Chapter 5

"Does Radiant Garden have a beach?" asked Xion one day while watching the sunset.

The boys all looked at her in surprise.

"Uh, no, we don't have a beach," said Lea.

"There's a pool, and a lot of fountains," offered Isa. "Why?"

Roxas, meanwhile, knew what she was talking about. "Oh right, Axel said we'd go to the beach together someday."

Xion nodded. "It just occurred to me that we never did get to do that. I'd like to go to the beach in that world again."

"The one where you got all the seashells?" said Roxas.

"Yeah," said Xion with a sigh, pulling one such seashell out of her pocket to show them.

Now that they were talking about it, Lea did remember Axel promising that to them, but they'd never gotten the chance. "Well, why not go tomorrow?" he asked.

The two keybearers perked up at the suggestion, but then Roxas frowned. "How? We only know how to get there using the Dark Corridors, and we only have two coats to protect us."

Lea opened his mouth to answer, but closed it again a moment later, not having one.

Thankfully, Isa spoke up instead. "I have an idea."

Isa's idea was surprisingly simple but effective.

With the Dark Corridor open, one of the boys would wear Roxas's coat and go through, and then Xion would carry it back for the next boy to use.

Soon enough, all four of them were standing on Xion's favorite beach on Destiny Islands.

They finally made it, just as they said they would.

"We forgot to bring bathing suits," Lea griped after the initial awe of being at a beautiful beach on an entirely different world wore off. Xion had been quick to hurry to the shoreline to look for more shells for her collection, dragging Roxas along after her.

"That is a pretty dumb thing to forget," remarked Isa. He then frowned. "Wait, do Roxas and Xion even have bathing suits?" They'd bought the two more clothing aside from their Organization uniforms, but he didn't think swimwear was among them.

As Isa thought more, he added, "Do they even know how to swim?"

At that moment, a particularly large wave crashed onto the shore, sucking Xion out to flounder in a surprisingly deep tide pool, and leaving Roxas freaking out on the shore.

"I guess that answers that question," Lea couldn't help but remark as he and Isa quickly jumped in to help the girl back to shore.

The whole process left all four of them soaking wet.

Guess they didn't need bathing suits after all.

They really should have seen it coming.

Roxas and Xion both knew this island had something to do with Sora's memories, and Lea should have remembered it from Axel's memories of Castle Oblivion. Isa's the only one with an excuse for his ignorance since he had no idea to watch out for it.

Still, for some reason, it didn't occur to any of them that coming to Sora's homeworld might lead to them meeting the boy in question.

Which is how, when Xion was reaching for a particularly pretty conch shell, her hand intercepted another, smaller hand reaching for the same shell, and the both of them froze.

Xion could only stare at the little brown-haired boy as memories flowed through her head, memories that she knew weren't hers and hadn't thought of since arriving in Radiant Garden flashed across her eyes, and somewhere deep in her gut she knew the little boy was seeing them too.

Oh No!

These memories made her. If he was taking them, did that mean she was going to disappear?

The memories abruptly stopped when Xion felt someone grab her arm and yank her away from the little boy.

"Xion! Are you okay?" Roxas was asking, concern written all over her face.

Xion shook her head to clear her racing thoughts. She didn't feel like she was about to disappear, and Roxas just said her name, so he wasn't forgetting her.

"I'm okay," she said finally. "I think…"

They both glanced over at the little boy who could only be Sora, who was still sitting frozen in the sand.

Then, suddenly his eyes filled with tears, and he took off across the sand like a shot, shouting "RIKUUUUUUU!" at the top of his lungs.

The four teenagers stared after him as he ran.

That could have gone better.

"What did you do to Sora?" demanded a little silver-haired five-year-old with a glare that didn't look nearly as menacing as he clearly thought it did and made even worse by Sora clinging to his side like a teary octopus.

Hard to believe this was the kid that would grow up to be the Organization's imposter.

"We didn't do anything," said Roxas defensively. "He just started crying on his own."

Xion, who was looking guilty and knowing exactly why Sora was crying, held out the conch they'd both been reaching for and offered, "He can have the shell if he wants."

Sora let out a loud sniffle and managed to give them a sunny smile. "No thanks," he said. "I don't need a shell. I found Riku."

"Found?" Riku asked, looking utterly confused.

"Yup!" cheered Sora, hugging Riku tighter. "I found Riku!"

Riku could only stare at him in bewilderment. "Did I miss a game of hide'n'seek?"

"I wanna see Kairi."

Those were the first words out of Sora's mouth after they managed to calm him down and give Riku the bare bones of an explanation that his five-year-old mind could understand (though he was still pretty confused).

Still, they all had to stare at him for those words.

"Who's Kairi?" asked Riku.

"She's our best friend who we haven't met yet. You'll like her, she's nice and pretty," said Sora like it was the most obvious thing in the world. He then looked back at the world's visitors and added, "You said you were fixing things in Radiant Garden, and that's where Kairi's from, so if we go with you we can see her. And if we go to other worlds now, Riku won't go all dark 'n evil 'n stuff to get there when he's bigger."

"What?" shouted Riku, looking alarmed, no doubt wondering just what his future-self had done.

While Isa and Lea were trying to work out four-year-old logic, Roxas and Xion had no problems with it. "Sure, we can take you there sometime," said Xion. "I actually met Kairi a few days ago. She gave me a flower crown."

Sora beamed.

Riku finally managed to get his head together and blurt out, "Sora, we can't go with them, they're strangers."

"They're not strangers," said Sora like it was the most obvious thing in the world. He then pointed and added, "He's my little brother."

They were all surprised when they saw his finger pointing at Roxas.

"Huh?" was Roxas's articulate response to that declaration.

"How do you figure that?" asked Isa.

"You said he's my Nobody, right," said Sora brightly. "He came from me, so that makes him my little brother."

"I don't think Nobodies work like that," said Lea, sounding amused.

"Wouldn't that make Sora Roxas's father or something instead," Isa muttered too quietly for anyone else to hear.

"Shouldn't Roxas be the big brother?" asked Riku. "He's bigger than you."

"But I'm older," Sora protested with a pout.

"No you're not, he's..." Riku argued before trailing off, realizing he had no idea what Roxas's age was. Glancing at Roxas, he asked, "How old are you?"

"Three hundred and sixty-five days," Roxas said honestly. "I've kept count."

There was a beat of silence.

"Uh, how old is that?" asked Sora.

"One year, exactly," answered Isa.

"HA! See, I am the big brother!" Sora crowed. "I'm four! That's older!"

Xion giggled at the look on Roxas's face at hearing that.

"Shoot! I didn't realize it was your birthday," Lea exclaimed. "And that means Xion's birthday is in, like, a week."

"Oh, it is?" asked Xion. Between the time travel and everything else, she'd honestly lost track of time.

"HAPPY BIRTHDAY!" cheered Sora.

"Uh, thanks," said Roxas, still looking like he didn't know what to think of this. "What do you usually do on birthdays?"

"Go out with friends to do something fun. People who care about you give you presents, and eat cake," Isa explained.

Roxas looked around. "Well, I'm with my friends, and we came here to have fun, so I guess we're doing it right."

"But we didn't plan on it," Lea said in exasperation. "We didn't know to get presents for you."

Xion looked down at the shells she'd collected since getting there and picked out one of the biggest ones she'd found. "Happy birthday, Roxas," she said, handing it to him.

Roxas took it with a grin.

"That's not what I- Never mind," said Lea with an amused huff. "We'll be sure to get some ice cream cake later and make it official."

Both Roxas and Xion's heads snapped in his direction and began looking at Lea like he'd just handed them all the secrets of the universe.

"There's ice cream cake?!"

"So, you remember being you but bigger now, right?" asked Lea carefully. Sora had deemed it unfair Xion was the only one who'd gotten Roxas a birthday present, and had dragged Lea off to find one for them to give him, instructing Isa and Riku to do the same.

"Yup!" said Sora. Then he frowned. "Kinda. Not all of it. It's really weird."

Lea chuckled a little hearing that, knowing exactly what Sora meant. "Makes sense you don't remember everything. Xion was only made from a portion of your memories, not all of them." He then reached up to tap a finger against his forehead. "Still, I can relate. I've also got a bigger me's memories floating around in my head. He actually met bigger you. "

Sora looked up at him in surprise. "Really?" he asked.

"Yeah. I doubt you remember that. Just as well, he was a jerk to you anyway. Sorry about that," said Lea, scratching the back of his head.

"Why?" asked Sora innocently.

"A lotta reasons," admitted Lea. "Mostly he was trying to help his Isa and protect Roxas. I try not to think about it."

Sora frowned, then brightened. "I forgive you."

Lea blinked. "That easy, huh?" he asked. "You don't even know what he did."

"Yup," said Sora. "You were trying to help your friends, so I forgive you."

Lea shook his head. This kid's heart was too big for him.

Isa didn't know how he'd gotten saddled with searching for a hasty birthday gift with a five-year-old, but compared to the rollercoaster his life had become since Roxas and Xion showed up, this was actually pretty tame.

The same could not be said for poor Riku, who was only just getting a taste of what was to come if he stuck around.

As it was, the little boy had been frowning and kicking up sand ever since Sora had instructed them to find presents.

"Something wrong?" Isa felt compelled to ask.

"Big me sounds like a stupid-head," said Riku bluntly.

Isa had to hold in a laugh at that out of nowhere comment. Coughing to try and cover it up, he quickly said, "Why would you think that?"

"Because he is!" Riku insisted. "From what Sora said, he did some bad darkness stuff, then ran away and made Sora cry. Sora's my best friend, I wouldn't leave him behind. Big me is dumb."

This time Isa couldn't hold in a laugh, making Riku give him an affronted look.

"Sorry," said Isa. "It's just, I feel the same. From what Lea, Roxas, and Xion have told me, my older self sounded like a 'stupid-head' as well."

Riku's scowl fell off his face, and he looked up at Isa curiously. "How do you fix it?" he asked.

Isa huffed. It was honestly a question he'd been turning over in his head ever since they'd found proof Lea's future memories weren't just a dream. The closest he'd come to an answer was this, "Take the warning, and do my best to make a better future."

Riku nodded at those words and took them to heart.

No matter what happened in the future, they'd strive to do better.

In the end, Roxas's other presents consisted of a pet fish caught in a plastic bucket and a wooden toy sword that someone had lost on the island.

With those and a sea-salt ice cream cake, he considered it the best birthday he'd ever had.

Never mind it was the only birthday he'd ever had.

He had his best friends, a heart, his existence wasn't being threatened, and if they kept messing with the Apprentices, Organization XIII would never happen and the worlds would likely be all the better for it.

He couldn't be happier.

A/N And now we have the beach episode. Though I do wonder if Roxas and Xion even know how to swim. I couldn't resist adding in little Sora and Riku. And since Xion is made of Sora's memories, it might be possible for her to send his future memories back to him. Thankfully, not enough that Xion disappeared, but enough to clue Sora into what's going on. He doesn't remember everything, but he knows enough to know there are some things he won't want to happen. He might also get his keyblade because of this and his connection to Ventus, I don't really know. I just wanted little four-year-old Sora to call Roxas his little brother. Poor little Riku is so confused and kind of mad to hear his older self becomes a jerk, but goes along with it because he's five and can't logic yet.

Also, I know I said this was only going to be five chapters, but after the last chapter, a good few people were asking to see Roxas interact with Vanitas and more pranks on Xehanort. With that motivation, I've decided to write a sixth chapter to cover that. I don't know if I'll write more than that or not, as it's unfinished. I don't even know if I'll be able to post it next Saturday since I'm still working on it, but just know that's coming.

Next Time: When Vanitas met Roxas. Also, Sora and Riku's first playdate with Kairi.