Disclaimer: I don't own Kingdom Hearts or anything related.
Chapter 4
Ventus woke up early and slipped out of bed. He wanted to get showered and ready before Sora and Roxas woke up. He looked back at them, they didn't look like thy would wake up anytime soon.
He gathered some clothes and left the room. The first day hadn't been too bad. He was annoyed and just being in the same room as the boys made him exhausted. The night had been long, simply because the boys continuously woke up and made him check for monsters.
He made it to the bathroom and quickly took a shower. He was still tired, but he needed to start the day.
"Hey, Ventus?" Aqua knocked on the door, "I made pancakes for you guys. Terra and I are going to get some things for the boys and take Zack to the airport."
"Wait!" He stumbled out of the shower and wrapped a towel around himself, "You can't leave me here again! I want to go."
"Ventus, we can't. If we take you, then we have to take them and then there won't be any space for the things we buy." Aqua said, "We'll look for a babysitter when we get home."
"Fine." He said, "But can you bring more pudding?"
"Do we need to go grocery shopping too?" Aqua asked.
"Uh, yeah." He said, "But it can wait." He slipped on his clothes and opened the door.
"No, I need to get as much as possible before I go to work." She said.
"Right, I'll send you a list." He said. He followed her to the door where Terra and Zack were waiting.
"Can you believe how early she has me up?" He groaned.
"It's 9:00!" Aqua said, "And you're in the military, you should be used to waking early."
"Yeah, but I don't usually party all night and I was hoping to use my time off to actually sleep in." He mumbled.
"Absolutely not, Ventus here sleeps enough for the both of you." Aqua said.
He usually slept a lot. Napping after practice and not waking until 12 on the weekends. He was a busy kid, he did a lot of physical activity. But with Sora and Roxas, he didn't think he'd ever get any rest. "Hurry back?" He said.
"Yeah," Terra said, "We won't leave you alone with them all day."
"Don't forget to send the list to Terra, if things take too long i'll have to leave him and head to work." Aqua said.
"Alright." Ventus nodded.
"And no more scary movies for the kids." she said.
"Aqua, go." he said, "We'll be fine." Once Aqua and Terra had left, Ventus went to the backyard. It was a large open space that Aqua used for summer parties. At the moment it was freshly cut, meaning it was perfect for taking the kids out. He could understand that they were afraid of the streets, too much noise at once, it probably hurt they're ears or something. But the backyard was quiet.
Aqua had a nice garden and pond in the left corner with a bench that she sat on when she had time to relax. The pond was clean and clear, swimming with a few large goldfish. It was interesting and he was sure the boys would like it. In the left corner was the garden shed. It was filled with tools and plant things, but it also held his sports equipment. He could teach them a simple game of catch with a baseball, or he could let them throw one of the bouncy balls around. It didn't really matter, so long as he didn't have to sit inside all day.
He went back inside and up to his room but stopped before he went inside. "He's gone!" Roxas said.
"Where?" Sora asked. Ventus moved out of sight and waited.
"I think... I think the monsters took him." Roxas said.
"No! How could we let that happen?" Sora asked, "Where did they take him?"
"Under the bed." Roxas said and Ventus wondered how he could be so sure of that. "We need to save him."
"But... if he is under the bed... the monsters will take us too!" Sora said, "We need someone to help us!"
"No time for that, Sora!" Roxas declared, "We need to save him now." Ventus peeked into the room and saw them hanging over the bed, slowly lifting the blanket and peeking under it.
"Where is he?" Sora asked.
"Right here." Ventus entered the room and the boys got out of bed and ran to him.
"Ventus! Where did you go?" Sora asked.
"We thought the monsters ate you!" Roxas said.
"I told you last night, he isn't real." Ventus said. How many times would he have to tell them before they actually listened? "Come on, it's time for breakfast."
"Muffins?" Roxas asked.
"No, pancakes." Ventus said. Sora looked confused but Roxas nodded happily.
"Good!" he said.
"You never had a pancake before." Sora said, "What if it tastes like that green stuff from last night?"
"Those were peas." Ventus said, "And trust me, pancakes taste nothing like peas."
"Are you sure?" Roxas asked.
"Yes, now come on." he said, "After we put your clothes back on, we'll eat and i'll teach you something cool." He didn't mention going outside until after breakfast. He led them to the back door and opened it.
"No." Roxas said.
"No what?" Ventus asked. He helped Sora into his shoes, which were more like slippers, and turned to Roxas, "It's fine."
"I want to stay in here." he said.
"But we can't play in here." Ventus said, "Aqua's rules."
"Play?" that got his attention, "Like... with crayons and markers?"
"No, with a baseball." he said. He was actually kind of excited to teach them something. He was ready to hear the questions.
"What is a baseball?" Sora asked.
He smiled, "I suppose you'll have to come out and see." he convinced Roxas to put his shoes on before putting n his own and slipping outside. It was a nice day out, the sun wasn't too bright and it wasn't too hot. "Are you coming?"
Sora was the first to step outside and onto the patio. He stood close to the door for a while before deciding it was safe enough to come further. "Where are the buildings?" he asked.
"And the speedy cars!" Roxas added from the doorway.
"This is the backyard. No one is allowed back here but us."
"Come on Roxas! We can play out here!" Sora suddenly ran forward, bounding down the steps and into the grass. "What is this?" he pulled some up, "It smells weird."
Roxas came out as well and saw the flowers, "Pretty!" he shouted and ran over to them. Ventus turned and closed the door before following them.
"Hey! Don't pull those out!" he shouted to Roxas. Roxas immediately stopped pulling us the flowers, "Those are Aqua's, okay? She put them there and they need to stay there."
"Okay." Roxas said.
"Is this a baseball?" he turned to Sora and saw him holding up a rock.
"No, that's a rock." Ventus said, "Wait here and i'll get the ball." He went to the shed and found the bag of balls. The couldn't remember the last time he used any of it. "Here." he set the bag down and the boys came over to it.
He pulled out the first ball, "This is a soccer ball. You kick it around." he handed it to Sora and pulled out another one, "This is a football. You throw it." He stood and threw it across the backyard.
"I want to throw it!" Roxas chased after it and retrieved it, "Okay! Catch it, Ventus!" He threw the ball and it landed a few feet in front of him.
"Nice try! We'll work on it, just come back over here." he said, "I still have stuff to show you."
He spent a few minutes going through the bag and showing them everything. He demonstrated a few things and let the boys try. "I like the baseball." Roxas said.
"I like this one!" Sora held out the soccer ball. "Can we play with this one?"
"Sure." he explained the rules as best as he could before setting up a makeshift goal post, "Just try to get the ball away from Roxas and into the goal. I'm going to stand here and try to stop you."
"How am I supposed to get the ball in if you try to stop it?" Sora asked.
"Yeah, I think you should move." Roxas said.
"Guys the point of the game is to get the ball into the goal even though everyone is trying to stop you." Ventus said, "Roxas, you have to keep Sora away from the goal too."
"What?" Roxas scratched his head. Ventus sighed and explained everything again. After a few minutes, they began the game. It took ten minutes of shouting, 'No pushing!' and 'Good job!' Sora finally kicked the ball into the goal. He collapsed to the ground and took a huge breath.
"Ventus! Can we take a break now?" he said, "I need water."
"Yeah, okay." he said, "After our break we'll try some other game."
"No, I need to make a goal too." Roxas said.
"Fine, but after that, we'll do something else." he said, "So how about you sit on the patio and I get something to drink."
"Okay." Sora said. Ventus went into the house and found a few water bottles in the fridge. It was only 9:45, but he had a lot to keep him busy. He fond his phone and began to text a shopping list to Aqua. They needed plenty of juice boxes and snacks for the kids. She was better at shopping then he was, so his list was probably lacking, but it would do.
He gave the boys the water and watched as they tried to drink it all, instead spilling half of it on themselves. "It's cold." Sora said.
"Yeah." Roxas splashed some of it in his face.
"Hey!" Sora tried to throw water in Roxas' face but his bottle was empty.
"I got you, Sora." Ventus took his water and dumped it on Roxas' head.
"Ventus!" Roxas crossed his arms, "Stop it."
"But you just did it." Ventus said.
"I can do that." Roxas said, "You can't."
"Yeah, whatever." he said. He noticed Roxas had used the word can't, it wasn't taking him long to get used to normal talking. "Don't be so spoiled."
"What?" Roxas was confused again.
"Ignore that, how about we finish playing?" he suggested. They all agreed and launched into another round of soccer. They played for a while until Terra returned.
"Hey! What kind of game is this? One goal? 3 people?" he said.
"Play with us!" Roxas demanded.
"We have to put the groceries up." Terra said, "And Aqua wants me to see if she was right about the sizes."
"What sizes?" Sora asked.
"New clothes." Terra said, "But after you get cleaned up." he looked at them, "Is it possible for you to play a sport without getting covered in dirt?"
"Roxas started throwing dirt to distract us!" Sora said, "But Ventus said that was cheating."
"And Ventus poured water on my head!" Roxas said.
"Because you splashed it in my face!" Sora said.
"Right, you had a busy day. Just keep playing while Ventus and I bring the stuff in." Terra said.
"Okay." the boys agreed. Ventus followed Terra to his car.
"You know, she didn't mention that she was adopting kids until a week ago." Terra said, "I figured it would take longer."
"So did she." Ventus said.
"Did she tell you why?" Terra asked.
"Not really." he sighed, "She claims it was for me." But they both knew that wasn't true. Sure, she believed Vexen worked for a children's hospital, but there were several people who she could have found to take them in.
"I tried to ask her about it, but she kept changing the subject." Terra handed him a few bags and they took them inside to the kitchen. They could see the boys playing with the soccer ball out back. "If she wanted to be a foster mom, why would she take two before seeing if she could even handle one?"
"They're brothers, you cant separate them." Ventus shrugged.
"Yeah, okay." Terra said. They talked about it a little more as they put the food away. It made him curious and he wanted to read the files again, to see if there was something he'd missed. "How about we have lunch and take them to the park." Terra suggested.
"Really?" Ventus asked.
"Yeah, they'll make friends and you can have some peace." Terra said, "And I can sleep in the car."
"Sure, but I don't think they want to go to the park." Ventus said. Although they'd gotten used to the backyard easily. He wasn't sure how long he was supposed to let them get comfortable before he started taking them places. They'd lived in solitude, interacting only with scientists and Vexen and while they hadn't mentioned what Vexen had done to them to anyone, he wasn't sure if he could risk it.
"Trust me, I just drove by the park, it's not too crowded and it's a nice day." Terra said, "It'll be fine."
"Sure." Ventus agreed, "But only if I get to nap too."
"Fine." Terra rolled his eyes, "Get them something to wear and i'll make lunch." Ventus got the boys and helped them wash up before looking through the bags. They were separated already and Ventus wondered when Terra had done it.
He found a shirt for Sora, a white shirt with blue hems (?)and a pair of red shorts. For Roxas it was the opposite, red hems and blue shorts. "Okay, I think Terra has lunch ready." Ventus said.
"I want pancakes!" Roxas said.
"And Jello!" Sora added.
"You guys don't really know how to eat do you? Pancakes are for breakfast okay? And I guess you can have jello during lunch." he said.
"Why?" Sora asked, "Is there a rule?"
"Well, no... but you just don't. Not usually."
0.o.0.o.0
The park was big and colorful. There were kids everywhere running and laughing and Sora wondered why they weren't afraid of the noise. "Ventus! What is that?" Sora pointed to the collection of curly tubes.
"Slides." Ventus answered. The kids were all climbing a latter and sliding down it. Sora couldn't see what was so fun about it, but all the kids were laughing. He turned and saw kids sitting and swinging from ropes.
"And those?" He asked.
"Swings." Ventus at down on a bench, "Terra is going to wait in the car. Go play and maybe we'll get ice cream."
"Okay..." But he didn't want to play. Not without Ventus. They also didn't being the soccer ball, so how could they play?
"But who are all these people?" Roxas asked, "Why are they here?"
"To play." Ventus said. But the other kids didn't have soccer balls either. "Go make some new friends, okay?"
"Will you wait here for us?" Sora asked.
"Yeah, I'll be right here." Ventus assured. Sora and Roxas walked away from Ventus, at first they stayed together. They tried the slide, which was actually fun. Then the wobbly bridge, which made Sora nervous. Then they split up. Roxas ran off, saying hi to everyone and doing whatever while Sora slowly tried out everything there.
"Hi!" Someone said. Sora turned around to see a red headed girl. She was was wearing a white dress that was covered with tiny pink flowers. She had blue eyes, like he did and was holding a lot of flowers.
"Hi." He said.
"My name is Kairi." She handed him a flower. "I picked these for Riku, but he's not here."
"Riku?" Sora asked.
"He's my friend." Kairi said, "And he didn't come today." She waved the flower in his face and a few petals fell off. A few of them wilted and she stopped. "Whoopsies! I think I broke it."
"You broke Riku's flowers?" Sora gasped but Kairi just giggled.
"There's a lot of flowers over there." She pointed. Sora looked at the field of flowers. They reminded him of Aqua's garden, where Ventus had told them to never pull up the flowers.
"Why did you pull them up?" He asked.
"For Riku!" Kairi said, "I told you!"
"Oh." Sora said.
"Now how about we find my sister and go play?" Kairi suggested. Sora nodded, he was ready to meet more people. They traveled through the playground and found a blonde girl near a tree. "She's always just sitting like this." Kairi said.
But the girl wasn't just sitting, she was drawing a picture and to Sora's surprise, Roxas was sitting an watching her. "This is a fish." He heard her say.
"That's Namine. She doesn't really play with other people." Kairi said.
"That is my brother." Sora pointe to Roxas.
"We can all play!" Kairi rushed over, "We're going to play hide and seek!"
"What?" Roxas asked.
"You don't know?" Kairi was shocked, "Everybody knows what his and seek is." Sora didn't, but he didn't tell her that. He was sure that Ventus would have told him why it was if it was important.
"I like hide and seek." Namine said.
"Only because you get to hide and be away from people." Kairi said, "We never find her."
"How do you play?" Roxas asked.
"You just hide and one of us ha to find everyone." Kairi said, "Namine will be it. Let's go hide." Kairi ran away and Sora and Roxas watched Namine.
"We have to hide." Sora whispered.
"What is missy sippy?" Roxas asked. Sora shrugged. "Why does she keep saying it?" Namine continued to count, saying missy sippy between each number.
"What are you doing?" Kairi had come back, "We have to hide."
"But she was saying missy sippy." Sora said.
"No! It's Mississippi! She's counting!" Kairi said. She grabbed their arms and pulled then along, "You guys are horrible at this game."
They stopped behind a bush and kneeled down. "What do we do now?" Sora asked.
"Nothing. We sit until Nami finds us or we get bored." Kairi said, "But she'll never find us."
"Nami?" Roxas asked.
"Who is that?" Sora asked.
"Namine, I call her Nami sometimes." Kairi said. Sora was confused, why would you call someone something that wasn't their name? He could ask Ventus about it later. "So where did you come from? You never come to the park."
"Ventus' house." Roxas answered.
"Is Ventus your dad?" She asked.
Sora shook his head, remembering what Aqua had said. "Ventus is a brother." He said.
"Where is he?" Kairi asked.
"He's sitting down." Roxas said.
"He's not at work? Isn't he a grown up?" Kairi asked.
"No, not yet." Sora answered, "But Aqua is at work."
"She's a sister and a mom." Roxas said.
"You can't be both!" Kairi said.
"Yes you can. Aqua is both!" Roxas argued, "She said so!" Kairi rolled her eyes and looked away.
"How long until Namine finds us?" Sora asked. He was getting tired of sitting behind the bush. He needed to make sure Ventus didn't leave them.
"Jut wait." Kairi said. Sora nodded but Roxas jumped up.
"This is boring. I want to play soccer." He said.
"No, we're playing hide and seek." Kairi said, and we don't even have a soccer ball." Roxas sighed and walked away. Sora watched after him as he headed back to the park. "He got bored too quick." Kairi said, "It happens to Riku too."
"Okay." Sora nodded and they continued to hide.
0.o.0.o.0
Roxas had been bored behind the bush, why did they have to stay in one place so long? There were so many people to play with. Somebody had to have a soccer ball.
Looking around he noticed two boys huddled under a slide. It was a little dark and he couldn't see what they were doing, but he went over anyway. As he got closer, he noticed the smoke between them.
"What are you doing?" He asked. One of the boys jumped and turned quickly.
"Nuthin!" He said.
"Hey, he's just a kid." The other boy said, "Who are you?"
"My name is Roxas." He said.
"This kid sounds weird." The blonde kid said. He scratched his head and looked to the redhead.
"And Roxas is a weird name." The redhead said, "Like you, Demyx."
"It's not weird! It's unique!" Demyx said.
"Yeah, that's what they tell you." The redhead said, "My name is Axel. I think I'm the oldest one here so you have to listen to me."
"How old are you?" Roxas asked, although he didn't really know how age was important or why some people were older then others. How could he get as big as Ventus?
"8, and Demyx is 7. How old are you?" Axel asked.
"5." He answered.
"5? Your a baby." Axel said.
"No, I am 5." Roxas said.
"Nope, you're a baby." Axel laughed.
"Leave him alone, he's bein' nice to us." Demyx said. Roxas looked at the smoke between them and Demyx smiled, "Hey, you wanna see somethin' cool?" He asked.
"Yeah, check it out." Axel pulled out a shiny item, "I got it from my brother." He opened it and fire grew out of it. "We were setting leaves on fire." Axel said.
Axel watched the fire. It was like the stove at home. He'd watched Aqua cook on it yesterday. "How does it do that?" He asked.
"I don't know." Axel said, "That's why lighters do."
"It does it 'cuz that's its job." Demyx said, "It's not allowed to do nuthin' else. Axel picked up another leaf an started to burn it. "All our names have X's in 'em." Demyx said.
"Yeah, but he better leave." Axel said, "Your parents will tell at you if they see you hanging around me."
"I do not have parents." Roxas said, "Just brothers and a sister." Even though Aqua was a mom and a sister, Kairi said she couldn't be both.
"Yeah, I bet he's like my brother. He just sits on the bench and plays on his phone." Axel said, "Or maybe like Demyx's hippy parents, they let him go anywhere."
"So he can stay?" Demyx asked.
"Only if he burns something." Axel pressed the lighter into his hands, "Like that paper over there." Axel pointed to a crumpled piece of paper lying near a car.
"Paper? How come you made me burn some bodies clothes?" Demyx asked.
"Shut up." Axel said. He pushed Roxas forward, "Hurry up." Roxas hurried to the paper and picked it up. He opened the metal like Axel had and set the paper in fire. It burned quickest and he dropped it.
"Roxas? Are you playing with fire?" He heard Terra ask.
"No, I was just setting paper on fire." Roxas said.
"Same thing." The car door opened and Terra stepped out. "You can't do that, you'll get hurt." Terra looked around for a moment, "You know what, I think we should go home."
"No! I met people!" Roxas said. He was making friends like Ventus wanted him to.
"Yeah, but Ventus isn't paying attention to you and I'm tired." Terra took his hand and Roxas quickly put the lighter in his pocket.
"I want to stay here." He looked over to Axel and saw the boy giving him a thumbs up while Demyx waved.
"Don't argue, let's just get the others and go home." Terra yawned, "Besides, I'm pretty sure Aqua will kills us when she finds out we let you okay with fire."
"She is going is kill you?" Roxas gasped, "Like a monster?"
"No!" Terra answered quickly, "No, that was a joke."
"I thought jokes were supposed to be funny." Roxas said. He could never understand how Terra's jokes were funny. They only scared him.
They found Sora and Ventus and got into the car. Roxas patted his pocket and wondered if Axel would be angry that he kept the lighter.
It didn't take long for them to get home. Terra went to his room and they followed Ventus to his. Roxas climbed into bed and found himself to e sleepy. "I'm going to take a nap." He said, "Like Terra."
"Go ahead." Ventus said. Sora began to tell Ventus about the game of hide and seek he played with Kairi and Namine and Roxas drifted off to sleep.
0.o.0.o.0
A/N: Why the heck are these chapters so long? I used to think that word count was the most important part of a story. I know now that this is not true. So I will be splitting chapters and trimming useless things. Can anyone suggest a babysitter?
