I love my brother. I really do. But, I have to face it; no matter how many times I try to look on the bright side, the two-year-old is mostly a pest. Which is why I hate Saturdays, when my mother insists on me taking my beloved little bro to the park, for 'sibling quality time'. I think it's just an excuse for her to get away from the kid for a few hours. I don't blame her, though.
"Sissy, where we goin'?" Sora asked, as he hopped down the patio steps with me. He reached out to grab my hand, so he could keep his steps in sync with me as I made my way towards the car.
"You know where we're going Sora; the park, like we do every Saturday." I answered. He clapped his hands excitedly, as if it was knew information. We got to the car and I picked his small body off the ground to place him in the baby car seat in the back, making sure the seat belt was secure. I jumped in the front seat and started the car, putting it in reverse to back out the driveway.
Sora busied himself by pulling on one of his short brown spikes. "Owie! That hurts!" He shouted.
"Then stop pulling on it." I grumbled. I'd like to add an 'idiot' to the last part of that sentence, but decided against it, for fear he might start calling me that name.
"Sissy? Where are we going?"
"I told you; to the park."
"Sissy?"
"Yes?"
"Why's mommy not goin'?"
She wants a break from you. And so do I. I wanted to say, but instead, I spoke, "She's busy, so I'm taking you instead."
"Sissy?"
"What Sora?"
"I have to go potty."
I'm not even out of the drive way yet, and I can already tell this is going to be a long afternoon.
"Okay, Sora, time to get out." I said, unbuckling my seat belt. I climbed over the back seat, and unbuckled his. I was about to lift him out, when he suddenly put a hand up.
"Hot." He said.
"What?" I replied, confused.
He pointed out the window. "Hot." He repeated.
"Yeah, its summer, it's suppose to be hot. What do you want me to do about it?"
He reached over me to the bag that I carry all his stuff in, and lifted out his extra shorts. He then tugged at his jeans. "Too hot!"
I groaned in exasperation. "Are you kidding me?" He looked at me with almost expectant eyes. Grumbling in defeat, I lifted him out and gently set him down on the seat, unzipped his pants, and slipped on his shorts. "Better?" I asked. He smiled and nodded several times. "Okay, let's go." I reached for the door handle when I heard him speak again.
"Nami, look!"
"What?" I sighed, turning around to see him with a huge grin and his pants hanging over his head.
"I'm a pirate!" He exclaimed.
"Uh . . . sounds good, buddy?" I said warily, as I set him down on the ground. As soon as I did, he took of, swinging his pants around like a sword to invisible foes, leaving me to quickly grab the bag and run after him.
"Sora, wait for your sister!"
He glanced over his shoulder and grinned widely, advancing his speed. He always thought everything was a game, that boy. I chased him around the clearing, feeling a bit guilty to disturb several people with my constant shouts of useless attempts to stop my brother. Finally I caught up to him, but not before running into someone, and knocking them over.
"Oof-! Nngh-!" The person grunted at the sudden impact, as I bowled over them.
"Bubby/Sissy!" I heard two voices shout. One of them, I was sure it was Sora. The other was unfamiliar. I blinked my eyes open, only to find a pair of deep blue ones looking back at me. I gave a shout of surprise as I scrambled off of a spiky blonde haired-and exceptionally cute-boy, stuttering my apologies. Sora was by my side again, holding my hand as usual. A girl, about the same age as Sora, bounced over to the boy. She must have been the one that yelled, 'bubby'.
"I'm so sorry!" I repeated.
"It's cool, it's cool." He said picking himself off the ground and dusting himself off. He looked up smiling, and looked down towards Sora. "A fast one, that boy is, huh?"
I nodded embarrassed. "I was trying to catch him; I didn't mean to run into you."
"It's fine, really." He assured. "I have that problem too. Little Kairi is a ball of pure energy." He gestured to the red haired girl next to him. She hid behind the boy, stealing a few glances at us, as if calculating if we were hostile or not. The boy reached out his hand in a friendly greeting. "I'm Roxas."
I accepted his hand cautiously, and said, "I'm Namine."
"No." Sora objected, jabbing a tiny finger at me. "You Sissy."
I rolled my eyes, looking back to Roxas, who was laughing. "I take it that's your title to him?" He asked.
"Oh, I'm a lot of things besides 'Sissy'." I answered. "One time I was even a daddy dinosaur."
He laughed again, and then went back to his relaxed smile. "Well, I guess we should get going. C'mon Kairi."
"No!" Kairi opposed. She pointed at Sora. "Me wanna play with Spiky."
I eyed Roxas, and then Sora to see his reaction. "I'm a pirate." He stated simply.
"I'm a princess." Kairi said.
"Okay." Sora spoke back. He looked up at me, tugging at my white shorts and tried to guide me to the playground. "Playground, Nami! With her!"
"Okay, okay, dearest." I said, patting his head. I averted my gaze to Roxas, seeking his approval. He just shrugged.
"If the kids want it, right?"
I nodded in agreement, but couldn't decide if I was going to take the 'kids' part as the toddlers, or us. I was beginning to like Roxas.
"So, his name is Sora?" Roxas asked. We were sitting in the park bench, watching Sora and Kairi play pretend. Apparently, Kairi wanted Sora to be the pirate to rescue her from the tower, but Sora was a bit busy fighting slow-motion ninja's at the moment.
"Yes." I answered.
"Is he yours?"
If I had a drink, I would've spit taken it. How could he even think that?
"N-no!" I stammered. "Of course not! He's my brother!"
Roxas raised his hands in defense, as if I was armed with an AK-47. "Sorry! Just asking. Didn't expect a, 'yes' anyways. Which is good! Not that I would judge you if you said yes anyways!" He said hastily. I gently yanked at my hair.
"No, I'm sorry. I guess I was a little defensive. But, is Kairi…" I left my sentence hanging. I felt unfairly accusing him, but that could've been the reason he thought Sora was my son.
"…Mine?" He finished, chuckling. "Nah. She's my sister." He glanced at the two children, as Sora finally climbed the play equipment 'rescuing' Kairi. Which really was swatting her with his pants a few times.
"Sora, don't hit!" I yelled up at him.
"So, do you come here often?"
"Is that supposed to be a pick up line?" I teased. He laughed.
"I was just wondering if you bring Sora to this park regularly."
I shrugged. "My mom makes me every Saturday. You?"
"My moms always to busy to, so I take Kairi to the park every other day. I like spending time with her. I guess I'm kinda like a dad she never had."
I eyed him curiously. "What do you mean?" He gazed at the ground flatly.
"My dad died when I was about seven years old." He explained.
"Oh. I'm sorry. I know how that feels."
"You do?" He said surprised.
"Yeah. My dad left us when my mother was pregnant with Sora. I never knew why though."
"I'm so sorry." He said, hesitantly resting a hand on my shoulder. Suddenly Sora came running over to us, gesturing to his tummy.
"Hungry, Nami! I want food!" He demanded. I glimpsed at my watch, and saw that it was about 11:40. I stood up and turned to Roxas.
"Well, it was nice meeting you." I said.
"Ditto." He agreed. "Maybe we could . . . Um, do this again? It's just that Kairi seems to like playing with Sora, and, y'know . . ." He awkwardly scratched the back of his neck, and took a breath. "And . . . You seem like a cool person."
I blinked at him, a bit stunned by his remark. "Yeah, that'd be great. Do you want my phone number, or something . . .?" I felt a little weird asking him that. I'd never been on a date before.
But this isn't a date. I told myself. It's a play date. Totally different. Right?
Roxas reached into his pocket and brought out a pen. He handed it to me, and held out his arm expectedly. I imperfectly scribbled my number down. Curse my horrible hand writing.
"Is 9:00 a.m. tomorrow okay?" He asked when I had finished.
"Better make it 10:00."
"Cool." He said. "C'mon Kairi."
Kairi stopped her playing, hugged Sora, and followed her brother to the car.
Aww. I wanted to say. "C'mon Sora." I called to him, but he had gone off to the equipment again.
It didn't make me want to say 'Aww.'
"Where's Kai and Rox?" Asked Sora when we got into the house. I couldn't help but smile at the fact that he'd already nicknamed them.
"They went home Sora. You'll see them tomorrow."
Sora looked around for a few seconds before saying. "This is stupid." He walked over to our dog. "Hi Tag." He greeted before kicking the poor dog out of frustration. I knew he didn't kick hard, but that still wasn't a very nice thing to do. Good thing Tag was a humble dog.
"Sora, don't kick." I ordered.
As I searched for one of Sora's toys to distract him, I couldn't stop thinking about tomorrow. My mother was going to think it was unlike me that I would want to take Sora again, but she didn't need to know about Roxas just yet. I wanted to know more about him. And this would be good for Sora; he found a playmate.
I really do love my brother. And now, I think I love our 'quality time' too.
A/N: I came up with this idea when I was playing with a friends baby, named Gavin. He's about 2 1/2 years old, and he is the sweetest, cutest baby I've ever met.
I do not own Kingdom Hearts or it's characters, just this story. I might add another chapter or two, depending on the reviews.
So, Like it? Hate it? Let me know!