Disclaimer: Not mine! But man….so fun to play with!
A/N: Right! So forever later, I decided to update this story. It's so random. I even confuse myself with why I'm writing this, but I know there are some readers still out there, and I'm still inclined to continue writing, so we'll see where this goes. Enjoy!
Step into XIII
Step 2: When?
In a quaint, quiet, clean-cut community known as Radiant Garden situated some miles outside of the wild and busy City of Twilight, there stood a sprawling country house, painted yellow and white and kept just as quaint and clean-cut as the community where it resided. Unlike the community, however, this house was usually anything but quiet. In front of the house hung a well-loved sign, weathered but regularly repainted to read "The Kingdom Hearts Children's Home." The house was home to almost 20 people, all with very different personalities and perspectives on life. Between the human occupants and the legions of recently acquired Dalmatian puppies, the house was often filled with enough laughter and youthful energy to lighten the heart of the average passer-by.
The Home was opened many years prior by a local church to offer services to troubled youths and provide a safe place for after-school studies and recreational activities. It was meant to be a home and safe haven for children of all walks of life. Unfortunately, the man who opened the house had a very large heart and fairly small brain. The location was chosen for its rolling acreage, its swaying willows, and overall soothing atmosphere. The fact that its location was too far from the city for it to be practically accessible to any of the "troubled youths" it was meant for never occurred to the him. Nor did it occur to him that the home was situated in one of the safest and most pleasant neighborhoods on the planet making its use as an after-school alternative decidedly unnecessary.
Barely a year after the project was initiated, the home was shut down having been declared a complete failure, and the property was put on the market to be sold. A few months after that, the house was purchased by another pair of buyers who wanted the space for somewhat different reasons. The men were not particularly creative with names and since there was a placard in front of the house already with a conveniently accurate name neatly painted on it in forest green, they let it stay and made preparations, with a young auburn-haired girl and blonde boy in tow, to turn the space into a different kind of home.
All things considered, the City of Twilight was a decent place to live. There were clubs and bars for those who enjoyed the nightlife, beaches and boardwalks for those who loved the sun, and even a design school that kept the city full of creative and expressive young people. But alas, as is true when mortals gather, the place had its fair amount of problems. At times, life brings tragedy, and often times, those left behind to pick up the pieces have no clue what to do once the dust settles and the thing that used to be their happiness is nothing but wreckage on the ground.
One such soul is half of the proprietary pair of the ill-fated Kingdom Hearts home. When his best friend, Jecht, and his wife were killed in a tragic boating accident involving a giant sea creature of some kind, their six-year-old son, Tidus, was left without parents, and the man named Auron was the only one left in Tidus' life to care for him. Auron had taken Jecht's death hard. They had been friends for all of their lives and Jecht was the only one who could bring a smile to Auron's face when the pressure of his bodyguard business got to be too much. Without Jecht in his life, it seemed as though there could be no happiness in the world for him.
It was Tidus who pulled Auron out of his spiraling decent into depression. The little boy was completely helpless and didn't understand why his parents were never coming home. Auron knew that he was making a piss-poor substitute for the love that had once existed in their family, and that was enough to get him to at least make an effort. Auron was not an overly emotional man, but kids needed emotion when growing up. Auron's solution: get another kid. Kids were extremely emotional and another child would definitely make up for his deficiency in the area. And if he could get a girl, then that would also solve the need of female influence in Tidus' life.
With this plan set, Auron had made his way to the local orphanage with the intent to pick the most emotional looking girl he could find. He walked out with a new daughter and a new purpose in life. Little Kairi had looked absolutely miserable in the place where she was living; like a flower wilting due to lack of sun. That was and accurate analogy too as the place was buried so deep in the city that it was a wonder if the kids there ever did see sunlight. Auron was not an overly emotional man, but he knew a travesty when he saw one, and as long as he had the power to fix such a thing or at least offer something better, he would do it.
And so, he called up his friend Cid who had a mind for business, good connections and an understanding of how to get around certain legalities, and together they had put together a place where kids could grow up happy despite the fact that their lives had at one point fallen apart. It had never occurred to them that the kids' life at their new home could fall apart as well, but it seemed that that was indeed what had happened. There was a decidedly dark cloud of gloom looming over the cheery yellow house, and there was no way to know if it would ever lift.
On a normal day, shouts and screams would be heard from any number of children of all ages running about the house, chasing each other with water guns, balls, sticks, jump ropes, and buckets. On a normal day, the yipping of tiny puppies would be heard as other children played and wrestled with them, scratching their ears and rubbing their bellies. On a normal day, the Kingdom Hearts Children's Home would be a place full of life and love and energy…unfortunately, this day was anything but normal.
The group of older kids had arrived home the previous night subdued and somber, and when the young ones discovered that one of their favorite 'big brothers' was missing, the cloud of gloom had settled over the house. Even the hyperactive puppies sensed the sorrow in the air and sat quietly in various places all over the house and furniture trying to figure out what had their humans so sad. The day was bright and warm. Summer vacation had just started a week prior, and the time was right for water fights and picnics by the lake, but there were few in the mood for such things after returning from the Destiny Islands.
"Man, this sucks." Tidus said, throwing a twig across the back lawn from his seat on the steps of the porch. "It's time to blitz but even thinking about it makes me wanna hurl."
"Our teams short one without Sora anyway, ya." Wakka said from beside him. "I don't think I can stomach ever looking for a re—"
"Don't even think about finishing that sentence." The air temperature seemed to drop a few degrees at the icy voice that came from behind the two boys. "You will not be replacing Sora on the team! He's coming back! Kairi says so, and I believe her." Selphie plopped herself on the porch between her two friends glaring at each of them before resting her elbows on her knees and head in her hands.
"Just you wait." She told them. "You'll see. He'll be back in no time. He's probably out looking for us even now." The boys shared a look over their younger friend's head. There was no point arguing with her. If Kairi was right, they'd find out soon enough, and if she wasn't…
Tidus mussed Selphie's hair with one hand then pulled her into a loose one-armed hug while Wakka tickled her from his side.
'No worries, ya?" he said, poking at her arm. "No one's ever gonna replace Sora. We'll wait as long as it takes." Selphie nodded in acceptance taking comfort in the presence of the other two. Sora was missing, Riku had shut himself off from everyone and Kairi was busy trying to draw him out. It was good to know that Tidus and Wakka were still there while her other friends dealt with other things. Kairi said to believe, and so she would, but it was a whole lot easier to do when she wasn't all alone.
o-oOo-o
Bed had never felt so good! I thought things had been done after leaving Marluxia, the sakura-psycho and his salon from hell, but before we could make it to Demyx and Axel's dorm, that Vexen guy showed up and dragged me off to a "photo shoot." He wanted to get shots of me while I was still "fresh" whatever that meant. It had taken almost an hour just to get the few shots he needed, and by the time he was done, I was just about ready to collapse from exhaustion and starvation. Of course that meant they weren't done with me.
After Vexen, Saïx popped out of nowhere to drag me off so that he could take my measurements and that is not an experience I'd like to ever repeat. I never thought I'd be in fear of losing limbs via measuring tape before. Next came registering me so I could get a key and introductions to some of the other random organization members who were floating around, an eventual trip to the dining hall, and then we finally made it to the room I was sharing with Axel and Demyx.
I immediately collapsed onto the futon that had apparently been prepared for me while I was making the transition to blond. It was only 6 in the evening when we got in, but I was bone weary and already fighting to maintain consciousness. I barely remember eating my ramen and onigiri before falling on my wonderful bed and blissfully fading into oblivion.
Voices woke me from a dream about a swarm of yipping black and white spots, and it took a moment for me to morph the sounds into language.
"Just seem to me like he should have some say in this. I mean, Xemnas pretty much snow plowed the kid into coming on board."
"I know. I never would have suggested this if I'd know the he had lost his friggin' memory."
"I can hear you, y'know?" I said rolling over to look at my roommates. Demyx was still sitting on his bead, hair sticking in every direction while Axel was sitting at his desk, a book open in front of him, hair pulled back in a ponytail and a pair of glasses propped on his nose.
"It's about time you woke up sleeping beauty. It's almost 10am." Axel said, rocking his chair back.
"No wonder I feel like the waking dead," I said trying to stretch out stiff muscles. 15 hours of sleep will do that to you."
We snagged you a couple of danishes from the dining hall if you're hungry," Axel said turning back to his text book, "but don't let Xemnas know you're eating junk. He'll castrate us all if we get his new poster boy chubby."
"I have a fast metabolism," I told them honing in on the danishes and shoving sweet, cream cheesy goodness into my mouth. "So can I ask you guys a question," I asked between bites.
"Shoot," Demyx said looking up at me from what looked like a pile of sheet music.
"What's with all the 'X's?" Axel stopped and looked over at me for a second before going back to his reading.
"That's all you, Dem," he said and proceeded to ignore us. Demyx didn't seem to mind.
"I'm guessing you're talking about our aliases and not the 'X's on the magazines pouring from under Axel's bed." I blushed, eyes snapping toward the red-head(and his bed) of their own will. Axel continued ignoring, but I did notice some extremely impolite images on covers that were indeed falling from under Axel's bed.
"You're free to borrow some if you'd like," Axel said, apparently paying more attention that he as letting on. My attention snapped back to Demyx who was of course laughing at me.
"Anyway," he began with a final chuckle, "Since Xemnas is in charge of this project group, he basically gets to make a lot of the rules especially the stuff about how the group is formed. He wants us all to have 'faces the belong only to the organization,'" this he said making air quotes with his fingers, "and so we all have uniforms and aliases."
"So who picks the names? No offense, but so far they all seem a little freaky."
"Well, Xemnas does. He usually takes one of our given names and scrambles it with an 'x' as sort of the mark that we belong to the organization. He even did it with his own name to show that we were all equals or something. Most of us have gotten to the point where we actually prefer our alias over our actual names."
"Really?" I asked incredulously. I couldn't imagine someone preferring a name like Demyx or Marluxia over something normal. "What are you're actual names?"
"Jackson Dyme Jr." Demyx said dryly quirking a small salute.
"Jared Ale," Axel said from his place at his desk.
"Oh," I said. I could see what they meant. Neither of their given names fit their personalities at all.
"You think, I've got it bad," Axel said looking up from his reading to give me a flashing smile, "you should meet my sister, Ginger." I blinked at him dumbly for a moment, my brain taking its time to connect his last name with her first name, but when it did, I collapsed into a fit of laughter so abrupt it almost made me drop the raspberry Danish I had been working on.
"See, Dem! That's the kind of reaction that joke is supposed to get!"
"Oh, Roxas doesn't count. He's probably forgotten that bad jokes aren't funny." I managed to pull myself together again after not very long, grinning broadly at Axel who grinned broadly right back.
"That was great," I told him.
"I know," he said, sticking his tongue out at Demyx.
"You know that this is ok with me, right?" I asked now that I had both of their attentions. "I may not know who I am, but I remember enough about amnesia from TV to get the gist of how this works. I'll basically be wondering around useless until I get my memories back anyway, so I'm fine with staying here and helping you guys out if I can while I wait." They eyed each other for a second before looking back at me.
"You sure about that?" Axel asked quirking an eyebrow.
"No point turning back now since I'm already blond," I said with a shrug. Axel just chuckled.
"We'll see how you feel after tomorrow," he said.
"Why? What happens tomorrow?"
"Right now it's the weekend so we're off," Demyx supplied, "But during the week, The Organization is mobilized. That means uniforms, meetings, and work on the show and set and everything. We have loft space in the design building and all twelve of us work in pretty close quarters every day."
"Yeah," Axel added, "and you haven't even met the worst of us. You think Marluxia's bad? Wait until you meet his girlfriend."
"Wait, girlfriend?" I asked confused, "But I thought…" I trailed off not sure how to phrase what I thought. Marluxia hadn't stuck me as the most masculine male I'd ever met.
"That he was flaming hotter than the center of the sun?" Axel supplied. I nodded. "Most people think that. We were shocked as anyone when they hooked-up, but it works. Those two must be spawn of Satan himself." I shot a nervous glance at Demyx as Axel turned back to his book. Suddenly, I wasn't so sure about this whole modeling gig…
o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o
A/N: Heh heh heh… So next we get to see the "mobilized" Organization. That should be interesting. I'm not even sure what to expect…
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