Disclaimer: I don't own Kingdom Hearts, FF, or Axel/Lea, or anything else that would make me rich and happy. I also don't claim to own any references to real-world themes, persons, or works. So there.
A/N: CHAPTER TWO! :D
Bon à lire!
-Slay
Happy Halloween: Rise of the One-Winged Angel
Chapter 2 – Trick or Treat! …How Old Are You?
Sors immanis
Et inanis
Sors immanis
Et inanis
-o-o-o-
After about fifteen minutes of driving, the four of them ended up in what Axel referred to as the local "sweet spot" for trick-or-treating, a fairly quiet suburb just outside of Twilight Town. Night had long since fallen, bringing to life the corny yet haunted illuminations of Halloween décor sprayed across peoples' yards and houses.
"Er…Axel?" Roxas asked reluctantly as the car came to a stop in the vaguely familiar driveway of a quaint one-story house. "Isn't this…where your grandmother lives?"
"Yep."
"…You brought us to Sunset Acres? Where all the old people are?"
"I did."
Sora let out a distressed sigh. "What'd ya do that for? Now all we're gonna get is sugar-free gum and mixed fruit."
"And toothpaste," Roxas supplied flatly. "Don't forget the toothpaste."
"Ah. Right." They had yet to repress their memories of the Halloween when they encountered an elderly woman passing out tooth paste and dental floss, smiling cleverly and saying, "You're going to need it after all that candy!"
"Will you guys quit griping? Gran's friends with a lot of these people—I know all the right houses to hit. Most of them are so happy to have kids around that they spoil 'em with the best kinds of candy every year—I'm talking full-scale chocolate bars and even sea-salt ice cream!"
Roxas perked up at the mention of his favorite snack food. He leaned forward between the front seats, staring the redhead down intensely. "There's someone in this neighborhood that gives out sea-salt ice cream?"
"—in late October?"
"Shut up, Sora."
"Mhm." Axel nodded and pointed out his window. "Ms. Gainsborough, five houses down. Does it every year without fail."
"Well what're we waiting for?" A new exuberance claimed the blonde devil, and he clamored impatiently to free himself from his seat belt and bolt out of the car. Axel followed him, laughing and grabbing Roxas by his fake tail before he could take off. "Slow your roll, Lucy.I promised Gran we'd stop by first."
"Lucy?"
"Yeah. S'short for Lucifer. Ain't I clever?"
Roxas crossed his arms bitterly. "Clever isn't exactly the word I would use."
"Aw, Roxy…" As the other two gathered their things and got out of the car, Axel pulled the toy hatchet off his hip and swung it charismatically, propping it on his shoulder and leaning in so his warm breath reached Roxas' ear through the cold autumn air. "Y'know….I hear there's a lotta fire down in hell," he crooned. "Maybe I could help you calm the raging heat? You know, down there?" He drew the blonde in close and wagged his eyebrows provocatively.
Roxas' cheeks caught fire; he snapped the visor down over Axel's face and then reamed him in the gut with his pitch fork, doubling him over with a loud oof before storming off toward the front door with Sora and Demyx in tow, leaving the redhead gasping in the driveway.
"Happy Halloween Grandma Graver!"
The little old lady's thin lips smiled broadly at the three youngsters she found on her doorstep. "Oh, hello, dears!" She surveyed them curiously for a moment. "Well where's my darling grandson?"
"He's just locking up the car," Roxas lied fluidly. "He'll be right in."
"Ohh, alrighty then!" Grandma Graver stepped to the side and waved them through the door. "Well come on in out of the cold! Have you boys gotten any sweets yet?"
"Not yet, ma'am," Sora replied politely. This drew Grandma Graver's attention to him, and when she recognized his costume her glassy green eyes sparkled. "Oh, aren't you just the sweetest little angel on earth?" She waddled over and patted his cheek. "Wherever are your wings, dearheart?"
"Oh! I uh…I folded them up so they…won't get in the…way?"
"Oooh," she cooed. "Of course! …And that must make you quite the little devil!" She grinned mischievously at Roxas, who couldn't help but chuckle. "No more than usual, Grandma Graver."
Grandma Graver had a soft, wispy laugh. "And no get-together is complete without our favorite musician! How are you, Demyx dear?"
"Still rockin', Granny G!" The blonde threw up a pair of devil horns and pulled out his sitar, which he had brought in from the car. "Wanna hear a song while we wait for Ax?" She nodded, and Demyx set up shop on an orange love seat in the den, picking jovially away at the eccentric instrument. Ten minutes and a tray of pumpkin-shaped sugar cookies later, Axel came lumbering through the front door, rubbing his stomach.
"There's my favorite grandson! Come have a cookie, dear!"
"Ah, I think I'm good, Gran," the redhead mumbled. "Gotta save room for candy and whatnot…" He tossed a look at Roxas who just grinned smugly back at him.
"But you love my baking," Grandma Graver insisted, motioning the tray at him from her seat in the den. "One delicious, sugary sugar cookie can't hurt, can it? And you know I only make these once a year!"
Axel sat down beside Demyx and smiled in resignation. "Well, when you put it that way…"
As it turned out, Axel devoured the most generous share of the cookies, and by the time they were on their way out, Roxas was hounding him about getting a stomach ache before they even got any candy, thereby ultimately defeating the purpose of going out in the first place. The redhead just rolled his eyes and ignored him, pausing to kiss his grandmother goodbye.
"Now you boys are going to a…party, is it?"
"Yeah, Gran. But we're gonna do a little trick-or-treating first."
"Trick-or-treating? Oh, but aren't you all a teeny bit old for that?" Grandma Graver asked gently, giving them a sweetly bemused look.
"Aww, c'mon, Granny G! You're never too old t'have a little fun!" Demyx declared brightly, swinging his sitar case over his shoulder. "You gotta let out your inner kid sometimes!"
"Or all the time, in your case," Axel teased, causing everyone—including Demyx—to laugh happily. "Besides, they're pushing up the curfew next year, and trick-or-treating isn't nearly as much fun when the sun's up."
"Well," Grandma Graver giggled, "I certainly wouldn't want you growing up too fast. Have fun, dears! And don't wait too long before stopping by again!"
"We won't, Gran!" With that the four of them trailed out of the quaint and clean little house, waited while Demyx stowed his sitar safely back in the car, and then started sauntering off along the sidewalk.
Despite Roxas' bubbling enthusiasm about scoring some sea-salt ice cream five houses down ("Dude—it's like forty-five degrees out here. How can you be thinking about ice cream?" "Shut up, Sora."), the group made their first stop at Grandma Graver's neighbor's house. Axel rang the doorbell, then the four of them lined up, presented their bags (two pillow cases, Axel's plastic breathing apparatus with the top sawed off—"That's completely insensitive!" "I thought it was innovative."—and a Moogle-head bucket that Demyx had been using since he was six), and shouted,
"Trick-or-treat!"
"Trick-or-treat!"
"Trick-or-treat!"
"Merry Christmas!"
The other three turned slowly toward Sora, who was standing there blinking and looking stunned at himself.
"…the shit, Sora?"
"I-I dunno! It just slipped out!" He blushed and held the pillow case close to himself, smiling awkwardly when and old man opened the door and chortled, "Did I hear someone out here say 'Merry Christmas'?"
From there they went down the row, gleaning full-sized chocolate bars (as promised), lollipops and popcorn balls, and applauding Sora every time he got the line right—much to his mortified chagrin. They hesitantly accepted bags of pretzels from the man in the fourth house, who said "Happy Halloween indeed…Now go forth, and bring me more hearts!" …and finally made it to Ms. Gainsborough's, where Roxas practically squealed like a five-year-old girl upon receiving his favorite food in the whole wide world.
The four of them spent a good half hour sweeping Sunset Acres—for a while Roxas was so content with his ice cream that Axel had to gather his candy for him—before packing up and checking out some younger, more popular neighborhoods where they earned more than their fair share of odd looks. They were strolling down the street, relishing in the particularly bewildered faces of a mother who passed them with her children, when they were distracted by shouting up ahead.
"Children! Children, please! I-I must insist that you calm down! This manic behavior is not conducive to our current endeavor—come back here, Child Number Twelve!"
They looked up to see a toe-headed man wrestling a toddler away from a rigging of lights in someone's front yard. He picked her up and brought her over to where another man stood, swarmed by at least ten other children. "There. You must stay close to us at all times so as not to get lost—oh, don't pull on that, Child Number Eight!" The man fussed over the throng of little heads, trying to assert his authority. "Child Number Three! Stop hitting Child Number Six with that wand…Oh, Child Number Nine that's not for eating! Settle down, children! I'm-I'm not going to say it again—"
The other man was having just as much trouble, actually needing to prise crawling children off his limbs. "Dr. Vexen, this is ridiculous! We should just take them back to Advent!"
"No," the ash-blonde—Dr. Vexen—said resolutely. "I promised Ms. Lockhart we would see this escapade through until 9:30PM, when the children are formally due to the returned to the—" The man's hair trailed down his back, and he yelped when one of the children leapt up and caught it, yanking down forcefully, and causing him to temporarily lose his balance. "—orphanage, and as I am a man of my word I fully intend to keep that promise, even if it kills me!"
Apparently miffed at not getting her way, "Child Number Twelve" ran over and punched Dr. Vexen in the groin, causing him to hunch over in breathless pain. "And I'm quite certain it will…" he wheezed.
Roxas gave an astonished whistle. "Those must be the guys Cloud was talking about."
"Whaddaya mean?"
"Apparently some 'mad scientist' blew up part of the Advent Orphanage a few weeks ago, and offered to take the younger kids trick-or-treating so they wouldn't press charges."
"…But that doesn't compensate—"
"Shut up, Sora."
"Ugh, I hate kids—let's get outta here," Axel sneered, wrinkling his nose.
"Aw, c'mon guys. It looks like they could really use some help," Sora mumbled sympathetically, marching over to the scientist and his unruly brood of monstrous children. The other three exchanged a brief, terrified glance before running after him. "Oh, no you don't, Christmas boy," Axel chided, teaming up with Roxas and Demyx to grab the brunette's arms and legs and manhandle him across the street, refusing to put him down until they were out of range of the orphanage-field-trip-gone-horribly-horribly-wrong.
-o-o-o-
By the time ten 'o' clock rolled around they were back in the car, sorting through their sugary treasure on the way to Demyx's apartment.
"Ugh. Does anybody here like almonds?" –"I do!" –"Then have I got good news for you."
"Demyx, don't eat that one—the wrapper's open. It could be poisoned!"
"How'd you end up with two moon pies?"
"Crap, I thought I grabbed a different flavor!"
"Axel! Eyes on the road!"
"—but the candy's just sitting there!"
"Sora, don't eat all of it at once. You'll make yourself sick."
When they pulled up outside the apartment complex it was going on ten thirty. "You guys mind helping me set up?" The rockstar asked, hastily gathering his things from the car. "People are gonna start showing up like….now."
"Sure thing, Dem."
A/N: I actually did shout 'Merry Christmas' while trick-or-treating one year. Took me seven years to live down—and posting about it here is probably going to undo that. OH WELL. And I didn't stop trick-or-treating until I was 17. But does that justify trick-or-treating for the twenty-year-olds? YES.
Don't give out dental care packages on Halloween. No one will like you.
Trick-or-treating isn't any fun in the daytime.
Why did I feel the need to dump like 14 small children on Vexen? Probably the same reason I felt the need to plant a pretzel-loving, ever obsessive Xemnas in the story. :P
Stick around for the final chapter, where the summary actually starts to make sense. :D
…I don't like almonds…
-Slay
