Mandy: Whoo! It's another special!

Everyone: Happy Birthday, Mandy! You're 18!!

Mandy: Awww, thanks guys.

Axel: Now you can vote me in for president! Eh? Eh?

Mandy: Uh… Maybe not you…

Axel: Vote for me, or I'll burn down the orphanages!

Xemnas: If he's going for the presidency, I'm going to be his rival, just so people won't have to suffer under his terrible reign.

Mandy: When was presidency a "reign?"

Vaxni: Since Obama became president! -rim shot, sound of recorded laughter- I mean, oh gosh, the government's going to find me and kill me now… ahhhhhhhh

Roxas: Mandy does not own Kingdom Hearts. Feed a writer – leave a review!

Enjoy this extra special and long chapter! The next one is coming within this month (or close to).

(p.s.: I didn't get to post this exactly on my bday, but I did my best. =])

18th Birthday Special – A Legal Nobody Now!

I watched the clock with a peaceful easiness. Sitting on the left end of the couch in the aboveground lobby, I smirked. No one knew what today was… thank goodness. Only Kingdom Hearts knows what kind of surprises the Organization members would throw in my face. Axel would want a party as an excuse to break things, or burn them. Knowing Roxas, he'd probably go out of his way to get something for me. And Luxord… well, I'd rather not go there.

If you don't tell anyone, here's the secret: today's my 18th birthday.

It's just another day out of 365 per year, and it didn't mean that much to me. Besides the fact that I could legally gamble… not that I ever gambled illegally. Heheh… yea. (See Chapter One)

I've been sitting here for ­– I took a quick glance at the clock – half an hour trying to figure it out. Figure what out? How I knew today was my birthday. Was it like how I knew my name? I shrugged, leaning back a bit farther into the couch, trying to get comfier. I think too much.

A Dark Corridor appeared at my right side, and Axel came through, stretching his arms with his eyes closed, yawning. He smacked his lips, blinking at me with eyes that were anything but tired. If you didn't count body language, he looked like he was fired up and ready to go (ha, I made a pun! "Fired up." Get it? …Ahh, I give up). No. 8 smirked at me, plopping onto the couch next to me, his arms stretched out on the top of the couch. He leaned his head back and closed his eyes; as if Axel would need to take a powernap.

"Hey, Vax, what's up?" He said, opening his eyes and tilting his head to look at me.

"The ceiling, knucklehead," I said, rolling my eyes. What did he want? He only came to see me if he wanted something, or if Roxas was with me. Strength in numbers? Nah. Not with the Organization members, anyways. It's always "strength to the lowest number," usually being No. 1, the Superior. I went straight to the point, "Now, tell me what you did. If you 'didn't do anything,' tell me what you want."

"Oh, come one, Vaxni," Axel said, a whine creeping into his voice, "You don't think that every time I visit you, I want something, do you?" I gazed at him blankly, hoping he'd find the answer without me saying anything. "Well, ok, I do want something now."

"What is it?" I asked with a bored tone.

Axel grabbed a strip of black cloth from his pocket. "I want you to blindfold yourself and come with me."

"Hell. No," was my immediate response as I stood up and walked through a Dark Corridor I'd just summoned.

What was wrong with the Organization?! Why were most of them perverts? If I had a dollar for every perverted thing the Organization members did…. I'd have a whole lot of dollars.

With nowhere else to go, I wandered the numerous halls of the Castle That Never Was. That was when I ran into Demyx. He was leaning on the corner of a four-way hall, his back facing me. He looked around as if he was waiting for someone. Demyx's hands were crossed behind his back, clasping on the corner. What was he waiting for? His demeanor said he was calm, but my intuition knew he was nervous. He was good at poker faces, but I don't think he realized that there were small, telltale signs of emotions in his hands. He was gripping the corner so tightly; I wouldn't be surprised if there were dents in the shapes of his hands there. Being me, I decided to mess with him a little.

Using the Dark Corridors, I threw my voice down the left hallway, "Gatorade not only quenches your thirst better, it tastes better, too!" I smiled when he looked left, and then I saw a slow grin form on his face.

"You're drinking the wrong water…" Demyx said in reply, shaking his head.

"Gatorade…" I threw my voice down the right hallway, and he turned toward it.

"H2O…"

Down the hallway straight down from me, "Gatorade…"

"H2O!" Demyx mumbled.

"Water sucks! It really, really sucks!" I said, this time without throwing my voice anywhere. (If the Dark Corridors weren't so blatantly obvious, I'd be a good ventriloquist!)

He turned to me, grinning – my plan had worked. He wasn't nervous anymore. Demyx just needed to loosen up sometimes and come out of his shell. If that happened, maybe Axel wouldn't pick on him so much.

"We so have to watch that movie together," I said, grinning, "It's the closest I can get to picking on you."

Demyx walked up to me, and then nodded. "Yea, that'd be cool." He gave me a vague attempt at Axel's lopsided half-grin. What's that about? "Actually, Vaxni… could you come with me? Close your eyes – it's a surprise secret."

I cocked my head to the side. "Surprise secret?" Again, Demyx nodded. Was this what Axel had been trying to do, to show me the "surprise secret"? If so, he should've sent Demyx first.

"So?" Demyx prodded.

"Okay," I piped, "But you're probably going to have to cover my eyes, Dem-dem. I'm always curious and will want to peek." He was surprised at his new nickname, but he did as I had asked. Demyx's gloved gingers did not reveal to me a single peek of where we were going.

"We're almost there," Demyx said. We entered a cool room – or were we outside? – where I smelled something strong yet familiar.

"Do I smell… chlorine?" I asked. That was when Demyx removed his hands from my face, and I was greeted to the surprise secret.

"Surprise!" Laxaeus, Zexion, Axel, Demyx, Luxord, Marluxia, and Roxas shouted simultaneously from various places surrounding one end of an Olympic-sized outdoor pool. They all wore swim trunks, except Demyx, because he just got there. "Happy 18th Birthday, Vaxni!"

The surprise secret was more than just a surprise – it was a jolt to my senses. Seven out of the thirteen Organization members actually wanted to give me, the annoying No. 14, a surprise birthday party and a pool to boot? Would the real Organization members stand up and raise their hands, please?

"How did you know it was my birthday, and my 18th one, no less?" I wondered as Demyx joined the rest of them, peeling off his cloak to reveal the blue swim trunks underneath.

"I heard you mumble in your sleep about it." Axel said, "So, I decided to get a little party goin'. Oh, yea," he added, turning to retrieve a silver one-piece bathing suit from a chair beside him, "We got you a bathing suit, too. Go try it on."

"Aww," I was almost moved to tears. Keyword: almost. "I'm not going to disregard the part where you're watching me sleep, but thanks, guys." I gave Axel a hug, and then took the suit with me through a Dark Corridor to a changing room of my own choosing. Why did I do that? Well, I thought it was sweet of him. Ohhh, you were wondering about the changing room! Don't you think it might be a little suspicious for seven guys to give a girl a swimsuit for her birthday, only to turn around and lead her to a changing room? Wouldn't you think that perverts like them would put a camera in that room? Or maybe I'm just too untrusting, who knows…

I came back in my suit, which tried to show the least skin possible; I liked it. Axel knew me so well now, it was kind of scary. Next thing I'd know, I'd find Axel setting up "Pin the Eye patch on No. 3" and a rousing game of Truth or Dare already on its second round.

Half of that was true.

"Okay, Demyx, Truth or Dare?" Axel said, a mischievous gleam in his eye demanding a "dare." I stood off in the shadows behind him. It wasn't everyday that a girl got to watch a group of oblivious guys play "Truth or Dare."

"Truth," Demyx said immediately. I would've picked that, too, if I had been questioned by Axel, the King of Dares.

"If you were looking through Vaxni's underwear drawer, what kind of underwear do you think you'd find, if any at all?"

My jaw dropped. This wasn't Truth or Dare – this was something much, much worse! I decided that this was my cue to walk up behind Axel, a perfectly evil smile gracing my face.

"Hello, guys," I said in a sickly sweet tone, "What… are… you doing?"

Demyx, being the most innocent one of the bunch, made up excuses as to what they were doing in a hurried manner, and then ended up confessing just as quickly when I looked at him with a bittersweet smile. Axel, being the ringleader, admitted to it instantly, and declared that I wore red undies with black hearts on them, holding up the incriminating evidence like a flag.

The easiest way of cooling down a fire is to… well, drown it in pool water. But it doesn't have to be so specific, I guess. It was just like that in this instance.

The others just sat around and watched as Axel slowly ran out of air under the surface of the water. Luxord had a betting pool going on how long I would keep him under there. There were lots of bets on "'til he's dead" and "'til he evaporates all of the pool water."

"Is he dead yet?" Zexion asked eagerly.

"Doesn't look like it," Laxaeus replied.

"How 'bout now?"

"He seems to be running low on air."

"Good, because if I win, I get 10 years." (Basically, 10 years is the equivalent to 10k in US dollars to the Organization. This means Zexion really thinks Axe's going to die – or, at least, he hopes so.)

Since I didn't want my sometimes-best friend to die (but mostly because I didn't want to put up with Zexion for an additional 10 years), I let him go, allowing him to come up to the surface for air. He didn't even look fazed. He removed the clear bendy straw from his mouth that had come from absolutely nowhere, smirking as he crawled out of the pool. He had faked drowning!

"First she hugs me, and then she drowns me?" Axel said as the water steamed off of him, "Vaxni is getting mood swings already…?"

OK, so fires needed a few more dousing gallons of pool water sometimes. It's their nature to keep burning.

Later, when Axel was less mischievous, it was present-opening time.

"My present was building the pool," Laxaeus told me, "Just so you don't think I didn't get you anything."

"Thank you! It's awesome!" I hugged the big yet slightly emotional man, which caught him off guard.

"Here," Zexion said, looking away from me, but holding out a black leather bound book. It wasn't very thick, but it was a book, nevertheless. "It's 1984 by George Orwell, first edition. The binding was falling apart, so I fixed it." I blinked in surprise as I took the book. When did he become a book doctor?

Even though he was a pervert and I was probably going to give him enough fantasies to last him a month, I hugged him tightly to me, saying thank you. When I let go, everyone had shocked expressions.

"How did you know that 1984 is my favorite?" I wondered out loud.

"'You are a slow learner,'" He quoted. I smiled.

"'But how can I help seeing what is in front of my eyes? Two and two are four!'" I quoted back. All of the other party-goers were confused.

"'Sometimes. Sometimes they are five. Sometimes they are three. Sometimes they are all of them at once. You must try harder. It is not easy to become sane.'"

I grinned, patting Zexion on the back, "You just moved from the 'Hated' List to the 'Favorites' List. Good job!"

I turned to Axel, expecting the worst. He only had one present in his hand. "My presents are the party and this box of your favorite underwear," He held the flat, rectangular box out to me, smirking, daring me to open it in front of everyone. I peeked inside, but instead of finding that, I found a tiny note that told me to look up.

When I did, it was amazing.

Fireworks of silver and gold dazzled across a sky filled with stars. They whizzed and whirled and did things that were unnatural for fireworks to do. Suddenly it stopped. I looked around to see if there were some I was missing. And then came the big finale – an extremely large red firework shot across the sky, doing a giant starburst that turned into molten flame, which took up the whole sky.

"Whoa…" was all I could say. The finale left an imprint on my eyes, as well as my mind.

"Happy Birthday," Axel said, kissing my cheek. I didn't notice it. (When I later thought about it, I decided to let it go without protest. I just wouldn't let him do it again.)

"Our presents are going to look dim in comparison to that," Demyx said in a disappointed tone.

I snapped out of my trance, only to snap at Dem-dem. "What? No way! Everyone's presents are equally special!"

"Well, present #1: I'm the pool boy. I take care of water and chlorine levels and cleaning it," Demyx took out a stack of CDs on a rolling bookcase. "I didn't know what to get you, so I'm giving you my music collection."

"Hey, those are yours, though!" I protested, "No way am I going to take your own stuff."

"It's okay; I just listen to all of it on my laptop. It's easier than lugging around a bunch of CDs." I picked a random album off of the shelf.

"Panic at the Disco?! Seriously?!" I saw their other album next to it, along with Nickelback, "Their newest album, too! 3 Doors Down, Three Days Grace, The Beatles, all of the Nows… My favorites!" Demyx received the biggest hug so far. "Thank you, Dem-dem!" He blushed at the use of his new nickname, and I heard a few snickers.

"Well, you're 18 now," Luxord said, handing me a bottle. "You can legally drink!" I sweat-dropped.

"Um… Luxord, not that I don't appreciate the thought, but… that's not until I'm 21." I replied, a sheepish smile on my face. I knew that was going to happen…

The Gambler of Fate laughed heartily, taking the bottle back. "I know, I was joking. That's for me. This is your present!" He handed me 5 years of time chips and a new deck of cards with the Organization on the back of each card. "I had those specially made. A memento, you could say."

"Thanks, Lux," I said, grinning at him. We weren't very good friends, but a handshake between us established a new friendship.

As soon as I turned to Marluxia, I found my arms absolutely full to brimming with roses of red, silver, white, and black. "Roses for my favorite flower! " He whispered into my ear. He didn't say it, but I think it was implied that there was a little heart at the end of that sentence.

After the tedious chore of sorting the roses into different vases, I turned to Roxas. "Last but most certainly not least," I announced, smiling.

"My present is the gift of my cooking for six months, whatever you'd like," Roxas smirked when he saw the drooling mouths of the other members. Was his cooking that good? "And this."

He handed me a photo album with a picture of Kingdom Hearts on the cover – that heart-shaped moon by the Castle That Never Was – and I opened the album to find pictures of Roxas, Axel, and me having fun; of me listening to Demyx's sitar; of Luxord, a group of Organization members, and me playing poker; of Marluxia and me tending to the Nobody's Flowers, with Axel discreetly lighting flowers on fire in the background; of me punching Zexion in the shoulder, both of us laughing; of Laxaeus and me posing like MIB with black sunglasses; of me sneaking into Vexen's lab; of Axel and me putting tacks on the Superior's chair and on the bottom of his desk, and of us taking a picture of him sitting down and then standing up again, only to get tacks stuck in his knees and butt; of Roxas and me playing Super Smash Bros. Brawl; of Roxas and me making silly faces… the pictures went on and on. Most of them were of Roxas and me, but I appreciated that he put other members in, too.

"Who's the photographer in most of these?" I wondered.

"Usually me, but Laxaeus did the other shots." Roxas replied, "I wanted memories that would last forever."

"Awww," I hugged him for even longer than the rest of them. "You win the award for most heartfelt gift! Even excluding the cooking," I added.

After some time messing around in the pool, we all used the Dark Corridors to watch the sunrise at the Twilight Town Clock Tower (or was it a sunset here?).

As I leaned back and closed my eyes, I heard them all say again, "Happy Birthday, Vaxni."

Mandy: Awww, wasn't that the sweetest and most heartfelt thing you've ever read?

Vaxni: Mandy was feeling gushy mushy love-love when she wrote this, if you're wondering.

Mandy: (gushy mushy love-love?)

Next chapter is in the making! You'll love it – it even has its own theme song!

p.s.: I like making chapters that star one of the Organization members and Vaxni figuring out something about them. If you hadn't already figured that out. ^^;