Thank you, again, for reading so far and enjoy the chapter! It's more of a family/hurt/comfort one, though it won't be sad and sappy for long. I sort of fixed the bad stuff at the end. Tied up the loose ends. I did put a little something-something at the end for you guys. OC's in this one.

Disclaimer: I don't own Twilight. It was only a reference.


Chapter 12: From Me, To Us

"N-Namine...Is everything okay?" Roxas said nervously, shaking the arm of the confused looking blond girl beside him. "Who was on the phone?"

"Uh, Roxas. Will you please tell me about what had happened with your mum? How she...died?"

Roxas leaned back a little, completely flustered by the question at hand. "How did you even-"

"Axel told me the whole story, and Xion a bit too. So tell me, what happened to your mother?"

"Who was on the phone?"

"Is she really dead?"

"Namine, who was on the phone?" Roxas said sternly. Namine went quiet for a moment, realising she was going a little far.

"Fine, it was Xion. We're going to her house to meet someone. Now."

Roxas made no objection when he saw how serious Namine looked about this. The two walked, not very far, to Xion's house. Roxas tried to ask questions, but Namine seemed to ignore him, aiming only for the door bell to the house. Immediately Xion opened the door with a sighed with relief. "So you guys came. Roxas, wait outside for a second." Xion pulled Namine into the house and shut the door in Roxas's face before he could say anything.

"Is she really here?" Namine whispered.

"No doubt about it. She looks the same as the photos I've seen, and she knows a bunch about Roxas already. She hasn't told me, you know, why or how she's even here. I think we should let Roxas talk it out with her. I'll wait outside the living room while they talk. You can wait upstairs until Roxas is done. Who knows what'll he'll be thinking when he's done. He'll need our help."

"Okay. But I have a feeling this is going to turn out ugly." Just as Xion was about to reach the door knob, Namine stopped her, "Wait, I know it's none of my business, but can I at least see her first?"

Xion took a breath of hesitation. "Fine."

While the black haired girl waited, Namine crept into the living room and saw a beautiful woman waiting on the sofa, looking out of the window with a young girl waiting beside her. The woman pivoted her head to face Namine. "H-Hi..." Namine said awkwardly. "We've never met, but I'm Namine. Roxas's friend."

"Hello Namine. How long have you known Roxas for?"

"Only a few months, actually. But we're close friends."

"It's good to know he's made so many lovely friends. Xion told me about some of them. So, is Roxas...happy, with life?"

"I think so. He's a really great person. He'll be here in a moment to talk. It was nice meeting you though."

"The pleasure is all mine."

Namine scurried off and out of the living room, and up the stairs while she signalled Xion to let Roxas inside. Namine knew the wait upstairs for Roxas to finish would be an anxious one.


Xion opened up the door again and Roxas was standing there with his eyebrows raised. "Did you seriously just shut me out?"

"Sorry about that. Come inside."

"What is with the atmosphere? It's giving me the creeps."

"Roxas, there's someone really important waiting for you in the living room. I'll be waiting here for you if you need me, okay?" Xion grabbed his arm and practically pulled him across the hall and shove him into the quiet room.

Roxas turned his head when he felt someone's presence. In an instant, Roxas made the most terrified look he'd ever made. The woman on the far opposite of him turned to look at him also. "Roxas...I really have missed you...so much..." She said, on the verge of tears.

"Who are you?" Roxas said.

"Roxas, it's me. Your mother."

"No. My mother, my real mother, is long gone. She died."

"Roxas, that never happened. I have a lot to explain, so please just let me. Take a seat." Roxas was now staring at the little girl sitting beside his 'mother'. The child had the most peculiar shade of pinkish rose gold hair. "Can I just say, that I'm not the woman you think I am. It's complicated. Do you know Ventus?"

"Yes, he lives with my aunt half way across the world."

"Your real 'aunt' is the woman you grew up knowing. The woman you called mother."

"What? What do you mean?"

"When I was quite young, only sixteen, I had given birth to two twin boys. One I named Ventus, the other being Roxas. The family I grew up in was very strict and having children before marriage and so young, made my parents extremely ashamed of me. They hated me for the disrespect people gave to them for it. I wanted to disown the two children, hoping to erase all that had happened, but I couldn't bare to let them go. So, my four-years older sister agreed to take you while I kept Ventus. After a year of you being under their care, my sister got married but divorced a few years after, as you know, and eventually my sister died too. I was so devastated. I was living in the place you knew your 'aunt' was living in. I was half way across the world with Ventus, still living under my parents' roof and was financially unsecure to take care of myself, let alone one child."

"So you ditched me?"

"No," the woman begged, "Of course I didn't! I just wasn't ready. After I knew you were motherless, I asked Xion's mother, a close friend of mine, to make sure you were sent to a stable orphanage and taken care of properly. And so your life continued and you were adopted and brought here to Destiny Islands. You met Ventus when you were eleven, correct?"

"Yeah. I got an email from my aunt saying she wanted me to meet my cousin. We just messaged each other and he came over a few times to visit."

"Yes. I sent him so he could meet his brother, even though you thought you were only cousins."

"If all of that is true, why have you come back? And who's the little girl?"

"It's actually about this girl, your step sister."

"What? She's like eight years old! If you were able to take care of another child you should have taken me back years ago! You liar!"

"No Roxas, let's just say she was unplanned. I love her very much, but I'm still very poor. I want to find someone to take care of her, so she can be with you."

Roxas's eyes widened in shock. "So you're planning to ditch another kid?! She's your daughter, take care of her! I can't believe your stupid enough to want to get rid of her, and keep Ventus with you still. You just want to keep him because he'll be an adult soon, right? Make you some money by getting a job. From what you've told me, you've just been irresponsible all your life! And look at where you are now!"

Roxas suddenly felt a guilt inside him. Even though this woman in front of him was an abomination of a mother, he could se the confused yet sad and afraid look in the little girl's eyes when he shouted. If anything, Roxas hated the position he was in. He felt like he was the bad guy in all this, unable to convince himself otherwise.

"Please, Roxas. I'm not good for her. Ventus was able to handle everything he's been through. My daughter doesn't deserve a bad life because of me, I realise that now."

"It's not my decision whether or not she lives here or not. That's for you to figure out and get sorted. You must have a lot of nerve to come here and try shoving a kid on a fifteen year old the weekend before his birthday. I bet you thought sixteen was a grown up age. Which is dumb since you should know from your own experience that it's not."

The woman gave a sad laugh and faced the young girl beside her, but continued to speak to Roxas. "I'm glad I have your permission to let her live here. But I'm not as stupid as you think I am. I've already made arrangements with your mother to foster her as your sister."

"So you would have forced her here regardless of what I said?"

"I honestly would have rather you thought you had a deceased mother than a traitor for one. I just want to know that your all happy, that way I can die in peace one day."

"What do you mean?"

"I've been diagnosed with cancer recently. I'll probably die in fifteen years time. By then, Ventus will be on his own two feet and so will you. My daughter will be in her twenties by then, and she'll have you as a brother. I can all ready tell your kind hearted enough to help her."

"How would you know for sure? I've known you for twenty minutes. I'm pretty sure that's not nearly enough time."

"I know because your nothing like the rest of my family was. Happy birthday, Roxas. You're sixteen in two days. And that blond girlfriend of yours is a real cutie. Atta boy."

"Geez, not you too. She's not my girlfriend."

"Well, I'm sure you can reel her in sometime. Ventus's girlfriend two years older than him. Aqua is her name. She's such a wonderful girl. Very polite and clever."

"I don't want to have this talk with my long lost mother, if that's alright with you." Roxas said childishly, holding out his hand and turning his head away.

Roxas's mother laughed softly and smiled. "I've waited so long just to be able to talk to you like this. Like a real mother. I think I should go, before the waterworks start."

"You know, if you weren't so irresponsible, you would have made an awesome young mum."

"Thanks Roxas. But I'm only thirty two. Too young to take care of myself if you ask me." Roxas's mother began standing up to reach the door, taking the young girl with her. "I'll be on my way then. I'll be leaving on Monday, and by then you'll officially have a real sister and foster sister."

"Well, promise me one thing while your gone."

"Sure, what is it?"

"No more children while your back at Radiant Gardens. Wait, you are married again, right?"

"I have no idea where your birth father is, but I'm happily remarried. But, I guess I can promise. Besides, it won't be long before grandchildren start popping out for me."

Roxas gave a laugh and then opened the living room door for her. "Bye then, mum."

Roxas's mother looked to be on the verge of tears, "I guess this is it. Even when I've gone back, always know that I'm your mother. Phone up Ventus if you want to talk to me. I'm not that old, so the teen life experience is still fresh. Bye."

Xion opened the front door and let the woman walk out, as all three waved goodbye as their distance lengthened. "Well that went a whole lot better than I thought. Not too much yelling. A whole lot less then when my mum walked out on me."

"Yeah, well I guess she just wanted to patch things up with me. Her problem is just that she's...made a whole lot of bad choices and mistakes. So where is Namine."

"Upstairs. The poor girl is probably mentally preparing herself for whatever argument you and your mother had. She's pretty sensitive eh?"

"Yeah. She nearly cried while we were watching Twilight. goodness the girl is such a...girl."

"Tears of joy, I think. Or was it when she thought Bella died?"

The two went up the stairs laughing at Namine's soft-heartedness and eventually reach Xion's bedroom where Namine was sitting on a beanbag. As soon as the worried girl spotted the two walk into the room, she leapt up, ran over to Roxas and gave him a hug so tight that she seemed to be trying to calm herself down instead of sympathising for Roxas.

Roxas could feel it happening again. His cheeks flaring up a little as he felt the Namine whole body gripping onto him. "Roxas, are you okay?" Namine said with her voice slightly muffled.

"Are you?"

"I think so. Was she... a zombie then?"

The room went silent. Xion started laughing her head off. "That's why you were so afraid? You thought she was back from the dead?"

"What else then?" Namine said, releasing her hold on Roxas and practically pushing him aside to face Xion with curiosity in her eyes. "How Roxas's mum be dead, but then not dead?"

"She's a ghost." Roxas said evilly. "She's come to give her last goodbyes before she can pass off to the afterlife as a soul."

"Whoa." Namine said, as if her mind had been blown. "Now tell me what really happened."


The next chapter will go back to the usual nonsense theme of my chapters. Have a great day, as always, and I'll be back with another chapter with a certain adorable sister and an unexpected birthday cake...