Introduction: I decided to do Wishing-Fire's 50 theme challenge for Roxas/Xion (platonic) and Terra/Cinderella (romance) in the Stepsiblings universe. I'm completely disregarding the word count limit, ftr. *sweatdrop* Probably won't ace the "each chapter must show a progress of a relationship" rule, either...and sometimes I failed at even making the drabbles about RokuShi, since stupid Axel & Saïx kept invading...IT'S JUST ONE BIG FAIL, OKAY?
Stepsiblings, a Kingdom Hearts fanfic series by Raberba girl; 50 theme challenge by Wishing-Fire
Lights in Shadow - Fifty Moments (part 1) [rough draft]
For Roxas/Xion Day, 20 June 2013
Summary: Fifty moments for Xion & Roxas.
A/N: All of the drabbles in the series are chronological except for theme 20. ...And I just realized that theme 1 (New Beginnings) takes places after themes 2 & 3, which happen during that amusement park visit where Axel, Saïx, Xion, & Roxas first meet each other. Whoops...
I'd wanted to do ten drabbles per 'chapter,' not five, but I wanted to post the first batch in time for RokuShi Day, so I had to hurry. *sweatdrop*
1. New Beginnings
"Daddy?"
"Yes, Xion?" he said as he tucked her in that night.
"I'm excited to get a new mommy, but...I was wondering."
After a long pause, he finally asked in a patient tone, "What were you wondering, Xion."
"...Are you excited to get a new mommy?"
"What?"
"I mean, a wife. Not a mommy."
"Go to sleep." He leaned to kiss her, then stood up to leave.
"Wait, Daddy!"
"What is it?" The patience was starting to sink into neutrality.
"...Come here again?"
He knelt so as to be closer to her, eyes giving a very slight warning.
She reached for them, touching his face softly. "When we talk about her, your eyes don't look happy."
His Shield hardened, completely cutting her off from his emotions. "I am pleased at the prospect of having a new wife to help carry on our family's name."
"What's that mean?"
"If all goes well, you shall have new siblings, Xion."
"Yeah! Axel and Roxas, right? Please please please Daddy can we go play with them again soon?"
He smiled slightly, relieved that she had misunderstood and he was no longer forced to explain. "As you wish, Xion."
"Yay!"
o.o.o
"He's not scary scary, is he?" Lea said in a playful, wheedling tone, tickling Roxas a little.
He giggled and pushed her hands away. "His eyes are weird."
"They're pretty. Have you ever seen pretty yellow eyes like that?"
"No."
"Exactly! It makes him stand out. He's very handsome."
"Axel doesn't like him."
"Axel doesn't like much," Lea pouted.
"Yes he does. He likes ice cream. And he likes me."
"Everyone likes you," Lea cooed, cuddling and kissing him. "Everyone loves you."
"Stop," he giggled.
The playfulness died down, and she lay beside him stroking his hair with a thoughtful, slightly sad look on her face. "Listen, Roxas," she finally said. She sounded serious, so he listened. "It's been...kind of hard, since your daddy left."
"Axel gets mad a lot. And sometimes he cries."
"What?"
"That was a long time ago, though. Now he just laughs a lot and makes other people mad. And he'll play with me if I ask him."
"Axel doesn't cry."
"Not anymore."
"...Roxas, you'll be okay having a new family. You really will."
"I don't want a new family..."
She kissed him again, lips lingering on his forehead as she tried to hold back her own tears. "Roxas...it's been really, really hard for me and Axel to take care of you all on our own. There's too much stuff to pay for, there's never enough money... Don't you want to be rich, sweetie? Don't you want a mom and dad who'll be able to buy you whatever you want?"
"I want a Buzz Lightyear."
"Well...you can have one if you let Mommy marry Xem, okay?"
"Okay." He said it easily, but then he frowned.
She kissed him again in relief, and held him close. "It'll be good, Roxas. We'll be able to start over again, have a much better life from now on..."
2. Shy
Axel and Roxas stayed close together. Xion didn't think anything of it at first, because Saïx was keeping her away from them, too. But then they were waiting and waiting and waiting by the lockers for everyone to finish changing clothes, and Xion went to talk to Roxas but he kept moving away every time she got close. So she giggled and pretended she was a lion stalking her prey.
"Go away!" Roxas finally yelled, kicking his sandal at her.
She was surprised. She thought he'd known it was a game. "I can't go very far, Daddy will be mad..."
"I just wanna be here with Axel and Mom, not you guys," Roxas grumbled, crouching down behind the trash can.
Xion came and crouched, too, far away so he wouldn't be scared. 'He's shy,' she thought. "What's your favorite color?"
"Huh?"
"Mine is purple and black."
"Oh. Mine is red and yellow. And orange."
She smiled. "Those are the crayons I use to color fire. Saïx taught me."
"I can make a fire."
"Really?"
"Yeah. Axel taught me. I'm good at it."
"You can't make a fire here, though."
They both looked around.
"We'd get in trouble," Roxas agreed.
"We can ride the rides, though."
"Yeah."
"Can I ride the rides with you, Roxas?"
"...Don't hug me."
"Why not?"
"You're a girl."
"So?"
"I don't like girls."
"Well...well, I don't like boys."
"Fine." He turned his back and sulked.
"...Roxas...I lied. I like boys."
He eyed her over his shoulder.
"I like girls, too. I like you," she added.
He looked surprised. "Oh."
"Let's be friends, okay?"
"I don't want to..."
"Why not? Is there something wrong with me?"
"Yeah."
"...What's wrong with me?"
He shrugged. "I dunno."
"But...I can't fix it if I don't know..."
"Oh." He thought for a while. Then he went to where Axel and Saïx were arguing, and pulled on Axel's shirt. "Hey, Axel."
Axel rounded on him and smiled widely, eyes still narrowed from the fight. "What's up, dude?"
"Is it okay if I'm friends with Xion?"
"Of course!"
"Really?"
"You and Xion'll get along great!"
"Huh." Roxas turned back to Xion and shrugged. "We can be friends."
"But I thought there was something wrong with me!"
"I guess not. Sorry."
"Oh. Okay." Xion went to hold his hand. Roxas looked at their hands, looked at Axel, looked back at their hands, and decided it was okay.
3. Breaking the Ice
It wasn't ladylike to slurp, but Axel and Roxas did it like they didn't even care it wasn't allowed. They even had a contest to see who could slurp loudest. Xion watched in awe. Roxas won.
"HAH! Beat you!"
"My lungs hurt," Axel laughed. He tipped back his head to let a few ice cubes roll into his mouth, crunching on them with his teeth like they were candy.
"Maybe you can slurp because you're not ladies," Xion decided.
"Huh?"
3.2 Kind
"Hey, Roxas?" Xion whispered. They were snuggled together in the fort they'd made in the living room. They were supposed to be asleep, but they weren't tired.
"What?"
"When Daddy marries your mom, she's gonna be my stepmother, right?"
"I dunno."
"A stepmother is when your mother dies and your father marries someone else."
"Okay." Roxas ate another marshmallow.
"She's not gonna be a wicked stepmother, is she?"
"A wicked stepmother?"
"Like in Cinderella and Snow White and stuff."
"What're those?"
"Cinderella! The fairy tales."
"Hmph." Roxas put his head down on his arms and sulked.
"...Roxas, don't you know what fairy tales are?"
"I bet they're stupid."
"No, they're not! I'll show you." Xion ran to get her book, except she tip-toed when she was passing the bedrooms, and then she ran back. "Here. I'll read to you." She couldn't actually read the stories yet because the words were hard, but she knew them by heart, and showed Roxas the pictures.
"Stepmothers are really bad, aren't they," he said when she finished.
"Maybe your mom will be the good kind and not the bad kind," Xion said anxiously.
"Yeah, I guess."
"I hope so..."
4. Movie
Even though Axel let them pick the movie and Saïx didn't care because he planned to read a book during the whole thing, they still couldn't decide. Xion and Roxas ran from one movie poster to another, arguing until they got genuinely upset and Xion started crying.
"Stop it, Xion," Saïx snapped, picking her up. "They're not worth it."
"I wanna watch Equestria Girls..."
"Make her choose the monster alien movie," Roxas demanded of Axel, with angry tears standing in his eyes.
'I shouldn't think he's cute when he's mad, right...?' "Well, see, Rox, if we did that, we wouldn't really be gentlemen, would we."
"I'm not gentlemen!" Roxas yelled.
'I don't think you even know what a gentleman is...'specially since you've never had any good examples to watch...' "How about we let Xion watch her movie first, and then we watch your movie, okay?"
"I am NOT sitting through a film that has anything to do with ponies," Saïx stormed.
"What are you gonna do, watch Monsters vs Aliens with Roxas, then?" Axel challenged.
So they split up. The children's spirits seemed revived once they had been separated for an hour and a half, and they held hands on the way home.
o.o.o
Complete: 5/100