"Mama! Mama, where are you?"

Axel looked away from the crosswalk, eyes widening when he saw another boy wandering the street, alone and distressed. He was a blonde, and looked fairly close to the redhead's own age. The boy's clothes fairly nice but a little dirty, and he was getting soaked in the rain.

Axel's small hand instantly slipped out of his mother's, just as the walk symbol flashed and the crowd started moving.

"Sweetie? Axel, where are you going?"

"Just a second, Mom!" he called back, as he curiously approached the boy who was now sitting on the curb. Coming closer, the older boy could tell he was crying.

"Hello," he said quietly. The blonde looked up, startled for a moment, then sniffled. "My name's Axel. Got it memorized?"

The younger boy blinked at him. "Memorized?"

"It means you remember it." The redhead laughed a little, sitting down beside him. He groaned internally when he felt the back of his pants instantly soaked up the cold water. "What's your name?"

The boy rubbed his eyes and tried to calm his shaky sobs. "R-Roxas."

"Hi, Roxas." Axel looked up and around for a moment, faintly hearing the click of heels on the sidewalk as his mother caught up with them. "Are you lost?"

"Yeah," he said sadly, hugging his knees to his chest. "I can't find Mama."

Elena bent slightly, shifting the umbrella so it covered the boys.

"Axel, you know better than to run off when I'm calling for you. Who's this?" she asked kindly, frowning a little as she looked the blonde over. He was a mess, wet and dirty and shivering.

"This is Roxas, Mom. He says he lost his mom." Axel patted Roxas's back as he shook again.

"Oh, I see..." She thought for a moment. No one around them seemed to notice the lost blonde crying for his mother. "Well, we were going to go get some ice cream. You could come with us and have some, and then we can help you find your mother."

Roxas lifted his head and looked at them both pleadingly.

"W-Why did she leave me? Mama told me to wait for her, but she n-never came back!"

Elena's frown deepened. "She left you alone?"

The boy nodded, sniffling again. "She took me to the park…and t-then said she was going to get me a surprise. But I waited and waited and she never came back!" Axel pulled him into a hug and he buried his face in the redhead's shoulder. "I'm scared! I want m-my mama!"

Axel looked from the blonde to his mother, wondering why she looked concerned. In truth, she worried because the nearest park was several miles from there, which meant that the little boy had been alone for quite some time, and had been wandering the busy, dangerous streets of Hollow Bastian unsupervised.

Careful not to kneel on the cold, wet ground, she crouched and placed a hand on the blonde's shoulder.

"Roxas, did anything else happen today? Did any strangers talk to you or offer you anything?"

Roxas looked up, confused. "N-No…No one except you." He looked a little suspicious then. "Mr. Leonhart told me to be careful of strangers."

"And who is Mr. Leonhart?"

"My kindergarten teacher. He's really nice." Roxas managed a small smile at that, and it was like the sun came out of the clouds, even through the steady downpour.

Axel helped him up and brushed some of the grimy dirt off. "You don't have to be afraid of us, Roxas. Mom and I are nice. We're not that strange."

The blonde's gaze settled on his wet but still crazily spiked red hair and blinked.

"Your hair is pretty strange," he murmured softly, and Axel laughed.

"You're one to talk." The older boy reached down and tussled his hair gently, brushing some of the water out as he did so. Roxas giggled, his smile widening, and Elena pursed her lips for a moment.

She didn't want to jump to conclusions, having not heard the full story or talked to the police yet, but she feared that Roxas might have been abandoned. She just couldn't see how a responsible, self-respecting parent could leave their child alone and make them wait for…

"Roxas, when was the last time you saw your mother?"

The boy frowned, looking sad again. "This morning. I sat on the swing for a long time."

Elena checked her phone and winced. She knew it was getting late, but it was almost five now! Worse yet, it had been raining since mid-afternoon!

"Mom?" She looked down to see Axel watching her worriedly. Roxas was clutching her son's arm tightly, his big blue eyes boring into hers.

She didn't want to upset Roxas anymore, and she wasn't even certain he'd be able to understand. But he seemed like a sweet little boy, and she was involved now, for better or worse. She couldn't just leave him alone, either here or at the station. No, she was determined that he was going to find his mother. Either that, or...

"It's nothing. How about we get some ice cream, then we'll go to the police station and see about finding your mother?"

"Sounds good to me," Axel said cheerfully, smiling at the younger boy. Roxas hesitantly smiled back, and they linked hands as she led them back to the crosswalk, holding Axel's other hand firmly this time.

Roxas got to try sea-salt ice cream for the first time. He listened contently as Axel rambled from one topic to another, while Elena watched them both with a smile. They were so cute together, making each other smile and laugh.

They never found Roxas's mother. Her home was empty when they tracked it down, and they never knew why she'd abandoned her son in the park that day. But Elena and Axel grew so attached to the little blonde, even in such short a time, that they welcomed him into their small but loving family. Roxas was shy and clingy for a while, not as securely attached as some children, but neither of them minded. Axel got the best friend and little brother he'd always wanted, and Elena got another child to love and cherish.

As she was quite fond of saying, all's well that ends well.