-Toddler Trouble-

Chapter I

-The Organization XIII Toddlers-

A calm, silent darkness was interrupted by a small noise. Vision blurred, then clearing, the young nobody groaned, realizing it was morning, so soon. He had been sleeping peacefully- until that one, small sound disturbed him. Rubbing the side of his face, it occurred to him, much to his disgust, that a fair amount of saliva had firmly stuck to his face over night.

Stretching, a flash of red passed by the very corner of his eye. The nobody glanced in that direction, but could see nothing out of the ordinary. Crawling out of his warm bed- much against his will, but he had no choice- he gave the room one last check before dismissing whatever he had seen, deciding that it was just because he was still tired. Such a reason made sense, he thought, as Organization XIII's usual task of battling the heartless was temporarily changed.

Because of one of Vexen's- the Organization's mad scientist- experiments, they had all been turned into toddlers and pre-schoolers. Most of them had returned to normal, fortunately, except a few- Zexion, Vexen, Luxord, Marluxia, even the Superior himself- Xemnas- who left his second in command, Saix, in charge. Even Axel hadn't turned back to normal yet.

The Key of Destiny's best friend. This was the one he had to take care of. A, unfortunately, mischievous, four year old, red head. He was fairly calm at his real age, but he could a bit… hyper, as well as bad tempered at this age. The nobody, the thirteenth member of Organization XIII, sighed.

"What are you doing, Roxy?" a child's voice asked nearby. Roxas jumped, and spun around to see the little Flurry of Dancing Flames, staring up at him with large, innocent, green eyes.

"Um… I'm just… thinking," he replied with a shrug.

"You look sleepy," Axel noticed.

"How long have you been up?" Roxas inquired, wondering if he, perhaps, shouldn't have asked. It concerned him, lately, as to what his, at this point, tiny friend had been up to, without anyone to look after him.

"I dunno. A while," the little boy simply answered, attempting to imitate Roxas with an over exaggerated shrug.

"Well…" the other said, thinking, "I can see that your still in your pajamas, so I guess you haven't been up for very long… Although… Can you still change clothes by yourself?"

"I can't figure out the zipper," Axel admitted, and added, "But… um, Roxy?"

"Yeah?"

"I'm hungry," he said, with an adorable pout. Roxas knew that Axel knew that this was cute- something that this pre-schooler could use to his advantage. But then again, all of the little Organization XIII members could do that- even Vexen. But there were a few nobodies that they had learned that it didn't work on. Saix and Lexaeus, mainly. At times, that included Xaldin. When it came to Larxene, that innocent pout wouldn't work for Vexen. She never did like him, anyway.

"All right… but let me change first, okay?" Roxas sighed.

"'kay," Axel nodded cheerfully.

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Roxas stepped out of his bathroom, straightening the hood of his coat. To his relief- as well as shock- Axel sat patiently at the end of the bed, kicking his feet.

"You've seriously been sitting here, the whole time?" Roxas asked with disbelief. Axel nervously rolled his eyes, avoiding his gaze.

"What have you been into?" the teen inquired, frowning. Silence.

"Axel?"

"I… wanted to try on your boots…" the little red head admitted, "And I… I think broke 'em…"

"You… what?! How did you do that?"

Axel crawled down off the bed, and timidly pulled the black boots out from under it. The tops of them bent limply off to either side.

"Their not broken!" Roxas laughed, "Their supposed to do that."

"…Really?" Axel let out a dramatic sigh of relief, then turned toward the portal-like door. Shouts could be heard beyond. A toddler Xemnas dashed into the room, giggling. Demyx appeared next, chasing after him.

"Get back here!" the Melodious Nocturne called. Against his usual personality, Xemnas laughed playfully, dodging Demyx easily.

"Sorry, Roxas!" he quickly apologized, then pleaded, "Slow down!"

"You can't catch me!" the tiny Superior teased, "Try and catch me, Demy!" Demyx groaned in frustration.

"Xemnas… please," he begged, "I need to change you out of that sleeper, 'kay? So we can we have breakfast. You're hungry… right? I hope?" The toddler immediately stopped and fell back into a sitting position on the floor, clapping happily.

"Yeah, yeah! Food!" he cooed, "Pick me up, Demy! Pick me up!" With a heavy sigh, Demyx picked him up, Xemnas seated in his babysitter's arms, content.

"I'm really sorry about this, Roxas," the blond apologized again.

"It's… it's fine," Roxas replied after a moment. With one last smile and a nod, Demyx departed with a now squirming Organization XIII Superior in his arms.

"I want a red sleeper," Axel suddenly said, having noticed Xemnas' green one, "Can I have a red one, Roxy?"

"Um… I guess," Roxas shrugged, "But never mind that right now. Let's go, alright?" Axel reached up and grabbed his hand. At that moment, it thoroughly occurred to him just how small his best friend was getting. It wouldn't be long until he was even too small to walk, or talk.

"We'll get you back to normal soon, Axel," he promised, under his breath.