Bound by Fire, a Kingdom Hearts fanfic series by Raberba girl

Part 2 of 6 - Axel and Roxas (rough draft)

Summary: Teenage Axel takes his four-year-old little brother to hang out at the mall.

A/N: Stepsiblings universe, Axel's POV. It's before they meet Sai & Xi.

o.o.o

"Why can't we go to Pizza Planet?"

"I told you, Rox-my-socks, I'm broke. Don't you like just hanging out with me?"

"Yeah. I guess," he says disinterestedly. Ugh, kid, you're breaking my heart here...

My little brother and I walk into the mall, where I obviously can't buy anything, but it's too cold to go to the park (for me, at least; Roxas probably wouldn't care much). I can't think of anywhere else to take him that won't cost money.

"Whew, looks like it's not too crowded..." I glance down to smile at Roxas, who isn't really paying attention to me, when I notice a credit card or something lying on the floor. "Hm." I pick it up, and it turns out to be a gift certificate to a children's clothing store. The To: and From: boxes are blank.

"What's that?" Roxas asks.

"Um...Roxas, if you ever find something on the ground that looks like it belongs to someone else, turn it in to the adults who work there, okay?" I say, guiltily slipping the card into my pocket.

"Okay. Hey, Axel, can we go play where all the kids are?"

"Heh, that's what we're here for, isn't it?" There's a semi-enclosed play area down at one end of the mall, where kids can run around and stuff while their parents are resting or waiting. Roxas and I have a blast chasing each other and crawling through the tunnels (well, he crawls through them, they're too small for my dignity) and throwing those colored plastic balls at each other.

Eventually, I get in trouble because I'm too old to be playing with all the little kids, the equipment wasn't designed for older people. And I think some of the moms just don't like having this crazy teenage guy running around where their kids are, anyway. It stinks, but I go sit on one of the benches with the rest of the stuffy grown-ups because I don't want to get in trouble and be kicked out.

So much more boring, sitting here not being allowed to play, but at least Roxas seems to be having fun. I sit there watching because there's nothing else to do, except call or text someone I guess, but there's no one I wanna call. Man, maybe we should've gone to the park after all...

"Yo, Axel!"

"Zidane," I call back, getting up to bro-hug him and say hi to his girlfriend Sarah.

"What's up, man?"

"Just hanging out."

"In the kids' play area?" Sarah giggles.

"Yeah, Roxas wanted to try it for a while. You remember my little brother, right, Sarah?"

"Cutest little boy ever," she gushes, to my satisfaction.

"Yup. Hey, Roxas! Get over here and say hi!"

I manage to round up Roxas, who tolerates being squeed over for a minute before running off again.

"So what've you been up to?" Zidane asks, and we stand there talking for awhile. I've been working through driver's ed, he's getting ready for some play, she's having trouble with her mom but trying to gloss it over, and they're at the mall to shop for new pants for Zidane, because "He always gets the cheap kind and they rip far too easily."

"They're not cheap, they're comfortable."

"Well, you're too active for that to work as an excuse, so I highly suggest that you start putting durability over comfort."

It's about then I realize that I can't see my brother anywhere. "Oh, man, where's Roxas?"

Zidane's looking out, past the boundaries of the play area. "Um...I don't think he's supposed to be in there..."

Sarah gasps. "Oh, no!"

I look around frantically until I finally see what they're seeing. "GAH!"

Roxas is wading through the fountain, stooping to pick up little gold orbs.

"Roxaaaaaas!" I run over and stare at him, and he looks up at me and holds up both hands full of wet metal and says, "Look, Axel, I found money."

I can't help it. I mean to push the money out of his hands, drag him out, and give him a lecture, but instead I collapse against the side of the fountain and burst into laughter. "Flaming pants, Rox-my-socks... Ohhhhh man, oh man, you're just...bwahahahahahaha!"

Roxas is staring at me, looking a little indignant now. "What?" he huffs.

"Ohhhh, Roxas. Oh, buddy." I try to get hold of myself and kneel up to look at him. "Rox... Roxas Aubade, you need to put that money down and get out of the freaking fountain now."

He narrows his eyes and clutches his treasures to his chest. "No. It's mine. I found it."

I reach out for him, but he quickly splashes back out of my reach, his eyes gleaming with mischief.

"Mr. Roxas," I say as I stand up, "you'd better come here right now or you're going to be in trouble."

"Make me."

We do the dance for a while where I lunge around the fountain in various directions trying to catch hold of him, and he dodges me every single time because he's in the middle. Now he's giggling openly - until I finally start wading in myself. Then he shrieks and takes off across the water, dodging me again until a pair of strong hands that aren't mine suddenly seize him. Roxas gasps and drops all the money as he stares up into the face of a very big and ticked-looking mall cop. "This is not a pool, little boy," the guy booms.

"I didn't mean it," Roxas whimpers. He jerks free and splashes hugely over to hide behind me. I feel ridiculous, standing in a fountain in the middle of a mall with the cop and a whole lot of interested bystanders staring at me. "C'mon, Roxas, say cheese," I decide, picking up my brother and posing with him for one of the girls who's pointing her camera phone at us.

Roxas and I get firmly escorted out, at which point I'm left in freezing weather with an agitated little boy who's soaked to the skin from splashing around so much, and nothing in my wallet but a gift card to a children's clothing store.

Hmmmm. "Come on, Roxas."

"I'm all wet."

"Yeah, we gotta do something about that, don't we."

Unsurprisingly, we get some weird looks in the store, but no one says anything about it. I steer Roxas into the section with clothes that look closest to his size and let him pick what he wants. "This shirt's cool." He pulls it over his head and grins at me. The words PYRO AND PROUD OF IT are now emblazoned across his chest.

My mouth suddenly feels dry. "Roxas...I think...you should pick a different shirt."

"No. I like the red one."

The scar under my eye seems to tingle almost painfully. "...Well, I don't like it."

He frowns at me in this hurt sort of way that makes my heart seem to twist. "But...it's cool." He sounds more uncertain now.

"I think this blue shirt here is cooler," I try, grabbing the first one that comes to hand.

Roxas looks down at the shirt he's still wearing. "This one is like you. I want it."

Well, how am I supposed to argue with that? "...Fine, but you know what, Roxas, when we get home, I'm gonna teach you how to make fires and be safe, okay?"

Kid doesn't even blink. "Okay, Axel." He puts his hand in mine. "I like that you're my brother."

Ugggghhh, he is going to kill me, I love him so freaking much. "I like that you're my brother, too, Rox."

"Can we get ice cream after this?"

"Umm...I'm kind of still broke."

"Can we go to the park?"

I grin. "Now, that, I can do.

o.o.o

Author's Notes: "Sarah" is the birth name of Dagger from Final Fantasy IX. I only played FF9 once and totally missed that, I had to look it up in the FF wiki. XD

The sequel to this story is Stepsiblings: Winner. Also, there's a mistake in "Winner;" I think Roxas is supposed to be four, not five.