A.N - I'm sorry guys. I know I've become more lax with review replies and updates. All I want to do since going back to college this year is sleep! I promise I'm trying to write as often as possible but I get home, eat and then pass out comfortably under a p[ile of blankets on my bed. It's getting cold over here, autumn (fall) is so pretty though! :)
Disclaimer - I do not own the characters portrayed in this story. They've been outright borrowed or sometimes inspired by characters from Disney and Square Enix (once again, I'm sorry if I spell the name wrong, you guys know who I mean!)
"Come on Roxas, hurry up!" Sora called, tugging insistently at his dawdling brother's hand.
"Sora, you know I don't like doing this, why can't you ask someone else!" Roxas sighed, not impressed by the events he was going to be put through.
"Because!" the exuberant brunet faery squeaked happily, pulling his brother out of the nest and into the air. The blonde's wings were a gorgeous blue with glittering gold filaments twisting through. Sora's were a soft, pale blue and mottled with a fluffy looking white colour. It felt good to fly outside, despite any dangers they may face and Sora pulled Roxas along behind him until they were out of sight of the nest. "I'm running out of time. So are you! We've got about two weeks until the eggs are laid and then one more week until we turn five!" Sora settled onto a moss covered rock and giggled as his feet sunk into the soft vegetation.
"Why do we have to come so far out? Sora, last time you nearly killed yourself!" Roxas grumbled, still unhappy and choosing to ignore the idea of time slipping away completely.
"I want it to be a surprise. And I did not almost kill myself!" The brunet scowled and shoved Roxas in the direction of a low hanging branch nearby. "Go sit up there, out of the way." He said and watched as the petit blond flew across swiftly.
"You did nearly kill yourself Sora. It may have been your own hand, but you'd still have been squished." Sora pouted at the memory of his failed attempt of becoming human, only his hand had changed and promptly had become too heavy for him to hold up. Roxas was right; he nearly had smooshed himself under the weight of his own hand.
"Well, that's not going to happen this time." Sora muttered as he tried to gather the image of himself as a human in his mind.
"Who do you want to surprise anyway?" Roxas asked curiously. "Riku's already seen you make...your thumb and your nose bigger." The faery sat above the rock smirked at the memory of his brother falling over because of the large nose that had appeared on his face. Sora still had his eyes closed in concentration, but muttered a barely audible answer.
"Kairi." Roxas rolled his eyes. Ever since their first birthday, Sora and the redheaded female had become closer friends than even Axel and Xion. Roxas was uncomfortable with his brother's obvious obsession with the female since he knew how much the relationship hurt Riku. The silver haired faery tried to hide his feelings about the younger male's relationship with Kairi when Sora was around, but Roxas had seen the haunted expression in the aquamarine eyes. If a male needed to be truly happy to create eggs, could this depression harm Riku in time?
As his mind whirred with uncomfortable thoughts, Sora had found a certain calm within himself and was feeling his body begin to tingle as if filled with the sensation a limb experienced when cut off blood flow was restored. His eyes opened wide and focussed on his brother, but as he opened his mouth to say something, the world around him blew inwards, or he exploded outwards. Gasping, Sora kept his gaze locked on the branch where Roxas was perched and shivered as his wings retracted into his back. When the world had stopped moving, Sora shuddered his whole body and grinned at the branch. "Roxas, I'm hum...Roxas?" The blonde haired faery was not there. "Roxas?" Sora looked around wildly. "Ohhh, did I smoosh you? Roxas!" The burnet began to panic and was almost in tears when suddenly, Roxas appeared on the branch with a weird mix of emotions evident on his face. Sora read shock, fear and amusement as well as a degree of smugness. "You're tiny!" he cooed, reaching out with a finger towards Roxas. The blond let out a shriek and leapt backwards off the branch.
"Keep your freakishly large self away from me Sora! And, just so you know, you look like you're seven months old again!" Roxas cackled and almost fell from the sky with the strength of his laughter. Sora's face crumpled in confusion. "Here...I'll try and show you." Roxas plopped back onto the branch and stretched his hands out wide above his head and created a disk of reflective light. Sora gawked at the display of talent he hadn't known Roxas had possessed and peered down into the mirror. He had taken on the form of a human five year old, so technically, he was a child again rather than being three weeks away from adulthood.
"Urgh, so I do." He grumbled and watched the mirror fall apart in a twinkle of sparkles. "Roxas, I didn't know you could turn invisible." He pointed out, disgruntled that his brother had been hiding his powers from him.
"You're not the only one who's been practicing magick." Roxas pointed out; then grinned. "To be honest, I didn't know I could turn invisible either. You kinda scared me and I reacted on instinct. Took me a while to figure out what I'd done and how to reverse it." Roxas shrugged and watched Sora nod his understanding before turning a gleeful pirouette.
"Kairi's going to be so impressed!" the brunet crowed happily before exploding inward and back into his usual form. He landed with a bump onto the mossy rock and shook his head to help reorient himself. Roxas smothered a groan and fluttered down to his brother's side.
"Come on, Axel's going to start getting stroppy unless I get back soon." Sora rolled his eyes but let his brother pull him to his feet.
"I don't see why you care so much." He grumbled as he was tugged into the air and led back to the nest.
"Because he's my soul mate." Roxas said simply. "He makes me happy."
"ROXY!" came a loud cry, warning the blond to brace himself before a streak of red barrelled its way into his arms. Rocking back on his heels slightly, Roxas caught Axel and hugged him gently. "I missed you." The redhead mumbled into the blond boy's hair before drawing in a deep breath and sighing out contentedly. Roxas smiled and nuzzled against Axel's chest for a moment until he was released.
"Sora dragged me out to practice his magick." He said, he didn't keep secrets from Axel.
"Oh?" the redhead said, raising an eyebrow as he pulled Roxas down onto the sofa beside him. "What happened this time?" Roxas shifted around until he was tucked against Axel's side and idly began to run his hand across the redhead's slightly distended stomach. Axel smiled contentedly, his panic over now that Roxas was by his side again.
"He actually managed it today. He took the form of a human at the age of five, so he was still a juvenile; it was really cute to see him so young again. He really scared me at first though and I kinda made myself invisible." Axel looked down at the blond in surprise.
"Really? It's been a while since you found something new you could do with your magicks." He commented.
"Yeah, it was weird. I think I kinda bent the light around me or something. Here...I'll see if I can do it again." Roxas' brow furrowed adorably and Axel smiled. Then, suddenly, he was gone. The redhead's heart rate immediately began to speed up and his eyes widened in both panic and surprise. Although he could still feel the warmth of Roxas against his side and the boy's hand on his stomach, Axel decided he didn't like the boy hiding from him. Before he could voice his unease, Roxas was visible again, hugging the redhead tightly. "It's ok, I'm still here, calm down. It's not good for the eggs." The younger boy soothed until Axel relaxed again.
"That was kinda cool..." Axel said, looking rather sheepish of his over-reaction. Carrying the eggs had put his hormones out of whack and he'd been having mood swings a lot as well as over-reacting and being much more clingy than usual. Lucky for him, Roxas liked to snuggle.
"It's ok, I won't do it again." Roxas reassured his mate and smiled as Axel's fingers drifted into his blond hair and began teasing through it. After a while sat in comfortable silence, Roxas quietly voiced a question that had been pestering him for a while. "Hey, Axel?" he asked.
"Hmmm?" the redhead hummed and continued his ministrations.
"What does it feel like?" The redhead hummed again, this time questioningly. "To carry eggs." The blond reiterated, glancing up at the male beside him. Axel played his own fingers across the slight swell in his abdomen and sighed thoughtfully.
"Well, to begin with I just felt hungry all the time, for some of the weirdest things too." They both chuckled as they recalled some of the male's more outrageous demands. "And it's disturbing because I know they make me behave unlike myself. But then, it's nice, they make me feel..." the redhead frowned for a second, "full, I think. And happy. They're a bit uncomfortable now, like I have a bunch of pebbles sat in my stomach, but I think I'll feel a bit lost without them."
"Oh." Roxas murmured sleepily and nodded to himself. "I'll still be here with you." He smiled and nuzzled against Axel sleepily. The redhead smiled and yawned. "Bed time?" Roxas said, grinning. Axel nodded before standing. "Goodnight Axel." Roxas said, receiving a sleepy wave in return before he left the room and headed for his own room and dove into his nest with a contented sigh.
As the days passed, leading up to the time Axel was due to produce his clutch of eggs, the redhead got progressively cranky and snarled if anyone other than Roxas entered the room he'd declared his nest. Rather than produce the eggs in his own room, Axel had deemed it necessary for them to have their own room and was fussing over making a nest. Roxas was run ragged, collecting random items and swathes of cloth for the redhead and prayed fervently that he would produce his clutch and calm down as he brooded over the eggs. One morning, a few days prior to Axel's 'due date' Roxas was making his morning trip to bring the redhead breakfast. He entered the 'nesting room' and found Axel hunched over in the large nest in the corner and cooing over something cradled in the shelter of his folded legs. Frowning in concern, Roxas took a step forwards but was halted by a wall of flames. "A...Axel?" he stammered, frightened now. "Axel? Are you ok?" he shouted when no response was given.
"Roxy?" Axel's voice sounded confused and the screen of flames wavered before dying. Roxas scuttled across the room and eyed the redhead in concern before he noticed a faint blue sheen coming from whatever the other male was sheltering in the hollow between his legs.
"Are you ok, Axel?" Roxas asked, crouching beside the nest and watching the bright green eyes slowly come to meet his gaze. Axel let out a low hum and shifted so Roxas could see the pale blue egg he'd been hiding. Roxas' eyes went wide and he beamed at the other male before cautiously climbing into the nest and hugging him. The egg was small enough to be able to fit in the palm of Roxas' hand. It was a pale blue colour, not as brilliantly coloured as a robin's egg and had an opalescent sheen. Axel touched it lightly with the tip of his forefinger and laid his head against Roxas' shoulder.
"It kinda hurt." He said softly, eyeing the first of his eggs with a proud expression. "But it was worth it." The redhead turned his gaze up to meet Roxas' once more. The younger of the two was shocked to see tears glistening in Axel's eyes. "We're going to be fathers!" he crooned, sighing happily as he rested against Roxas again. The blond blinked.
"We?" he asked hesitantly, unsure what the redhead meant. Yes, he understood that they were soul mates, but further than that...he's assumed that he'd understand the bond between himself and Axel once he was an adult. Axel reached up and planted a gentle kiss on Roxas' cheek and smiled contentedly.
"I love you Roxas. You're the reason I could make these eggs, you're as much their father as I am."
A.N - Soo, you guys, I was wondering if you have any little requests for the story? Something you would like me to try to add in? I thought it might make things a bit more interesting for me. lol, perhaps it'll help me concentrate. Anyways, thank you for the reviews, I promise I'm going to reply to them now! And, I hope you enjoyed this chapter!
Dreamy xxx