety of the floor rather than teleporting up to their usual seats. Demyx was the first to speak.

"What's going on? Why won't anybody tell me what's going on?"

"Number 8 discovered his inner songbird," said Lexaeus drily. No one laughed, not that they would have even if what he'd said was funny.

"Well, how do we stop him?" Vexen snapped, a flurry of agitation. "This is terrible!"

"I believe it was you who gave him that mission in the first place, was it not, Superior?" Marluxia sneered. His aspirations were well-known by this point and everyone decided to ignore him, except Larxene, who elbowed him in the ribs.

"Number 13," Xemnas stated evenly. "You spend more time with Number 8 than anyone else. What do you think?" Roxas glanced up from where he had been carving shapes into the side of his seat with his Keyblades. Then he went back to carving shapes into the side of his seat with his Keyblades. The youngest Nobody was not, as they say, all there.

"We'll find a way to stop him. But first we need to know what happened," said Zexion. And with that, all eyes present slowly turned to Xaldin.

"Number 8, you have a mission today." Axel's day was going perfectly fine until he heard those words.

"It's my day off," he said flatly. Members of the Organization didn't get official time off, of course, but somehow he'd slipped through the cracks that day and hadn't received a mission. His brilliant plan to avoid everyone until the day was over had been going quite swimmingly, until Xaldin teleported directly into his room. Figures that the one day he'd be trying to avoid everyone would be the one day they'd all come actively looking for him. In any case, he loved his days off because that meant he actually got to choose what would not be interesting him that day.

"Relax, kid. All you have to do is read a book." Axel thought he was joking until sure enough, Xaldin pulled a book out of his robe. "This belonged to the Keybearer. The Superior wants you to see if there's anything useful inside it."

"Reading?" he asked incredulously. "Isn't that Zexion's thing?"

"Number 6 is busy today." It wasn't that Axel minded reading, not exactly, it's just that he preferred books with lots of pictures. This particular book was rather old and musty and looked like it had no pictures at all, or if it did have pictures, they were probably all of creepy pagan symbols and antique torture equipment.

Actually, maybe this wouldn't be so bad after all.

"Fine." Axel grabbed the book from Xaldin's hand and carried it over to his bed, all while Xaldin disappeared without even saying goodbye. Whatever.

The book was quite large, with a blank cover and torn binding. The smell coming off of the old paper was difficult to place, but reminded Axel somewhat of mold- had it been kept under a sink in its old home or something? A large clasp on the left side appeared to keep the book locked tight, but when Axel went to melt it off, he found that it was already broken. Access to the inside of the book was officially unhindered.

"Phase 1 operations, complete," Axel muttered to himself, and he opened up his mission, pretending not to notice when a corner of the cover bent and crumbled off. He was pleasantly surprised to discover that the top of the first page did indeed have a picture. A little bear in a t-shirt was sitting under a tree. Now that he was thinking about it, it had been kind of silly to think that the Keybearer would own a book that had pictures of pagan symbols and torture equipment- from what he'd heard, the kid was kind of an idiot.

"Deep in the Hundred Acre Wood," Axel began reading, out loud so as not to miss anything. If the size of the print was any indication, this job wouldn't take very long at all. "There lived a bear named Winnie the Pooh, along with his friends." His suspicions regarding the idiocy of the Keybearer were rapidly being confirmed.

Axel kept reading, more and more quietly until finally he stopped reading out loud altogether. The book was indescribably dull. Winnie the Pooh liked to eat something called 'Hunny,' was not very bright, and was frequently getting into odd situations that only his bumbly folk brand of common sense could get him out of. At least his report wouldn't take very long to fill out. Read book. Keybearer has juvenile taste in literature. End report.

Within two pages, Axel stopped reading the words and decided to focus completely on the pictures. The bear was rather cute, really, not that he'd ever tell anyone he thought so. The forest looked like a nice place, too- very green and inviting, unlike the bland gray fogginess of the World That Never Was. The little Pooh bear seemed to be enjoying himself on a swing attached to a tree. The entire setting was just so peaceful, the way Axel's life had had the potential to be, back when he'd still had one. And that was what being a Nobody was all about, right? The loss of life, the loss of heart, the loss of potential?

Axel leaned his cheek against the faded page, overwhelmed by the shadow of a feeling not unlike nostalgia. He hadn't been human in such a long time. He had no business reading somebody's picture book.

Around then, that was when Axel began to fall. He didn't identify it as falling at first- he just thought all of the sort-of emotions were giving him nausea. Then he began falling faster. By the time he realized what was going on, it was too late to do much of anything to prevent it. Somehow, even though he was falling, he didn't have anything to grab onto to stop himself. He wasn't scared, or shocked, or anything at all- he couldn't feel any of those emotions, so he was left waiting, in a sort of detached way, to find out where exactly he was going to land.

The entire ordeal only got stranger when Axel landed on his feet, like a cat. He was not, in fact, disheveled in any way, despite having gone hurtling through space. A quick look around finally answered his question.

He hadn't been falling, he'd been shrinking.

Axel was, at present, standing across the binding of the book he'd been reading, reduced to approximately the same size as the characters in the pictures. Next to him was a tiny door, inviting him to open it, to take those last few steps and truly enter what he assumed to be the Hundred Acre Wood. Was it possible that there could be an entire world inside this book?

Since it was his job to find out, and since he was unable to genuinely feel fear or apprehension anyway, Axel boldly went where no Nobody had gone before. He opened the door, and was promptly enveloped by a blinding flash of light. When he regained his vision, he found himself in a place rather unlike what he'd been expecting.

He was in a forest, all right- definitely a forest, but there was no little bear named Pooh, and no trees with swings. The place was almost menacing, with big hulking trees stretching into pathways and blocking out light. Though Axel was grateful, sort of, in his own way, that at least this world had a sun, unlike the World That Never Was.

The second surprise came in the form of changes to himself. Axel was familiar with worlds where your body changed- he'd had a whole party's worth of fun the day he'd gone to the Pridelands and turned into a cheetah. Unfortunately, this particular world's affects weren't nearly as pleasant.

He'd been turned into a pre-teen.

His hands and feet were clumsily out of proportion with the rest of him, hinting at his future- or was it past?- growth into a 6'3" behemoth. Now shrunken and scrawny, his clothes had shrunk to match with only limited success, causing his coat to flop around as it hung loosely off his tiny body. And as if all of that weren't bad enough, he could already feel a pimple straining to erupt from his forehead.

Horrified, Axel immediately turned to flee back to the comforting nothingness of the World That Never Was, only to discover that the door he'd come through had already disappeared.

Yeah, this sucked.

Axel stuck his hand out and summoned a portal. Then he tried again. Each time, the dark energy sputtered, fizzled, and died, evidently blocked by whatever magic was sustaining a world inside of a book to begin with. The pathways of darkness couldn't reach this place. Did that mean, if he were truly stuck, that the rest of the Organization wouldn't be able to find him?

After another ten minutes or so of futile attempts, Axel finally resigned himself to finding an exit the conventional way. Since he couldn't go back, he had to go forward, so he set off through the forest, or at least, he tried to. His feet were now almost goofily large, after all, and being used to being taller and in proportion, and, well…

Axel took a single step and fell flat on his face.

Grassy and miserable, he stood back up, determined to try again. One step later, he was still upright. He took a second step, lifting his feet almost comically high so he wouldn't trip over his boots. A third step, and he was golden.

Now that he was finally mobile, Axel went tip-toeing through the forest, frying himself up a nice path as he went. Eventually, almost as if the trees were taking the hint, more paths began to open up and more light broke through. He was approaching what was apparently a clearing in the middle of the dense forest. Maybe there, where the trees had some space around them, he'd be able to climb up and see if he could find an exit.

He'd been developing theories as he went, of course. Since he hadn't meant a single sentient anything thus far, his favorite theory was that this book was a trap, designed to lure in children, or whoever else happened to get in the way. Yes, maybe this whole world was like the inside of a Venus fly trap, and he was slowly being digested by some sort of child-eating monster. Or maybe the book's job was just to contain him until the true villain came to extract him from the book. Maybe that was what the Keybearer did- deceived his foes with a seemingly innocent book about a cute little bear, and then, once they'd peeked inside, he struck. Maybe the World That Never Was had already been conquered by the forces of Light and Good. If that were the case, Axel was rather glad he'd missed it.

Axel was so deep in thought that he didn't hear the rustling noise above him, as something or someone followed him through the treetops. Instead, he just wandered out into the clearing of tree stumps, shuffling along and staring at his feet the way pre-teens do. He was completely unprepared for the bright orange Bomb of Death that struck him down from above.

"Goo!" he screeched, in a voice much higher-pitched than his usual, as he stumbled forward and head-over-heels from the force of the attack. Once he'd hit the ground with a pathetic meat sack thwump, he was able to take a moment to think about what he'd said, and how different it was from what he'd wanted to say.

"Oh my stars," he tried again. "Holy cow." Apparently, not only had his body been made children's book compliant, but his vocabulary, as well.

"Fiddlesticks," he muttered darkly.

"Who are you?" The voice came seemingly out of nowhere. At that point Axel remembered that he'd been struck down from above by a bright orange Bomb of Death, and he immediately surged into violent revenge mode. In one fell swoop and with a mighty snarl, he summoned his chakram and whirled around, entirely prepared to bust out a flurry of dancing pain on his would-be attacker.

Unfortunately, he had not taken into consideration the possibility that his attacker was an adorable little stuffed kitty cat. The same adorable stuffed kitty cat, in fact, who had just inquired as to who he was.

"Who are you?" Axel snapped, still irritated even though he'd decided not to flay anything, seeing as how the cat's big beady eyes were cute enough to stir even his heart, and he didn't even have one. His weapons vanished before he even had a chance to be grateful that they'd appeared in the first place.

"The name's Tigger!" the animal chirped gruffly, a combination which Axel had beforehand not thought possible, but then, he'd never talked to a stuffed animal before, either. "T-I-double-GUH-ER. Tigger! This is my bouncin' spot!"

"I'm Axel. A- …xel." Suddenly, he stopped. This tiger- for with a name like Tigger, he was probably a tiger- this little stuffed tiger stole his naming gimmick. Wait, no. This book was old. Beyond old. The little stuffed tiger had probably done it first. Axel paled. As soon as he got out, he would have to burn this book straight to ash. All evidence that his trademark snark was shared by an adorable stuffed tiger named Tigger who had something called a "bouncin' spot" would have to be destroyed. Immediately.

"Hi, Ay-xel," Tigger said cheerfully, and with a solid bounce onto his tail, hopped up onto a nearby tree stump. Axel had to admit, the clearing with all of its stumps did look like a very nice to place to have fun bouncing and other such things.

Oh. Oh, no. The world was getting to him.

Axel wanted to continue moving, but all directions branching out from the clearing, save the swath he'd just burned out of existence, looked exactly the same. He had no idea where to go, or what to do. Begrudgingly, he began to admit to himself that he had to ask Tigger for help. He'd be toasting this place as soon as he got out anyway, so no one would ever have to know. But what would he ask? "How do you get out of this place" might be too weird,- these creatures probably wouldn't know about the other worlds, after all. The Keybearer had almost certainly been here, though, and he obviously made it back out again.

"Hey. Do you know someone named Sora?" At that question, Tigger promptly bounced himself right back to Axel, finishing with a double flip to land gracefully on his oversized plushy feet. He really was quite good at bouncing, for all that he talked about it.

"'Course I know Sora! He's a champion bouncer!" The tiny tiger bounced himself onto his tail and back onto his feet. The energy was not contagious.

"I need to talk to him. Is he still here?" Axel asked carefully. He knew that Sora wasn't in this world because he was at the edge of all worlds, battling the Superior's Heartless. Which meant he must have come here, met Tigger, and left again. Which meant there was a way out that didn't involved using portals. Yes, Axel's deductive reasoning skills were a force to be reckoned with.

"Nope. Everyone else is gone, too," Tigger said.

"Everyone else?"

"Pooh, and Piglet, and Kanga and Roo. And Rabbit, and Owl, and Eeyore." As he rattled off names, he bounced around Axel's feet. "We were all looking for Eeyore's tail, and now everyone's gone off," Tigger finished, bouncing from foot to foot. Axel promptly forgot all of the names.

"Uh, what were you looking for? What's a yortle?" Axel asked stupidly. Pre-teens are not especially known for their attention spans. Thankfully, Tigger didn't seem to mind that Axel hadn't been listening to him, because he immediately bounced into demanding free favors. Wait, what?

"Help me find 'em!" the little tiger commanded. Axel just stared.

"Are you serious?" he finally asked. Blunt to be sure, but though Axel had many strong points, tact was not one of them.

"Maybe we'll find Sora, too!" Tigger rattled out, sounding like a chipper Boy Scout who also happened to be a chain smoker. The logic left much to be desired- how would looking for other people help him find Sora? At that point, Axel remembered that he wasn't actually looking for Sora, he just wanted an exit. And if Tigger knew where he was going in this world, which seemed likely, he would lead Axel to somewhere where he could find a way out. Hopefully.

"Ok, let's go," Axel finally relented. Tigger whooped with joy, a sort of hoo-hoo sound that added creepy old man to the mix of chain-smoking Boy Scout, and immediately bounced up to grab Axel's hand. Apparently they could not walk together without holding hands.

With a weary sigh, Axel took the tiny paw in his sweaty pre-teenage palm, and allowed the stuffed tiger to lead him back out into the forest.

Ha! Poor Axel. If you want more Org 13 silliness, this could probably be considered a companion to my one-shot "Demyx's Bad Day," wherein Demyx goes to Disney Castle and has a bad day.

Review plz? :) Next chap soon!