~Dinner~

It had been a few weeks; he was accustomed to the little idiots now. Saïx mostly hung out with Xemnas, so he was no problem… Lord know what the child will be like when he's grown… Larxene and Marluxia were quite a pair. Turns out there was a girl, Larxene, and Marluxia was another boy. They got into slight trouble everywhere, but they weren't too bad. Luxord's only problem was his constant gambling. And the fact no one could understand his thick British accent. Hopefully it'll go away. Demyx and Roxas had to be watched out for- they were always getting into everything. At least, Demyx was. Roxas… Well, he just kind of wandered around, daydreaming.

The worst one of all was Axel. Troublemaker, bully, everything. One moment you'd be lecturing him, the next he'd be off bugging Roxas! Then when Roxas finally gets rid of him, he's off setting fire to your books! The worst thing about him, though, was his pickiness. It wasn't even that he didn't like the food; it was that he didn't want to eat it simply for the sake of annoying you!

A fine example of this was one night, about a week after they moved in. Zexion was still quite unused to being addressed as Mommy, but Lexaeus was used to it. All he had to do was say, 'Listen to Mommy,', and read the newspaper. Oh, and he got to do spankings whenever someone did something really bad.

Zexion had cooked dinner, a delightful meal of chicken cordon bleu, fresh buttered peas, and duchess potatoes. All in all, a delectable meal. Apparently, not to Axel. Zexion sighed. "Axel, eat your vegetables."

"No! I dun wanna!" A slight crossing of the arms.

"Axel, seriously. Choke 'em down; it's not like they're bad for you. Look. Everyone else finished theirs, even Roxas. Even Daddy finished his. Now eat it."

"NO! I DUN WANNA EAT IT!" Axel started to screech, kicking and flailing his arms.

"AXEL! EAT THE DAMN PEAS!" Zexion was yelling too. "Lexaeus! Do something!"

Lexaeus looked up from his newspaper. "Axel, listen to Mommy." He turned to the next page.

Zexion sighed as Axel continued to throw a temper-tantrum. "NO! I'M NOT GUNNA EAT THEM! THEY'RE GROSS! NO!"

Zexion broke an empty beer bottle (was that Luxord? Note to self: lock up alcohol) and waved it at Axel. "EAT. THE. FUCKING. PEAS."

At that key moment… Xaldin walked in. He raised an eyebrow. "What are you doing?"

Zexion looked around suspiciously. "I.. was just, ah… Teaching Axel here about the dangers of playing with a broken bottle." He nodded a bit too fast.

Xaldin shrugged. "Whatever." He walked on out, grabbing a drink from the fridge.

Lexaeus looked up at Zexion. "Why lie to him? It's not like he's going to care one way or the other."

Zexion shrugged. "I don't know. I get the feeling that I shouldn't be a bad mother… Otherwise these kids might end up, you know, fucked up."