Kingdom Hearts © to Disney and Square Enix!

Final Fantasy © to Disney and Square Enix!

TJ © to Yamichaos27!

My OCs © to me!

Chapter 5: It Takes a Village

"What do you think we should do with this middle area?"

Xion slowly looked up at Isa as she dumped out a bucket of mop water. He stood nearby wringing out the mop. "I don't know."

"Maybe a flower garden? Do you… like flowers?"

"A little bit. A dusk used to fill up this vase at the castle with flowers to make me smile. I have no idea how to grow them."

"Neither do I." He smiled. "But we can try."

Axel walked up beside them. "Guys, breakfast is ready. Wait. Did you two already mop the upper hallway?"

Isa nodded. "Xion was starting on it, and I joined her."

The girl looked down at the bucket in her hands.

To be honest, he'd surprised her, and she almost refused to let him help.

But, he was being pretty nice still.

They were giving him a chance.

"Well, let's get you two some breakfast then."

Breakfast being just some simple oatmeal, and some coffee for Isa and Axel. Roxas didn't like the smell of coffee, and Xion didn't really feel like trying it yet.

Knock.

Knock.

"Huh?" Axel stood up. "I didn't think Hayner and them were coming until lunch?"

"Maybe they came early?"

"Don't know."

Walking to the door, Axel opened it. "Miss Prudence? Um, what do we owe this visit?"

The old woman smiled. "I came to check on you, and to show you something. Are the other three here?"

"Yeah. Hey guys, come here."

The other three came, smiling as they saw the old woman. "Hi!"

"Hello there." Waiting until they all stood near the door, her old eyes smiled at them. "You're all new in town and probably need some help. Correct?"

"Well, we've got some. This is a pretty big house, and there's lots to do."

"Well, you're part of the town now, and I wanted to make sure you felt like it."

"Huh?"

She turned around. "Alright, come on out."

Out from behind the outer walls popped Hayner, Pence, Olette, and their families. Then another person.

And another.

And another.

Until around 30 people stood in the gate.

Zell gave a thumbs up. "Granny Pru here came up with this. We're here to fix this place up."

"All of you!?"

"Yep."

Folia walked forward. "We wanted to surprise you." She looked at the teenagers. "All of you have been through a lot, and we wanted you to know that you're not alone here." Pulling out a notepad, she turned around. "Alright! If you're on landscaping duty, you can wait out here. Cleaning duty can see Wedge, construction see Zell, and movers see Biggs."

The people began to move as Prudence smiled at the four. "You tell us what needs to be done. This is your home."

Axel stared at her.

They'd gotten this many people…

He looked at Isa who stood there, his mouth hanging open slightly.

The two teenagers stood beside them, Roxas almost bouncing with joy, tears in his eyes. Xion stood slightly behind Axel, but she too looked misty-eyed with a smile.

"…Thank you."

"Don't thank us. It's our pleasure to help you."

Isa took a deep breath, a warm smile crossing his features as he glanced at the other three. "Well then, we should get to delegating people."

Roxas smirked. "That was something you were pretty good at."

"Yes, I was." With a smirk, Isa walked to Folia. "What teams were there again?"

"We have some landscapers, some people who volunteered to help clean, some people who offered to do construction, and some who offered to move things."

Holding out his hand, Isa stared at the list in thought. "May I?"

"By all means."

Taking the list, Isa smiled and walked to the landscaping group. "Hi. I'm Isa."

"Nice to meet you." A man held out his hand. "Name's Cameron Sullivan. I run a landscaping business. What do you need done?"

"Well, I'll default to your experience on what things need to be done, but this courtyard definitely is a mess. And we're thinking of creating a flower garden in the middle courtyard, and there is the back yard."

Cameron grinned. "Sounds good. We can certainly do that. And if we have any ideas, we will run them by you and the others." He looked down at a teenage boy beside him, ruffling the boy's spikey grass-like green hair; the boy's deep brown eyes shimmered. "By the way, this is my son, TJ(1). He's about the same age as those two kids."

"Nice to meet you, TJ." He shook the boy's hand.

"Nice to meet you too sir!" His smile nearly split his face in two as he shook Isa's hand vigorously. "I'm so excited to help you guys! And I get to make some new friends!" Jogging over to where Hayner stood by Roxas, the two talking happily. "Hey!"

"Hey, TJ!"

The boy laughed. "I just came over to meet some new friends. Name's TJ!"

Roxas shook the boy's hand. "I'm Roxas."

"Nice to meet you, Roxas!"

Jumping over to where Xion stood, talking to Pence and Olette. "Hi there!"

"Hi, TJ! Xion, this is TJ."

Eyes locked on the ground, the girl smiled, holding out her hand. "Xion."

"TJ." His energy lowered for a moment as he smiled softly at the girl. "Can't wait to get to know you two. I'll be seeing you around!"

Running back to his dad, the boy grabbed a shovel, following his dad.

Isa smiled before walking over to the cleaning group. "Wedge right?"

"Yeah. We haven't met yet."

"I'm Isa." He looked around. "Well, we've done quite a bit of cleaning, but probably going through the library books and seeing which ones aren't… falling apart."

Wedge grinned. "We'll start there then. If we finish up, we will check in with you."

"Sounds good." Making some notes on the notebook, he walked over to the construction group. "Zell?"

"That's me. And you're Isa." Grinning, the man waved Hayner over. "Half of us are planning on trying to fix the pipes and wiring in this place while the rest of us paint and fix. If that works?"

"Great minds think alike. Carry on."

Zell held up a hand and Isa high-fived him on his way to the last group.

Biggs grinned. "Isa. Nice to meet you. Name's Biggs."

"Nice to meet you. And what's your plan?"

"Pru has been busy. She got people to donate any furniture they don't need, and we have ton for you."

Holding back a bright smile, Isa nodded. "I'll be right back." Walking back to the door, he grabbed Axel's arm, letting the smile slip out. "We just had a bunch of people donate furniture for the house."

"No way!"

"I think you, Roxas, and Xion should go look at the furniture and figure out where it should go. I'll check in on everyone and delegate when needed."

"You got it, boss."

"Not your boss."

"You're acting like one." The red-head pulled away and called. "Roxas, Xion, over here."

Isa smiled, looking down at the notebook. A list of things they needed to do… Looks like those friends of theirs weren't just coming to help them before but to scout for this.

They knew everything that needed to be finished.

A warmth bubbled up in his chest.

He'd missed this sort of community.

The teams spread out to their different jobs, and Isa joined those outside clearing the courtyard.

"All this is for us?"

"If you want it." Biggs smiled as he held up a bunch of photographs. "We asked around for furniture for everyone. Whatever you pick we will go and get later."

Axel put his hands on the kids' heads. "How about I handle furniture for common spaces. You two get stuff for your rooms."

"Ok!"

Xion nodded. "Sure."

Sorting through the photos, Biggs handed some off to a woman with a short pink bob haircut and some more to a man with long black hair pulled into a ponytail.

The man went to Roxas, holding out a hand. "Hi there. My name's Mr. Lucius. I'm the vice principal at the high school here."

"I'm Roxas. Nice to meet you, sir."

He held out some photographs. "So, what kind of stuff do you want in your room?"

"Well…" The boy thought back to the room he'd had in the digital Twilight Town. He liked some elements of it, but others he wished he could change. "Lots of places to put things. Like bookshelves and stuff."

"Do you like to collect things?"

Collect? Was that the right word?

He liked the bookshelves filled with stuff he liked. Not just books.

"I guess so."

"Then bookshelves it is. And we can paint the room too."

"I'd like it to be the same orange as the clocktower!"

Axel glanced over at Roxas excitedly talking to the man in front of him. He looked so comfortable here.

Guess that digital Twilight Town really did help a little bit in his case.

The woman walked over and knelt before Xion. "Hi there."

"Hi."

"My name is Madison Hayes, but you can call me Miss Maddie. I'm the high school principal."

"Nice to meet you. I'm Xion."

The woman gently held out the photographs. "So, what kind of things do you want in your bedroom?"

"I don't know…"

"That's ok. While you're looking, we can talk colors too. What color would you want the walls to be painted?"

"Not white or gray."

Not those… not like the walls of the castle that never was.

"Ok. Do you have a favorite color?"

"No."

"Hmm." Miss Maddie sat down on the grass, patting the ground beside her for the girl to join her. Xion did so, her eyes still glued to the photographs. "What are your favorite things then?"

"My friends. The sunset. And sea-salt ice cream."

"There we go!" The principal waved someone over. "Do you think a simple gradient color would be possible on one wall in one of the rooms?"

A male voice answered, but Xion didn't look up. "If we get started now."

"One second. Xion?"

"Yes."

"What if we painted three of the walls a soft blue, like the ice cream, and then one wall we did a gradient of sunset colors?"

Pausing, the girl looked up. "That sounds pretty."

"There we go."

The man standing over them, a shorter heavier-set man with brown hair, grinned. "Then we'll get started on that. Which room is yours, kiddo?"

"Second room down the left hallway."

"Gotcha!" He smiled and headed inside.

Flipping through the pictures, all the furniture looked nice, but she wasn't sure what she wanted.

"Oh."

Pulling up a picture of a small four-poster bed with curtains on it and a small seat at the end, she stared at it.

It looked pretty, like the beds she'd seen in Beast's Castle.

Those always did look nice and fluffy.

Better than the hard beds at the Organization's castle.

"Do you like that one? We were worried it would be a little childish for a teenager."

"I like it. It's pretty."

Miss Maddie gently took it and laid it on the ground. "I can help you look for matching furniture if you want."

"Sure."

Axel pulled out a photo of a dining table, but his eyes darted over to Xion. He'd been a little worried about her.

She seemed a little lost sometimes when interacting with people, but she'd never had the same practice.

Her words came across with limited emotion, like she didn't really know how to react to things.

But things seemed to be going well. And everyone here was just so patient with her.

This really was home.

"Lunch break!" Zell called as he came walking back to the mansion carrying bags of food from the bistro.

Behind him came two ducks. One of them, Isa and Axel immediately recognized.

"Mr. Scrooge? What are you doing here?"

"Well, bless me bagpipes! If it isn't Lea and Isa. Last time I saw you two, you were not much older than them." He pointed his cane at Roxas and Xion. "And you two. You must be the ones Donald called me about. He asked me to check up on you."

"You know Donald?"

The two ducks laughed.

The other one, another old duck, wearing a pair of spectacles and a brown suit and tie, smiled. "I should say we do. We are his uncles after all."

"What's an uncle?"

"We'll explain later. But they're Donald's family."

The other duck held out a wing. "My name is Ludwig Von Drake. I'm Donald's other uncle."

"Which side?"

Scrooge tapped his cane. "I'm his uncle on his mother's side. Ludwig is on his father's. But that's not why we came here. Miss Prudence asked us to come. Turns out you two troublemakers are in need of some jobs." He winked at the adults.

"We were not that big of troublemakers."

"Tell that to my shop that you egged ten times."

"Touché."

Ludwig cleared his throat. "Well, I happen to run the movie business here in town(2), and I just opened a studio. If either of you are interested in a job, we're hiring and I'd put your applications at the top of the list."

"The bistro is hiring as well. And I'm debating opening up a few other locations, if you two want to help with that."

Axel tapped his chin. "The animation stuff I could probably help out with. I could help with some of the writing."

Scrooge laughed. "You always were good at making up stories, especially to get yourself out of trouble."

"I'll take that as a compliment."

"Here's an application if you want one." The duck pulled a folded piece of paper out of his jacket, handing it up to the red head.

"And what about you, Isa?"

"Well…"

"Hey! Mr. McDuck." Wedge jogged over. "You remember how you were talking about finding an assistant to run things while you were out?"

"Ay, I remember."

"Maybe try Isa. This guy has been organizing and keeping tabs on things all morning."

Roxas smiled. "Yeah, you're really good at organizing and… what was that word."

"Delegating."

"Yeah."

A warmth passed Isa's face. "I'm not that good."

Scrooge raised an eyebrow. "Oh really? Everyone else here thinks you are. And yes, I was looking for an assistant to manage my businesses when I'm out or busy. If you'd like I can give you a trial run at my office."

"Well… I… I'd be honored."

"Good." He tapped his cane again. "I'll see you tomorrow at noon then. Come to the bistro. My office is above it."

"A-alright. Thank you, Mr. McDuck."

"My pleasure, laddie."

The ducks passed them, mingling with the other people.

Xion clasped her chest lightly. "Everyone is so kind to us."

"The people here are amazing."

"Agreed."

"We made the right choice in coming here."

"Absolutely."

"Isa, what do you want to do with that white room with the drawings?"

Sighing, the man drummed his fingers on his leg.

Did they want to save that room for Naminé?

Would she even want that room?

Honestly… probably not.

All the memories connected there.

"Save the drawings. They're very special. But I say paint the room some warm colors. We can make it a study or an office outside the library."

"Sounds good."

Zell sighed. "Well, we probably won't get everything done today. It's getting late. But we can come back tomorrow."

"Are you sure, we can pick up where all of you left off."

"Absolutely not." Jessie wagged a finger in his face. "We're finishing what we started. You're part of this town, and we don't leave anyone behind."

Stifling a laugh, Isa nodded. "I keep forgetting who I'm speaking to."

"Well, you better remember."

"Excuse me." Coming up the path through the woods, a woman in a nice suit, lavender hair pulled into a very tight ponytail, came walking toward them. She stopped in front of Isa, holding out a hand. "Nice to meet you. I'm vice mayor Jenna Leigh."

He shook her hand. "Nice to meet you. I'm Isa."

"Pleasure. We've heard of you four, especially since half of the town has decided to help you guys out by either coming out or donating stuff. I came by just to get some documents for our records."

"Documents?"

"Yes. You do have two minors living here, so we'd like copies of their birth certificates. And, I'm assuming those two are adopted, so we'd like copies of that paperwork, just so we have a record of it."

Oh.

Oh.

Oh no.

"Well, I can get that documentation to you soon. It's kind of crazy right now with everything moving around."

"That's fine. If you could get to me in a day or two that would be wonderful."

"Of course."

"Thank you. Now, I do have to head home. But it was nice to finally meet you."

"Nice to meet you too."

She gave another kind smile and turned away.

…

Shoot.

Crap!

They never considered the legality of things!

They couldn't just say that the kids had no birth certificates, and if they tried to apply for adoption or guardianship here…

Trying to tell someone who didn't understand their past how he and Axel knew the teenagers…

They would never let Roxas and Xion stay with them.

Crap!

Crap!

Walking briskly to Axel, Isa grabbed him by the arm.

"Hey!?"

Dragging Axel around the side of the mansion, he turned to him. "We have a problem."

Footnotes:

(1) TJ is the first of a number of OCs that I asked my friends to make for the story. TJ was made by my friend Yamichaos27!

(2) If you look at the posters in KH3 for the movies, they say that the Sound Cartoon company is owned by Ludwig.

VAs:

TJ Sullivan- Jason Spisak (Bartz Klauser, Deadpool/Wade Wilson, Paralon, Izana Kunagiri)

John Lucius- Beau Bridgland (Chonguyn, SOLDIER male, Dao, Anglade, Bede, Kent)

Madison Hayes- Erin Ebers (Ningguang, Media Caduceus, Airazor, Joyce Easton, Henreitta Winchester)

Jenna Leigh- Jeannie Tirado (Byleth, Tao Isonokami, Kujou Sara, Endorsi Jahad, Alef)