Chapter 4
Roxas woke up and looked around. He saw Sora curled under the blanket on the other side of the bed, but no Ventus between them. He immediately began to panic. "Sora!" he crawled over and shook his little brother awake, "Ventus is gone." he said.
Sora sat up quickly, "Where?" he asked.
Roxas shrugged, "I think the buggerman took him under the bed." he said, "We have to save him."
"But what if he takes us too?" Sora asked. They stared at each other for a second before getting out of bed slowly. They stared down at the space separating the floor and their bed, "Maybe we should get Terra to help out." Sora suggested.
"No time! We need to save him before he eats Ventus." Roxas said. Sora nodded and they both bent down. He lifted the blanket and peeked underneath.
"He's not there." he said. They stood up and walked towards the door. As Sora reached for the handle, the door opened, revealing Ventus. "Ventus! I thought you got taken by the bookyman." Sora said.
Ventus sighed, "I told last night he isn't real." he said.
"Why are you dressed like that?" Roxas asked, "I thought you said we don't wear special clothes all the time."
"We don't, this is my school uniform." Ventus said.
"School?" Roxas questioned.
"A place we go to learn stuff." Ventus explained.
"Is it fun?" Sora asked.
"Sometimes, but not really." Ventus started to search his room for his schoolbooks. Roxas watched him move and then realized he didn't have good clothes on like Ventus. Ventus found his books and walked out of the room, Roxas then realized he wasn't taking them with him.
"Ventus! I want to come." he called after him.
"I'm not taking you to school with me!" he said from the bottom of the stairs. Sora and Roxas hurried down the stairs and grabbed his legs.
"Why do you keep leaving?" Sora asked, "Why won't you take us with you?"
"Aqua!" Ventus yelled, "A little help." Aqua came out of the kitchen and saw the boys.
"Oh right, I called a babysitter, he's on his way." she said
"Well can you get them off of me?" he asked, "I don't want to miss my bus."
"You still have half an hour until you need to go, what's the rush?" Aqua asked. Ventus didn't answer he just looked away. "See, you can hang out with them a little bit-" the doorbell rang and Aqua walked over, "He's here." She opened the door and a boy walked in. He looked young, and familiar to.
Roxas stared up at the two boys, "Who's that?" he asked.
"Yes Aqua, who's this?" Ventus asked.
"Come on Ven, I know you still remembered me. It hasn't been that long, just uh… 9 years?" the boy said, "Yeah, I was 6 when it happened." Roxas looked over to Ventus, he looked deep in thought.
"Right, TJ." he muttered, "Why'd you pick him Aqua? He's younger then me."
"Just by one year." TJ said.
"Shouldn't you be in school or something?" Ventus asked, "You're only 15."
"Well, I just moved here, and the school year ended already where I'm from." TJ said with a shrug, "Aqua called and said you needed help."
"Yeah, no offense TJ, but I don't think you can handle them." Ventus said.
"Oh, come one. How hard could it be? I won't be alone, Aqua said Terra would be here some of the time and so would she." TJ said, "I'm good at this, I watched my neighbors kids all the time."
Ventus glared at the boy for a while before turning to Roxas and Sora.
"Okay, guys this is your cousin TJ." he said, Roxas noticed the way he said cousin was different from the way he said everything else, "He's going to be watching you while I'm at school." Roxas continued to watch Ventus, he looked unhappy. And this TJ person was the cause of it, so why was Ventus trying to leave them with him.
Roxas shook his head, "I don't want to stay with him." he said. Sora remained quiet, but Roxas knew he didn't want to either.
"Sorry, not much I can do now." Ventus muttered. He walked out of the house without another word. Roxas turned to Aqua who seemed ready to leave as well.
"You're leaving too?" he asked sadly.
Aqua bit her lip, "Sorry, I need to check on the restaurant. I'll be back in a few hours." she said. She rushed out of the house and Roxas looked back to TJ.
"Alright, what should we do?" TJ asked.
"Can we go get Ventus?" Sora asked.
"Sorry, we can't he'll be back though so we can wait." TJ said, "I bet you guys are hungry." Roxas stared up at TJ and suddenly felt his face get warm. He was starting to cry; he wiped his face and sniffled.
"I want Ventus!" he cried.
Sora gave his brother a hug, "TJ says he's coming back." he said, "So you don't need to cry."
"B-but he keeps leaving, he doesn't like us." Roxas wept on his brothers shoulders until TJ picked him up.
"Hey, don't cry kid." he walked into the kitchen and set him down in a chair, "He likes you just fine, he just had to leave and you couldn't come."
Roxas nodded, "Why doesn't he like you?" he asked.
"Oh, well. It's not really me he doesn't like. Just my parents." TJ said, "But enough of that. I'll get you something to eat and then we can find you something to wear so we can go out."
"Out?" Sora repeated, he stepped into the kitchen and climbed into the seat next to Roxas, "We don't want to go out."
"Why not?" TJ asked.
"It's scary out there…" Roxas said.
"No it's not; Ventus goes out there a lot so it can't be that scary. Plus you can meet other kids to play with." TJ said, "You'll see." Roxas looked to Sora and then back down at the table, if they went out, they could find Ventus.
"We don't know how to play." Roxas said.
"Well it doesn't take much, the kids can teach you." TJ said, he began looking through the fridge for some food. "You guys like cereal?"
"Cereal?" Sora asked.
"Oh that's right, you guys don't know anything." TJ said. He took out the carton of milk and a few bowls, "This is Ventus' favorite cereal, it's called Coco Puffs." he showed them the box, "It's chocolate." TJ fixed them both a bowl and placed it in front of them. "Go on and eat, I'll go find something for you to wear."
They started eating and TJ left the room, "I don't like him." Roxas said as soon as he left, "And Ventus doesn't either."
"He's not bad, and Aqua called him." Sora said, "She would not call him if he was bad."
"But he's making us go outside." Roxas said.
"I think we should go, because then Ventus will be able to take us more places." Sora said, "If we stop being scared of outside."
"Yeah but, what if Vexen comes to take us?" Roxas said.
"He can't, Ventus said so." Sora said. They continued to eat, " I bet when Ventus comes back, he'll be happy that we can go places with him."
TJ came back with some clothes, "Ventus was really small as a kid wasn't he?" he said to no one in particular. "I think we should wait until at least noon, that's when the playground will be full."
"When's noon?" Roxas asked.
"A few hours from now, but until then, what do you want to do?" TJ asked.
"I wan to draw a picture with color pens for Ventus." Sora said.
"Alright, I brought crayons so we can do that when your done eating." TJ went into the living room and retrieved his bag, "Anything else?"
"No, and I finished my cereal." Sora said.
"Me too." Roxas stuffed the last few bits into his mouth and slurped down the milk. TJ took the bowls and placed them in the sink. He placed some paper and crayons in front of the boys and sat down. "I'm going to draw Ventus."
"Me too." Sora said. They each picked up crayons and started to draw, "How do they get color in these?" he asked.
"I don't know, but I bet Ventus does." TJ said. The boys accepted the answer and continued to draw. Roxas glanced up at TJ every now and then. TJ wasn't doing much, just staring absently into space, waiting for the kids to ask another question.
"So Mr. TJ… what's outside?" Roxas asked, he wasn't sure if he really wanted to go. When they had first come to Ventus' house, it was scary. It was bright, it was loud and they got into the big rumbly machine. He didn't want to do that again. Buy he figured if Ventus could go out without being scared he could too.
"Um, playgrounds, where most kids go to play… uh stores, schools and other stuff. I can't really think of much now." TJ said with a shrug, "But I'm sure you'll like it." Roxas nodded, still not trusting TJ.
"How many people are out there?" he asked.
"Not too many. Most people are at work or in school." TJ said. Roxas looked to Sora who was doodling absently. Roxas turned back to his picture and continued to draw. TJ got up and went somewhere else again.
"What time is noon again?" Roxas asked.
"I don't know…" Sora mumbled. Neither of them knew how to tell time. "I bet TJ can teach us." Sora suggested.
"NO, Ventus has to do it." Roxas said, "He has to teach us stuff."
"But Ventus isn't here." Sora said, "How can we tell when noon is if we don't know how to tell time?"
"We don't need to tell time." Roxas said, "It won't help us at all." Roxas didn't understand how Sora could settle with having TJ teach them things, he probably would teach them wrong. That's why Ventus didn't like him, he was… what's the word? Stupid. And TJ was trying to make them stupid, and then Ventus wouldn't want them either. Roxas decided immediately that he didn't like TJ as long as Ventus didn't.
X.x.X.x.X
They were outside, as hard as it was to believe, they were outside. Without Ventus. As scared as Roxas was, he refused to hold TJ's hand. Of course Sora had no problem with it. Roxas frowned deeply, Ventus wouldn't like Sora anymore. He couldn't let that happen to his brother, but from what he could see, Sora was too scared to let go of TJ. "How long until the playground?" Roxas asked quietly.
"It's only a few feet away." TJ said, he pointed at a mess of colorful poles. There were tubes that twisted around and there were ladders everywhere. The ground was blue, with red and yellow dots everywhere. Roxas thought it looked strange, especially since it was so bright. Then there were kids, only a few of them but enough of them to get Roxas excited.
"Look Sora! More kids." He said, he'd never actually seen any other kids. It was always just him and Sora.
Sora opened his eyes and saw his brother staring wide-eyed at the playground, not in fear though, he actually looked happy. Sora looked to the playground and saw the other children. "We get to play with them?" He asked, he slowly let go of TJ's hand but stayed close to him.
"Yeah, it'll be fun." TJ said.
Roxas felt the urge to rush forward and say "HI!" to as many kids as he could find, but he wasn't comfortable enough to leave Sora alone with TJ. They reached the playground and Roxas stepped forward cautiously, 'Come on Sora." he said "Don't you want to play?"
"Yes, I do." Sora mumbled, he stepped forward and stood next to Roxas and glanced back at TJ, "You won't leave us will you?" he asked.
"No, I'll be sitting there if you need me." TJ said, he pointed to a bench and walked over. Roxas looked to Sora and back to the playground.
"Come on, we can meet people." he said, "So we can play with them when Ventus is gone." They walked forward and into the playground. Almost immediately, two girls skipped over to them. One was holding flowers, this one had red hair and a white dress on, and it was lined with ruffles at the bottom and pink flowers. She had blue eyes that were a little brighter then Sora's.
The other girl had a white dress on, her eyes were similar to the other girls, the only difference was that she had blonde hair. "Hi, I'm Kairi." The red headed girl said, "and this is my sister Namine."
"I'm Sora, and this is Roxas." Sora said, "We haven't been here before."
"Really?" Kairi asked, "You just moved here?"
"Uh huh." Sora nodded.
"We could play together, Riku isn't here today." Kairi said.
"Who's Riku?" Roxas asked.
"He's our friend, but he's sick." Kairi said with a frown, "But I picked flowers for him." Kairi waved the flowers in Roxas' face. A few petals flew off and the flower wilted a little, "Whoops, I think I broke it."
"Does that mean you can't give them to Riku?" Sora asked.
"Well there's a bunch more around here." Kairi said, she pointed to a big felid of colorful flowers, "I can pick more before we leave."
"Okay, what will we play?" Sora asked.
"Um, we usually play hide and seek. Riku is always it because he doesn't blend in with anything." Kairi said.
"What's hide and seek?" Roxas asked.
Kairi gasped dramatically, "You don't know?" she asked, "Well it's the funnest game I've played so far. All you have to do is hide somewhere, and Namine will try to find you. Now let's go hide, Namine, count to 30." Kairi ran away and Sora and Roxas watched after her, where could they hide? They looked to Namine; she was standing with her hands over her eyes.
"One Mississippi, two Mississippi, three Mississippi…"
"Sora, what's a miss-is-sippy?" Roxas asked. Sora shrugged and continued to watch. They continued to watch Namine until Kairi came back.
"What are you doing?" she asked, "Your supposed to be hiding."
"Yeah but, she was saying some stuff." Roxas said.
"Yeah, um she's counting; now go hide before she gets to thirty." Kairi said. She pulled the boys along with her, "You guys are horrible at this game."
"What do we do now?" Sora asked after Kairi stooped, they were behind one of the tubes.
"Well, nothing. We have to wait and hope Nami won't find us." Kairi said.
"Nami?" Roxas asked, "Who's that?"
"Namine. I call her Nami sometimes." Kairi said. Roxas looked confused for a minute before nodded. He guessed it was okay to call people by something other then their name. Aqua called Ventus Ven all the time. "So where did you come from?" Kairi asked.
"Ventus' house." Roxas answered.
"Oh, is Ventus your dad?" Kairi asked.
"Yes." Sora said with a nod.
"Where is he?" she asked.
"At school." Roxas said.
"No, growed ups don't go to school. They go to work. So they can buy stuff." Kairi said.
"Well Ventus isn't a growed up! He's still a kid." Roxas said.
"Then he's not your dad 'cuz dad's can't be kids." Kairi said.
"Yes they can!" Roxas said. Kairi just shook her head and turned to Sora.
"How long until Namine finds us? I bet she isn't even over here." Kairi said. Sora and Kairi began to converse while Roxas sat with his arms crossed. He'd decided that he didn't like Kairi because she talked about Ventus. He didn't understand how Sora could sit and talk to her.
Roxas glanced around the park, maybe he could go play with someone else. TJ never said he had to play with one person the whole time. He spotted two boys sitting in the grass near the flowers. One had red hair that kind of reminded him of Kairi's, except it was spiked up. The other had blonde hair that was also spiked up.
Roxas looked back to Sora and Kairi before creeping off towards the boys. They were huddled together and there was smoke between them. "Hey, what're you doing?" Roxas asked as he reached them.
The blonde boy jumped and looked up, "Who are you?" he asked, "I've never seen you here before."
"Uh… I'm Roxas."
"Roxas? That's a weird name. Kind of like this one here, his names Demyx." the red headed boy said.
"My names not weird." the boy, Demyx, snapped, "It's unique."
"Yeah, unique, whatever," the red head turned to Roxas, "My name is Axel. I'm the oldest one here so you have to listen to me."
"How old are you?" Roxas asked, "I'm 5."
"5? Well I'm 8 years old." Axel said, "I'm skipping school to hang out with Demyx here." Roxas looked at the smoke between them, "Oh this? I was setting leaves on fire with this." Axel held out a metal item. It was shiny, really shiny. Axel opened it up and showed him the fire.
Roxas watched it until the wind blew it out, "How'd you do that?" he asked.
"Oh, it's a lighter. It makes fire, that's its job." Axel said. Roxas nodded and looked down at the leave on the ground. They weren't completely burned but Roxas could see they were a little charred.
"Hey! All our names have X's in them. Isn't that cool?" Demyx said happily.
"Yeah sure." Axel said, "Now Roxas, you better get away before your parents see you hanging out with me. I'm sure they won't like it."
"My parents aren't here. Just my cousin, and I don't like him so I don't care what he says." Roxas said.
"Axel, he's a bad boy already!" Demyx laughed, "Can he stay?"
Axel stared at him before nodding, "But first, a little initiation." Axel smirked, he pressed the lighter into Roxas' hands, "Go burn something. Like…" Axel looked around for something, "That! Go burn that piece of paper."
"A piece of paper? I had to burn a person!" Demyx said, "That's unfair."
"Shut up Demyx." Axel snapped. He pushed Roxas forward, "Now go and hurry up."
Roxas nodded and started walking towards the paper. It was lying on one of the benches; he grabbed it and opened the lighter, remembering to do everything Axel had done. He'd just set the paper on fire when someone smacked the paper out of his hands. "Roxas, you don't play with fire." It was TJ. Roxas frowned and looked over.
"I wasn't playing with it, I was just setting the paper on fire." he said.
"It doesn't matter. It's time to go home." TJ said, he sounded angry, "Where's Sora?"
"I don't want to go home." Roxas said, "I want to stay out here."
"Well we're going home." TJ grabbed his arm and started walking though the park, "Sora! Come on, we have to go!" Roxas looked back at Axel and Demyx before looking down at the lighter still clutched in his hands. He slipped it into his pocket and pulled his hand away from TJ. "Stop being like this Roxas." TJ said.
"Like what?" he asked as Sora walked over.
"Like a- never mind." TJ led the boys out of the park, "You're going to be in trouble Roxas, Ventus won't be happy." Roxas frowned and looked down; he wasn't going to be in trouble because he hadn't done anything wrong. Maybe he'd tell Ventus that he didn't like TJ and then Ventus would stay with them instead of TJ.
They walked into their home and Roxas walked up the stairs into Ventus' room. He would just take a nap until Ventus got home. He crawled into bed and curled up on top of a pillow. He closed his eyes and slipped his hand into his pocket, he rubbed the surface of the lighter until he drifted off.
0.o.0.o.0
Okay, the end. The first day outside did not plan out how I wanted it too, but at least they met friends? And they're not scared… well they're not as scared of the outside. I don't think I got Kairi right but that's not important at the moment. I know Ventus was in an orphanage so you're probably wondering why he has a cousin. There is a reason for it; it comes up later, maybe next chapter. So, review and tell me what you think.