-Moments That Are Worth It-
-One of Tora's experiences during her imprisonment within Organisation XIII-
"Vexen, you have exactly three seconds to explain why you are at my door with four children who look remarkably like your fellow Organisation members." The Toxic Mage glared as hard as she could at the Chilly Academic without intimidating the four small children at his feet. They didn't look any older than six, seven at the most. Vexen cringed at the intensity of the poison within the glare (let's face it. If you're the poison elemental, you can get away with putting it into anything) and drew in a breath to calm himself.
"Your name was the first they screamed after they woke up when the experiment was complete. I had no choice." he replied smoothly. Tora rubbed at her temple in aggravation. Some days...it wasn't worth getting out of bed, really. Whoever said that living with Organisation XIII was a walk in the park should fill her shoes for a week and report back to her. Vexen took the opportunity while the Twin of Touch was distracted to disappear through a portal, leaving the four post-members at her door. They all looked up at her, innocence written on their faces in a bright black marker (figuratively). She looked right back at them, confusion etched into her gold eyes.
"Tora..." the slate-haired boy whimpered, gripping at her borrowed black robe and looking up at her with a quivering lip. The code within any female that says to comfort a crying child started twitching painfully within Tora, and she picked up the boy and made shushing noises to soothe him. The other three children ran past them, clambering up onto her bed and sitting side by side. She turned around and stared at them as they stared back. How to approach this...come on, there's got to be some freaking gene in me that tells me how to talk to kids, she thought.
"Do you remember anything from this morning?" she asked, then introduced her palm to her forehead mentally. My child gene is screwed, she thought.
"We remember our names!" the redhead cried, bouncing excitedly, "I'm Axel. Got it mem'rised?"
"Demyx!" the dirty blonde cried. The second blonde rolled his big blue eyes at his friends' antics.
"That's Zexion and my name is Roxas." he said, pointing to the slate-haired boy still in Tora's arms. She put him down beside Demyx, who gave a happy cheer and hugged him. Zexion managed to roll his eyes, but let himself be hugged anyway. Axel had taken to pulling at Roxas's hair, while said boy was yelping in pain and trying to push the redhead away. Tora sighed and knelt down so that she was on their level.
"Axel," she began calmly, "do you pull your own hair?" The Flurry of Dancing Flames looked at his babysitter and shook his head.
"No." he said.
"Do you know why you don't pull your own hair?" she asked.
"Because it hurts!" he replied.
"Do you think by pulling Roxas's hair, you're hurting him?" Green eyes swivelled over to the whimpering blonde, who was rubbing at his scalp and shooting him a cute child glare. Then the realisation sunk in. Axel looked at his feet sheepishly.
"Sorry, Roxas." he mumbled. Roxas nodded his head meekly.
"It's okay." he replied, patting the redhead on the back of the hand. Axel grinned.
"Okay! Now that that's been dealt with, what do we do now...?" Tora mused, rubbing her chin. She shot a glance at the window, where the day seemed as clear as Xemnas's mind when he wasn't rambling about not having a heart. Tora could only take so much of that, "How about we all go outside?"
"Yeah!" three of the four children chorused. Zexion chose to remain silent, instead chewing on his too-big sleeve. Gold eyes caught the action, and softened into a smile.
"First things first. You all need new clothes!" Clicking her fingers, Tora shortened their robes so that she could avoid the odd trip, or the inevitable suffocation. Speaking of suffocation, she wondered how Vexen would feel being killed by his own element... All the children cheered at seeing their hands and booted feet again, going as far as wiggling them without the suffocating black material covering them. Tora reached up into her bookshelf and pulled down a book, handing it to the Cloaked Schemer.
"You don't have to join in with the games if you don't want to." she said, smiling. Zexion took the book, muttering a 'thankyou' to the Toxic Mage. Axel jumped off the bed and led the small party out into the courtyard of the castle, tugging Roxas and Demyx along by their sleeves. The Twin of Touch smiled and followed the children as they paraded through the castle. The wind was warm on their skin as they stepped outside and walked over to a large tree so that she could keep an eye on them from there.
"You're it!" Axel suddenly yelled, touching Demyx's arm and taking off, the Melodious Nocturne chasing him. Roxas groaned at the thought of being responsible and ran after them to make sure they didn't hurt themselves too much. Zexion settled himself down beside Tora and opened the book she gave him.
"You can't catch me!" Demyx sang, running around the tree his two friends sat under. Tora smiled at the pure innocence radiating off the children. It made her wonder if there were some moments worth living for within the Organisation... The little redhead chased the Key of Destiny around a large patch of rose bushes, then paused, feeling a tickle in his nose.
"Ah...ah...AHCHOO!" As he sneezed, a steady stream of fire blew from his mouth, igniting the plants beside him. Green eyes widened at the imagination of the consequences, and he quickly ran to Demyx and Roxas. They were wide-eyed, too.
"Uh oh..." they chorused. All three children ran to Tora, who was now standing up and protecting Zexion from Marluxia, who had stormed through a portal, his scythe glinting in the firelight. The Twin of Touch narrowed her eyes.
"What do you want, Marluxia?" she asked.
"Stand aside, Tora, I have some stress I need to relieve." the Graceful Assassin replied, shooting a glare at the cowering children.
"I'm really sorry Mar-Mar." Axel said timidly from his place beside Roxas. The blonde had taken to whimpering and clutching Demyx's arm, who was staring up at the pink-haired man in fear. Zexion had closed his book and held it over his face as a defence.
"It was unintentional, Marluxia, so you can stop taking your issues out on anyone who crosses your path in the wrong direction." Tora crossed her arms in the 'I'm-female-and-therefore-I-win-this-argument' fashion. The children cuddled closer to the young woman as Marluxia scowled.
"Unknit your eyebrows, Powderpuff." she hissed, "And if I hear that you've blamed these children for something that was not their fault, you will find more than your plants burnt." Turning on her heel, Tora stormed away. Muttering something about his scythe, his manhood and Tora's poison, the Graceful Assassin opened a portal and walked through it, leaving four very confused children behind.
"Tora got really upset." Demyx said.
"Mar-Mar made her angry." Axel said, frowning at the spot where the pink-haired man had been.
"He wasn't very nice. Tora's really pretty and really nice." Roxas said as angrily as a child could, stamping his foot.
"You know who we need?" Zexion asked, looking at his friends. They all nodded.
"LARXENE!" they yelled.
-
That night, Kingdom Hearts shone brightly down upon the world and the castle, streaming through any window that was left open, such as Tora's. She threw yet another ball of acid into the portal which she had created, and listened to the hissing it created as it hit some of the Dusks on the other side. Sighing, she closed the portal and slipped under her bedcovers, hoping to forget all the events of today by falling asleep.
"Huh?" She sat upright in her bed as she heard a soft knock – wait, four soft knocks at her door. She slipped out of bed and crept to her door, quietly opening it and looking down into the faces of four tired, scared and snivelling children.
"Um...can we please sleep here with you tonight?" Roxas asked, clutching at a checkerboard blanket, his eyes filled with tears.
"I'm scared of the dark..." Demyx wailed. Tora mentally raised an eyebrow at the little musician's comment, but chose to smile gently at the children and quickly ushered them inside her room in case Xemnas was out on his patrol. Axel charged right to the head of the group and climbed into the Toxic Mage's bed, the others imitating his actions. Tora pulled the seat from her desk beside her bed and sat in it, but not before tucking them in. Hey, giving up a night of sleep for your friends who have the physicality and mentality of four-year-olds is something that would only be temporary, right?
"Can you sing for us please, Tora?" Zexion asked, looking at the spluttering woman beside the bed. Tora swallowed whatever saliva she had choked on and looked at the four children who were expecting a 'yes'.
"Yeah yeah! Your voice is pretty!" Roxas said excitedly, bouncing up and down. Tora smiled at them all.
"Do you all promise to settle down and go to sleep when I finish?" she asked. Four nods was her answer, and she took a breath.
"Hush now my baby, be still love, don't cry
Sleep like you're rocked by the stream
Sleep and remember my lullaby
And I'll be with you when you dream.
Drift on a river that flows through my arms
Drift as I'm singing to you
I see you smiling, so peaceful and calm
And holding you, I'm smiling too.
Here in my arms, safe from all harm
Holding you, I'm smiling too." Axel yawned widely and willed himself to stay awake for a little while longer. Roxas looked at the Twin of Touch in admiration through half-lidded eyes. Demyx clutched at his fish plushie and rested his head on Zexion's shoulder, whose own slate head was on Tora's pillow.
"Hush now my baby, be still love, don't cry
Sleep like you're rocked by the stream
Sleep and remember this river lullaby
And I'll be with you when you dream
Here in my arms, safe from all harm
Holding you, I'm smiling too
Sleep and remember this river lullaby
And I'll be with you when you dream
Sleep and remember this river lullaby
And I'll be with you when you dream
I'll be with you when you dream." There was a soft sigh, and the last child finally fell asleep. Tora smiled gently at the four children and their sleeping positions. The Flurry of Dancing Flames had taken to cuddling into the Key of Destiny, who was clutching gently at the Melodious Nocturne's shirt and drooling slightly. The Cloaked Schemer had the little musician's head on his shoulder while he was in the foetal position. The Twin of Touch crossed her arms.
"As much as I want them to revert to their adult forms...it's moments like this that really make me appreciate, respect and even like the Organisation...regardless of the fact that I'm their prisoner." she whispered to herself. She leaned over and kissed each of the small foreheads in a maternal manner, then curled up on her desk chair and prepared for an uncomfortable night. As she finally drifted off to sleep, she didn't hear her door open or Vexen walking in. She didn't see him checking the children and smiling at her, gently wrapping a blanket around her so that she wouldn't be cold.
"Thankyou...Tora." the Chilly Academic whispered before closing the door. All five dreamers in the room smiled in their sleep.
Disclaimer: The disclaimer applies to the characters and settings of 'Kingdom Hearts' – SquareEnix and Disney – the song 'River Lullaby' – 'The Prince of Egypt', which is owned by Dreamworks – and Tora and the idea of her being the Twin of Touch – me.