Banshee: Hello everybody, it's me Banshee. Here's chapter 3. For those of you who read "Life With Organization XIII," don't forget to vote in the poll. The poll is "Prom Song Choices" and it is located at the top of my profile page. This poll will determine what song will be playing when Nikki and Axel dance at the prom. Okay then, on to the story. Love you all! Ja ne!

Disclaimer: I do not own the characters in Kingdom Hearts; Square Enix does. I only own my OC, Nikki, and the plot.


Chapter Three: A Busy Day


It's been one day since Xemnas was turned into a baby.

He was relatively well-behaved the night before, despite the fact that he woke me up twice (once at quarter after twelve, and again at three forty-five in the morning). We didn't have any baby food, so I had to puree fruits and vegetables in the blender. Then I burped him and changed his diaper; I had Momo pick up a small pack of diapers so he would be set for the night and go get more in the morning. I never changed a diaper before, but I used to practice on my baby dolls when I was going through that "I-wanna-be-just-like-Mommy" phase as a child. I cringed at the thought of seeing his privates and cleaning up his waste, and came close to throwing up the first time.

Man, when Xemnas returns to normal, he owes me big time for this…

"Hey Nikki." Roxas greeted, walking into the kitchen as I was feeding Xemnas a puree blend of peaches and apples. "You're up early."

"No thanks to this little tyrant." I grumbled, taking another spoonful of the puree and holding it up to the Superior, who eagerly opened his mouth to receive the food. "He woke me up twice last night."

"Well he's a baby. That's what babies do…" He paused for a second, scratching his head. "… isn't it?"

"You don't know a thing about babies, do you?"

"Not a clue."

Babies require a lot of attention, especially in the first few months. They cry at every little thing, whether it's gas, they need their diaper changed, they're hungry, they got hurt, something scared them, or they just want to be held. Not all babies behave the same way. Some cry more than others, and some cry less. According to my mother, my sister and I were very well-behaved babies and went to bed fairly easily, and would sleep for a relatively long time before it was time for us to wake up. We rarely cried, but I, apparently, cried a little more.

Right now, I couldn't decide which was worse; Xemnas as a baby, or as an adult. The adult Xemnas would run me - and everybody else - ragged every day with missions and chores, and openly mocked me on a daily basis, while the baby Xemnas woke me up in the middle of the night, threw up on me, pulled my hair, and gave me the "privilege" of cleaning up his dirty diapers.

Scratch that.

The baby Xemnas is definitely worse.

But no matter how much I hated it, something inside me wouldn't let me just walk away from the situation. I felt the strong urge to comfort him and protect him. Maybe it was my maternal instinct kicking in - again - or maybe it was just the fact that if I didn't take care of him, then no one else would.

Curse my double-X chromosomes…

"Do you need any help?" Roxas asked.

"Not right now. But I do have to go shopping for Xemnas once I'm done feeding him." I said, wiping excess food of Xemnas' face. "Do you want to come with me, and give Momo a break?"

"Sure."

Luckily, Xemnas finished off the puree fairly quickly, and after a quick burping Roxas and I got dressed and headed to the store with our infant Superior in tow.

- At The Store -

The first thing we did when we got to the store was head straight for the baby stuff. I looked at the baby clothes and food while I sent Roxas to get some toys. Every time he saw something that he thought Xemnas would like, he would bring it back and show it to me for approval. Some of the toys I said "yes" to, and to others I said "Hell no!" While I was looking at pajamas, Roxas ran up to me with a plastic box.

"How about this one?"

"Roxas.. That's a box of Legos."

"… So?"

"Babies aren't supposed to play with Legos."

"Why not?"

"Because they could choke on the blocks."

"Oohh…"

Realizing his mistake, he ran back to the toy aisle to put the box back. He came back with a box of mega blox, which I said yes to.

"What about this one?" He asked a few minutes later.

He brought back a Transformers toy. It was the movie version of Bumblebee, with instructions to change him into his vehicle mode included in the package.

"That's not a baby toy, Roxas."

"You never know, he might like it.."

I gave him a look, knowing right away that he wanted the toy. "You want to get it, don't you?"

"Yes." He admitted shamelessly. "Can I get it? Please?"

"No."

His happy face shattered. "Why not?"

"Because we're here for Xemnas."

"But it's a limited edition~… and there was only one left~…"

"Tell me you did not just whine.."

"Please, Nikki? If you get this for me, then I'll change one of his diapers."

I looked at the plastic package, my eyes widening in shock when I saw the price sticker. "For what this thing costs, you'd better change a whole day's worth."

Roxas scoffed. "He's a little baby. How many diapers can he go through in a day?"

"You have no idea…" I thought.

"Okay, you got a deal."

"… Alright."

"Yes!" He exclaimed excitedly, performing a fist pump as he put the Bumblebee toy in the carriage. "Axel is gonna be so jealous.."

I rolled my eyes as he turned around and ran back to the toy aisle to pick out more toys. As he ran away, I called after him, "Remember Roxas, we want baby toys! No more Transformers!"

"Okay, okay, I got it!" He yelled back.

I noticed that Xemnas was getting antsy, so I grabbed a rattle from the cart and shook it to attract his attention. He watched it like kittens watching a lazer pointer; he followed its every move, his head moving from side to side as I moved it in front of him. His hands reached out instinctively and he whined for me to give him the rattle. I gave it to him, and he shook the rattle and experimented by banging it against the metal carriage, giggling at the "ding" sound that accompanied the rattling.

"Having fun?" I asked, kneeling down so that I was at eye-level with him.

He responded by using the rattle to smack me in the head, laughing at my exclamation of "Ouch!" and hit me three more times before I grabbed his little arm. I reprimanded him and told him in a warning tone to stop hitting me. He seemed to understand, for he went back to hitting the carriage.

"Hey, Nikki!" I heard Roxas call me. "Look what I found!"

I turned around and saw Roxas running towards me with a stuffed doll. It was a big heart with arms and legs, wearing red sneakers and white cartoon gloves, and a cute little bowtie under its smiley face. As soon as Xemnas laid eyes on the doll, he dropped the rattle and reached for it. When it was given to him, he wrapped his arms around it and squeezed it affectionately, forgetting all about all the other toys. We ended up putting them back because he was completely satisfied with the stuffed heart. However, when we tried to put the rattle back, he started to cry. When we gave it back to him, we figured out why he wanted it so badly; because he liked to hit people with it.

We then picked up some baby food and special formulas, putting the items in the carriage along with the clothes, blankets, diapers, baby powder, oil, special baby shampoo, and a box containing parts for a crib (which came with a mobile).

Before we went back to the castle, Xemnas started crying and it didn't take long to figure out why; he needed a diaper change. I reminded Roxas of our deal, and handed him to the young Nobody and he took the infant into the men's room. He used the table in the back as a changing table, and, thanks to the solid stone walls of the bathroom, I could hear every disgusted groan, every complaint, and every gagging noise he made as he changed our Superior's diaper. When he came out, his face was green and he held the baby as far away from him as he could.

"Not so easy now, is it?" I asked smugly, my amusement growing as Roxas glared at me with an embarrassed blush.

"Shut up!" He hissed, shoving the infant into my arms.

"Remember, you asked for this when you wanted that Transformers toy."

He shrugged. "Eh. It was worth it."

"Was it really?" I asked. "Was getting that limited edition Bumblebee worth experiencing the trauma of changing the Superior's diaper?"

"You bet it was." He said, smiling.

I sighed and shook my head. "Boys…"

As we stepped through the portal to return to the castle, I added, "I still expect you to change the rest of today's diapers."

I laughed when I received a disdainful groan in response.

- Back At The Castle -

When we returned to the castle, Xemnas was content with his stuffed heart. He hugged it close to him as I carried him in the harness, and was startling to fall asleep, which, to me, meant that it was time for him to take a nap. We immediately took him to my room where we laid him on my bed while we assembled the crib. He was asleep when we finished, and I carefully picked him up and placed him inside, making sure that he had his plush heart with him.

"Thanks for helping me, Roxas," I said. "And grabbing that plush heart was pure genius."

"It just came to me."

I looked at the clock in my room, which read one o'clock. We had been shopping for the whole morning, and I wasn't any less tired. I was tired enough from Xemnas waking me up twice, and running around for half the day carrying a baby left me exhausted. I was ready to follow the Superior's lead and plop down on my bed and fall asleep. Saïx did say that my only mission was to take care of Xemnas until he returned to normal, so it was okay to sleep… just for a little while… I'd work on the report later. But now… I felt like taking a nap of my own.

"Well, I'd better stay here with him in case he wakes up. I'll see you later, okay?" I said, yawning in mid-sentence.

Roxas, recognizing how tired I was, left, but not before saying "Goodnight, sleep tight, don't let the bed bugs bite" in a joking manner before teleporting out of the room, no doubt to go play with his new Bumblebee toy.

Once he was gone, I plopped myself onto my bed, and it didn't take long for me to fall asleep.

- Three Hours Later -

The sound of Xemnas' crying woke me up from a sound sleep. I rubbed the sleep from my eyes and got up, still feeling a little groggy, walking over to the crib to see what the crying was about.

"What's wrong, Xemnas?" I asked sleepily. "What do you need?"

I tried burping him, but nothing came out; I checked his diaper, but it didn't need changing; I put my ear to his stomach to listen for a growl, and, sure enough, there was one.

I took him into the kitchen, sat him down on the chair and got a jar of baby food out of the cupboard. After I fed him, I burped him, and put him down on the floor so he could crawl around. The clock read four o'clock, with about an hour and a half until it was time for dinner, and I was still tired. I watched him crawl around, dragging his plush heart behind him, my eyes trained on him like hawk.

"Yo, Nikki!" A familiar voice called.

Turning around, I saw, none other than, Axel walking towards me. He sat down on the other side of the table, folding his arms on the tabletop. He turned and looked at Xemnas, then back to me, and asked, "So how's this babysitting thing coming?"

"Eh. It hasn't been that bad." I said. "He's been relatively well-behaved. He's been great since Roxas and I got him that plush heart. As long as he has that thing, he's fine."

"Speaking of Roxas, how did he talk you into letting him get a limited edition Transformers toy?"

"Oh, he told you about that, huh? He offered to change the rest of today's diapers in exchange for letting him have it. I didn't see him change the diaper, but the look on his face when he was done was priceless." I said, sipping my glass of water with a smug grin.

"He's never gonna live that down, is he?"

"Nope."

"Is there anything I can do to help?" He asked, changing the subject.

"If I need your help, I'll ask for it." I said.

"Face it. A baby needs structure and consistency. He needs a mom and a dad. He's already got a mom; you. But he doesn't have a dad."

I raised an eyebrow at him. "What're you getting at?"

"How about if I was the dad?"

If my eyebrow could go any higher, it would have disappeared into my hairline. "You? A dad? I wouldn't trust you to take care of a dog, let alone a baby."

He shrank back at my statement. "Ouch."

"Besides, you're only suggesting this whole 'mommy' and 'daddy' thing so you can pretend that we're 'together.'"

"… So?"

"Ugh… Fine." I growled. "You can be 'daddy..'"

I rolled my eyes as Axel performed a fist pump to celebrate his victory, grinning like an idiot the whole time.

"Since we're the 'parents,' then that means we need to take turns taking care of 'Junior.' I looked after him all morning and all afternoon, and now it's your turn." I picked Xemnas up off the floor and pushed him into Axel's arms. "I'm going to take a nap, and I expect Xemnas - and the castle - to be in one piece when I wake up. If I'm not up by dinner, the baby food is in the cupboard, the formula's in the fridge; just heat it up in the microwave before you give it to him, but not too hot, and if he needs changing, have Roxas do it; he still owes me. Have fun, 'Honey.'"

With that, I turned on my heel and walked away. As I walked away, Xemnas started to cry.

"Oh crap, he's crying. Nikki, what do I do?" He called after me.

"It's your shift. You figure it out."

I continued to walk, until I reached my room. Once again, I plopped myself onto my bed, not even bothering to change into my pajamas, and Hazel curled up next to me and purred, which helped me get to sleep.