"There we go," Roxas mumbled as he gave the kitten a final brushing. "Bathed, fed, and brushed. Now you're presentable." He eyed the kitten, who was sitting on Roxas's grey pillow, staring curiously up at the boy with huge blue eyes. "Hm," Roxas mumbled, "I don't see anything else that needs to be done... "
The kitten yawned.
"Yeah, why don't we take a nap first?" Roxas asked the tabby. "That way you'll be a fresh, fully awake present." Roxas curled into a loose ball , resting his head next to the kitten, who had also curled up. The steady, content purring of the animal made Roxas doze...
"...xas... Roxas... Hey, Roxas, wake up!"
Roxas's eyes fluttered open wildly, and the boy sprang up. "What, what?!" he asked frantically.
Axel rolled his eyes. "I was going to ask you, where's the kitten?"
"Don't you see it?" Roxas asked irritably, still looking at the pyro. "It's on the... pillow... Uh oh."
A totally vacant pillow.
"Uh... Cat?" Roxas called. "Kitten? Where are you?" Roxas peeked under his bed, looked in his several dressers, poked through his closet, searched his bathroom, examined his toilet. No kitten.
Axel was assisting as well. he cupped his hands around his mouth and called out for the little animal. "Eh, squeaker! Where'd you go?! Squeaky? You there? Hello, are you anywhere nearby, Tiny? Meatball! Princess? Hey, carne asada!"
"Okay," Roxas huffed, exasperated. "We are NOT calling HER carne asada!"
Axel shrugged. "I can't believe you lost the kitten!" he exclaimed, eyeing Roxas.
"I didn't mean to!" Roxas shot back, worried. "We were sleeping, and I didn't mean to go to sleep! B-But the purring! And the-the comfortable-ness of my bed! And--"
"And you lost it!"
Roxas grabbed his blond, spiky hair in paranoia. "We gotta find it! She's all alone out here in this castle, with big scary men out who would probably step on her! Or worse! EAT her!"
Axel raised an eyebrow. "Y'know," he started, "the only one most likely to do that is Saix."
This only made Roxas widen his eyes and gasp dramatically. "Saix is gonna eat Namine's kitten before she even gets to see it!" he sped past Axel, who nearly stumbled over, and raced down the hallways, searching for the kitten.
Axel poked his head into the kitchen. Creeping to his knees, he scouted underneath the tables for the bundle of trouble. All he got was an accidental kick in the face. He reeled back from under the table in pain and alarm. "Ow!" he cried, holding his nose. "Dammit, that hurt!"
Larxene looked at Axel, genuinely surprised. "The hell were you doing underneath the table in the first place?"
"I was, ah..." Axel searched for the proper words. "Looking for something."
Larxene raised a finely arched eyebrow. "Contacts, perhaps?" she asked sarcastically.
"That's right!" Axel replied, pretending to search the floor again. "My contacts! I can't see without my-- hey, wait a minute!" He looked up at Larxene, frowning comically. "You meanie."
Larxene shrugged. "Sarcasm is a beautiful thing; appreciate it."
"I appreciate you telling me if you've seen a kitten running around," Axel retorted.
Larxene didn't miss a beat. "In Marluxia's gardens. Saw it up a tree a while ago."
"Huh?" Axel sighed nervously. "Please tell me it's not the tallest one..."
"Predictable, isn't it?"
"Dammit!" Axel groaned, before turning on his heel and calling Roxas's name.
Larxene grinned and rose as well; no way was she going to miss this.
"Why's it gotta be the tallest tree?" Roxas moaned as he immediately spotted the tabby, far up in the tree. Honestly, the tabby kitten looked as if it were enjoying itself.
Larxene's voice sounded from behind Roxas and Axel. "Because the higher the tree," she quipped, "the harder the idiots who climb it fall!"
"You're real supportive," Axel grumped.
Larxene smiled devilishly. "And I brought someone to accompany me." She stepped aside, and Roxas's heart skipped a beat when he saw Namine in the taller woman's shadow. Namine, however, was looking up at the kitten.
"Someone should get it down," Namine said worriedly. "It looks really young; it might fall..." Her blue eyes swam with worry.
Roxas didn't know what he was doing, but he immediately piped up, "I'll get it down for you, Namine."
Namine looked at him for the first time, their small argument in the kitchen quite obviously forgotten. "Be careful, then," she said. "Be careful with the kitten."
Axel raised an eyebrow again at Roxas. He knew something about Roxas that the boy himself had probably forgotten, in his haste to impress Namine and get her attention.
Roxas, the Key Of Destiny, was a crappy tree-climber.
