Disclaimer: I, orgymoogle, do not own Kingdom Hearts (none of em'!) or any of the characters or creatures in it. Nor do I own the plots, storylines, or any of its other geniusness. I am merely an obsessed fangirl writing a fanfiction. That is all.
A/N: Heya everyone! Ok, so I ended one of my other stories very recently, and I'm ending another one soon, so I decided to start working on this again. Thanks to whoever read the prologue and was interested, and special thanks to everyone who is going to R&R!
P.S. I changed my name to orgymoogle instead of Sora's Sacrifice. What do you think? :D
P.P.S. Once my other story is done I'm going to post two new stories! (they go together) I already have the first chapters done, and I really wanna post em'...but I shouldn't until I finish my other story.
P.P.P.S. I wrote some of this a while ago, so...yeah. Beware.
Warning: Some cussing...almost running over an old lady...tripping...sticking out tongues...rolling eyes...stealing couches......-rambles on and on-
Well, enjoy, and please R&R!
----------------------------------------------------------------------
No Coincidence
Chapter One: NO CARS ALLOWED
"No, Terra, we can't stop for ice cream."
"No, no, Ven! Stop it!"
"No, Aqua, we can't kick Ven out of the car."
"No, Kairi, we're not stopping to look at those shoes."
"No, Naminé, you can't switch seats with Riku."
"No, Riku. There are children in the car, remember?"
I felt like I had been saying 'no' a lot, and it was getting kind of annoying. I wish I could just mute everybody and make them numb so they couldn't move until I said so. I wish I had a controller for each and every one of them. But, alas, I didn't.
So, as I tried to drive without losing my temper and breaking the steering wheel in half, I wondered why Riku wasn't helping out. Or Naminé. Or Kairi. Why is it that I was the only one ever doing anything? No one else stopped Ven from eating weird things, no one else stopped Terra from pranking Aqua, no one else stopped Aqua from hurting little Ven (although her punches weren't very hard, it would still hurt the little guy...), no one ever stopped Riku from teasing Naminé about her drawings, no one ever stopped Kairi from trying to buy cute (and expensive) things. No one ever did anything!
OK, so maybe that was a lie. But no one was doing anything to help today. I mean, c'mon, when you're trying to drive with six other (younger) people in the car, things can get a bit frustrating, especially when they are all bugging each other and asking for things!
Okay, my rant is over.
Anyways, I'm Axel; A-X-E-L, got it memorized? Red hair, blue-green eyes, purple upside-down tear marks (one under each eye), skinny figure, bad temper, twenty-one years old and fascinated with fire, thank you very much.
Yup, I'm the oldest of the group.
The group of seven. Let's see, there's...Ven (his full name is Ventus, but we just call him Ven) who is two years old--the youngest of the group--, Aqua who is six, Terra who is eight, Naminé and Kairi--twins--who are fifteen, Riku--adopted and needing badly to grow up (in my opinion)-- who is sixteen, and of course yours truely, me--Axel--, who is twenty-one, as I already said.
I heard a thump sound come from behind me, and after hearing Naminé and Kairi scold and Ven cry, I huffed and very suddenly pressed my foot all the way down on the break pedal, causing the car to stop very abruptly.
"That's it!" I exclaimed, putting the car in park and hopping out and then swinging the backseat door open with a jerk. There sat Naminé, Ven in-hand. Next to them sat Aqua, then Terra--God knows why they had gotten in this order--and then at the other end sat Kairi. "Okay, everyone out!" I shouted impatiently. Honestly, I had been trying to drive for hours and this was what had been going on the whole time. It was enough.
Once everyone was out, I ordered everyone to sit in specific places. Kairi would remain at the far end--behind Riku who sat in the passenger seat--Aqua sat next to her, then Terra, then Naminé and Ven would sit on Namine's lap. All settled.
Before putting Ven in the car I took him from Naminé and wiped the tears from his eyes. Poor fellow, Aqua was always picking on him. It wasn't fair. She took advantage of him because he was smaller and younger than her. Terra got along with Ven, however. They seemed pretty close.
"It's okay, Ven. Don't cry," I said in a soothing voice, and sure enough the little ankle-biter quieted down. I smiled contentedly and handed him to Naminé who wrapped her arms around him securely and smiled at me. I smiled back.
Now don't get me wrong, I usually wasn't very good with kids, but Ven was special.
"Now then," I began again, "I don't want to hear anymore trouble back here, alright?" I finished in a stern voice, so that Aqua might actually listen to me. Honestly, I don't know what that girl's problem was. Everyone replied except for Aqua, who pouted and turned away from me. "Alright, Aqua?" I directed more clearly, putting my hands on my hips and bending over slightly so as to get a bit closer to the young girl. With a huff, she half-turned her body to look at me and said 'yes'. "Good," I finished, closing the car door and hopping back into the driver's seat. After putting the car out of park I gently pressed down on the gas pedal and continued driving.
We were on our way to Twilight Town, and were moving from Destiny Islands. We didn't have much in the car with us, and there was no moving truck following us there or meeting us there. We didn't really have much...only some clothes, some water, some snack food, some munny, some blankets, a couple pillows, and...we had a chew toy for Ven. :D
Yeah...I guess you could say we weren't the wealthiest people in the worlds. Once we got to Twilight Town we were going to try and find a cheap apartment, and then me and Riku would get jobs while Naminé and Kairi babysat the younger kids. We couldn't really think about school...not yet, anyway. There was no way we could afford it, no matter how much we wanted to.
Especially since we had to buy groceries for seven people. Lemme tell ya, that was not easy. Of course, I didn't do the grocery shopping very often--that was Kairi's job. Well, technically it was Kairi and Naminé's job. They usually switched back and forth, Kairi would babysit and Naminé would shop, then Naminé would babysit and Kairi would shop, so on and so on. Yeah, back and forth, like I said.
However, I did get stuck with the grocery shopping once or twice (somehow), and it wasn't exactly what I call easy....
I dunno, maybe it's just because I don't know my way around the store.
I shrugged and pulled myself out of my thoughts, just barely dodging a stop sign. I hadn't noticed, but apparently Riku had been looking at me, because when I glanced over at him he was staring at me with a worried expression.
"Uh...maybe I should drive," he suggested warily, raising an eyebrow. I shook my head.
"Nuh-huh, you don't even have a license."
"Yeah, but I could do waaay better than you're doing right now. You've almost made us crash like...six times!" he explained. I just looked at him for a moment before opening my mouth--about to say something--when suddenly--
"AXEL!! LOOK OUT!" I heard from the backseat, and when I looked back at the road there was an old lady right in front of me.
"Shit--!" I said, immediately stomping on the break pedal and turning as far to the left as I could. The car's wheels screeched on the road and the car spun around and then to a stop at the side of the road. I could faintly hear the old lady screaming at us in the backround. The car was silent for a moment, but then Kairi spoke up from the back.
"Axel!! You almost killed that old lady!" she exclaimed, sounding exasperated.
"Yeah, but--" I was interrupted by a very rude Riku.
"And you almost killed us, too!!" he looked angry, and he was angry, and he definitely wasn't afraid of showing it.
"Well, maybe if a certain silver-haired teenager would stop bugging me about my driving, then that wouldn'tve happened!" I shot back, and Riku looked shocked.
"You're actually blaming this on me?" he asked disbelievingly.
"Yes! I am blaming this on you!" I returned.
"You're the one driving, asshole! Don't blame me for your stupidity!"
"You were distracting me!"
"Don't cuss in front of the kids..." I heard Naminé say quietly put in from the back; it was barely noticeable through all this yelling, but I heard it.
"Yeah, Riku! What's your friggin' problem? You're never supposed to cuss in front of kids!"
"Oh, shut up! You cuss all the time!"
"Well at least I have the decency to not do it in front of children!"
"Are you kidding me?! Terra and I were talking to each other the other day and he said he learned five new words from you, Axel--" he spat my name as if I was the devil himself, "--can you guess what they were?"
"Whatever! At least I actually take care of the kids!"
"What?! I take care of them twice as much as you do!"
"Do not!"
"Do to!"
"Do not!!"
"Do to!!!"
"DO NOT!!!" There was the sound of a young child crying from the backround--Ven.
"GUYS!!!" Kairi screamed as loud as she could, so as to get our attention. We both paused and looked back at her, nostrils flaring, eyes burning, faces flaming--you could almost see the steam coming out from our ears. Geez...how in the world did we get into this?
"Would you both shut up already?! You're scaring Aqua and Terra, and you're making Ven cry! Plus you're being immature idiots!" she exclaimed, and I just noticed the terrified expressions on Terra, Aqua, and Ven's faces. Kairi had her arm around Aqua and Naminé was trying to comfort Ven while she had one arm around Terra, holding him close.
I gave a sorry look to them and muttered a soft apology, then scowled at Riku and turned back to face the steering wheel. I didn't get to see what Riku had done, and I didn't hear him say anything--that prideful bastard--but I think I saw him facing his window (away from me) out of the corner of my eye.
The car was silent for a while, except for sniffing from Aqua and a still-crying Ven. I started the engine back up and swiftly drove back onto the road before anyone had the chance to call the police. The last thing we needed right then was a ticket.
We continued our drive in mostly silence; Aqua and Ven had both fallen asleep, Terra was occupied with a small children's book that we still had, Naminé was staring out her window, and Kairi was trying to braid her hair. Riku was still facing as far away from me as possible--what a child--and I was just driving--and actually paying attention now, too.
I sighed. This kept happening more often lately. Me and Riku would get into a fight, Ven would sometimes end up crying, Terra and Aqua would get scared, and Kairi would have to break us up.
I wasn't sure why we kept fighting...we used to get along just fine. When did it start happening again? Oh yeah...when mom and dad....
I shook my head, refusing to let the memories invade.
--
It was around 4:40 AM when we reached Twilight Town. I didn't bother stopping at a Motel, it would just waste our munny--what little we had, that is. We could sleep in the car, we had done it before.
Most of us were already asleep. Everyone in the back was asleep, but I couldn't tell if Riku was because he was still facing away from me.
"Hey, Riku," I whispered and waited for an answer. Moments passed, and I got nothing, so I figured he was either asleep or ignoring me. What a baby.
Sighing softly (so as not to disturb the sleeping little angels) I searched around for some place to park and sleep. It was dark, so I couldn't really see the town very good. As I drove, I wondered in the back of my mind how we would manage there. We were so used to our small little island...peaceful, safe, untouched by any outside world. But now...now we were entering a whole new place. We didn't even know what it was going to be like. We were unprepared.
But we had heard that it was easier to get jobs in Twilight Town. So, why not give it a try? It's not like we were leaving anything behind....
I parked on a random street right outside of Twilight Town. Apparently no cars were allowed in. That was gonna be fun.
Putting the car into park, I made sure all the doors were locked (you can never be too careful), leaned back into my seat and drifted off to sleep.
--
My neck felt cramped, like I had been sitting in the same position for hours. And I most likely had. I opened my eyes slowly, wincing slightly when the light from the sun pierced my eyes. I reached a hand up and rubbed my neck, trying to untense the muscles. It worked a little bit, so next I worked on opening my eyes. Once I shifted around a bit so that my bangs were in my face, I could open my eyes (slowly) because they were blocking more light.
I couldn't tell where we were, but it looked like we were outside of some city. I sat up fully, stretching my arms and legs, and looked around better. A little ways away there was a big sign that said 'TWILIGHT TOWN', and below it there was an entrance. So that's where we were, outside of Twilight Town.
But then why hadn't Axel just drove inside?
I shook off that thought and looked over to the sleeping redhead, wondering what time it was. We didn't have watches, and the clock in our car was broken. Sighing, I sat back in my car chair and closed my eyes.
I hadn't realized it, but apparently I had fallen asleep, because I woke up very abruptly to the sound of Axel sneezing. Normally, I wouldn't wake up when someone sneezed, but Axel's sneezes were very loud. I mean like...they were huge!
My eyes shot open and over to Axel and, sure enough, he had just sneezed.
"Geez, Axel, are you trying to wake up all of Twilight Town?" I asked mockingly, stretching again.
"Oh, shut up," he replied, wiping his nose. I ignored him, not really feeling like aruing with him that early in the morning. After a few moments of Axel not saying anything, I decided to speak up again.
"So are we gonna go in or wait out here?" He didn't even bother acknowledging the fact that I had asked a question, but instead started the car.
"Does that answer your simpleminded question?" Axel retorted, trying to use big words to make him sound smarter. I swear, he was such an idiot sometimes. Like...three-fourths of the time. Maybe more.
I rolled my eyes and looked back out the window. Why was I sitting in the front with him again? I really wasn't sure, except for the fact that since I was the second oldest I deserved the passenger seat. But I'm sure Naminé would much rather be sitting next to Axel than I would.
Speaking of Naminé....
Glancing back over my seat, I noted that everyone back there was still asleep. I don't see how anyone could have stayed asleep through Axel's obnoxious sneezing, but apparently they did. Either that or they were faking it, which I don't think they would do.
Sighing, I turned back so that my body was facing forward again, but I continued to stare out the window. It was a pretty good way to block Axel out, and after that argument of how he nearly killed us yesterday, I decided that that was a good idea. Blocking out.
But seriously, Axel scared me sometimes--something I would probably never admit out loud. Not just his driving, but...him. You never wanted to get him angry. He had some...anger issues, I suppose. If you got him too mad he would explode. I had learned that the hard way....
Rubbing my previously-broken nose slightly at that memory, I felt the car begin to move. Taking a big breath and hoping that Axel wouldn't nearly send us to our graves this time, I watched as we entered the town that had been awarded 'best sunset EVER'; Twilight Town.
Very abruptly, we were stopped by a police man. Axel, with a large and exaggerated sigh, rolled down his window for the officer.
"Sir, read the sign," the officer began, pointing at a sign and then reading out the large text loud and clear, "'NO CARS ALLOWED'. Now, please turn around and then enter the town by foot."
"You got it," Axel replied, smirking. He did as the officer said and turned us around, then parked back in the spot where we had slept.
"Great. So we have to go by foot everywhere?" I thought out loud, moaning.
"Eh, it's not so bad. Besides, you could use the exercise." Before I had the chance to reply he hopped out of the door and shut the door behind him. Frowning, I followed suit and began waking the others.
Once we were all awake and ready to go, carrying the few things that we had, we made our way--for the second time--into Twilight Town. The officer gave us a warning look, telling us with his eyes to not try and enter with a vehicle again. After we had passed him I scolded Axel and told him to pay attention to signs, to which he replied that he had read the sign but merely forgot. I rolled my eyes (yet again), and continued putting one foot in front of the other.
Ven was still asleep, and after a while Kairi started whining about holding him. Sighing, I took the young infant and cradled him in my arms. After a while of looking around, I decided it was time I forgot about the whole argument (at least for now) and talk to Axel about where we were going to stay.
"Hey, Axel," I began, walking up to the older man, "where are we going to live?" He gave me a weird look and then faced forward again.
"Didn't we already decide this?"
I rolled my eyes. "Yeah, but we don't know exactly where."
"That's why we're looking around," he said, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.
"But we can't look around forever. The day is gonna end eventually, and unless you wanna drag all seven of us back to the van at sunset then I suggest you stop wasting our time and look for a place to live." He stuck his tongue out at me, but I ignored it like I usually had to (he could be such a child even though he was like...what, twenty-one now?).
And so, we began looking for a cheap place to live. We had some munny saved up for this, so we could probably get a place that was cheap yet something that would work.
We searched through a lot of places, and eventually we found a cheap apartment that would do. Our room had a small living room connected to a small kitchen, a bathroom (one bathroom, great...), and one bedroom. It was gonna be a real pain living with six other people in that small space...but we couldn't do any better. We were already going to have to get jobs right away.
When we finally got into our apartment, it was around sunset, and everyone was worn out. The bed in the bedroom was king sized (thank God), so everyone aside from me and Axel could sleep on it. The race was on. Either me or Axel would get the couch, and I was gonna make sure it was me.
Obviously we were thinking the same thing, because I could see Axel readying himself to run and call the couch. And I could tell he knew I was thinking it, too.
On the count of three... I told myself. One...two....THREE!!!
We both started off for the couch at the same time, knocking each other over, dragging each other to the ground.
I was just about to reach the couch when Axel grabbed my ankle and tripped me. I fell face-flat on the ground, and Axel hopped onto the couch, shouting victoriously. I stood up angrily, rubbing my sore face.
"No fair! You tripped me!" I exclaimed, fisting my hands.
"I won the couch fair and square. Deal with it, adopted boy," the redhead replied, sticking out his tongue. I gritted my teeth.
"That wasn't fair and square. You tripped me."
"Yeah, well, if you haven't noticed we've been tripping each other the whole friggin' time. You're just a sore loser."
"I am not!"
"Are to."
"Am not."
"Are to."
"Am not."
"Are to."
"Am. Not."
"R2D2!" Axel shouted, winning the argument. Before I had the chance to say something Kairi walked in with a tired and annoyed expression on her face.
"Would both of you please shut up? Both of you were cheating, and Axel won the couch by cheating. So Riku, get over it," she paused, thinking, and then added, "y'know, if you really want it that bad then you could just switch off."
Both of us frowned when she said this, and she sighed. "Look, I don't care what you do, but there are tired and frustrated people in this apartment who are trying to get some rest, and you two yelling at each other isn't helping. Plus you might make Ven cry...again." And with that, she left the room and shut the door to the bedroom behind her.
Huffing, I took my place on a living room chair, accepting defeat....for now. Axel sighed triumphantly, and before I knew it he was asleep. Suddenly I realized none of us had eaten all day.
Hmm...odd. I supposed Kairi and Naminé could handle feeding the kids, so with one last glance at the ever-annoying redhead who took my bed, I closed my eyes and fell alseep.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A/N: I don't know why there aren't cars allowed in Twilight Town, so don't ask. It's just, you never see any cars there in the game (the trains and the trolly don't count) so I figured...whatever.
Thanks to everyone who read this! And to everyone who is going to review! -hinthint-
I didn't know this was gonna turn out this long, but I think I like it...btw, just in case some of you couldn't figure out for some reason, the person who was waking up in the car was Riku...so it was like...from his point of view...from that point on...yeah.
Thanks to my beta fish, flurry of dying flames! She actually came up with my new name for me. ^_^ (beta fish says she's veeeeeery happy to see so much axel in one of your stories :D)
P.S. I know in the prologue it was from the narrator's point of view, and then in this chapter it suddenly changed to first person, buuut...that's because I didn't think about that before and I had already written most of Axel's part (which is most of this chapter...I think) and I didn't wanna re-write it. I hope that's okay....
R&R!
All flames will be used for Axel's enjoyment.
-orgymoogle