Disclaimer - I do not own Kingdom hearts and never will.

Warning - Roxas bashes Demyx quite a bit. Poor guy, harassed by a toddler.

A/N - Glad people liked the first chapter. As for the whole Demyx for sale thing in the first chapter, This boy at my school put a sign like that on his back and walked around like that all day XD Dear lord... He made math class fun

Protecting Me

Chapter 2 : Got it Memowized

Day and night you're by my side.

Protecting me.

This wasn't good.

It was a rare occasion when Axel saw the need for panic. Normally he had a very cool and nonchalant attitude about most things. Honestly, it would have been a crime to ask Axel not to panic. There he was, sleeping ever so innocently in a chair beside his sick friend (who was now gone) to be rudely awakened by some strange miniature version of Roxas.

Yeah, this wasn't good. The Superior would have his head when he found out. Who would Xemnas blame for this catastrophe? Axel and Roxas were always together. Which means he would surely get all the blame.

Axel stood from his chair, looking down at the frustrated little boy at a complete loss for words. He just barely met Axel's knee and his sandy blond hair was so tousled that it appeared as if he just crawled out of bed. He also seemed to be swimming in his old Organization cloak. Roxas looked up at Axel with a sour expression.

"I'm hungwey. I wanna sammich!" Roxas yelled out in an abnormally high-pitched voice while holding out his arms, waiting for Axel to pick him up. Axel quickly picked Roxas up, if for nothing else to silence the kids yelling. Boy did he make the wrong decision.

Axel held Roxas out in front of him at arms length as if he was terrified to let it touch his body. Since he wasn't too familiar with small children the whole 'how to hold a little kid' concept was pretty new. The mini version of Roxas proceeded to wiggle and scream loudly.

"Too high, Lemme down!" Axel granted the toddlers wishes, almost dropping him in the process. Roxas latched onto one of Axel's legs, crying lightly into the fabric. Axel made a mental note to never hold him out that far again.

"Ok, shhh, quiet." Axel leaned down to his level and tried to silence him. Axel had the misfortune of having Saix's room on the same floor as his room. Saix was, to put it nicely, absolutely insane. He couldn't even count the number of times he had been hit over the head with that psychos claymore due to too much noise late at night. Luckily, Roxas calmed down enough to listen to what Axel had to say.

"I still wanna sammich." Roxas said a little quieter, yet still holding out his arms. Axel was willing to give it a second try. This time, he kept little Roxas's fear of heights in mind. Instead of holding him at arms length he kept Roxas's small body close to his own. He let out a sigh of relief when Roxas made no further noise but instead clung to Axels' neck.

"I'll take you to the kitchen, but you have to stay quiet. Got it memorized?" Axel pressed a finger to his own lips to further make his point. At that, Roxas began to giggle wildly, and then copied Axel's hand movement by pressing his own tiny finger against his lips. Roxas rested his head against Axel's shoulder with one thumb stuck in his mouth. Axel raised an eyebrow giving up on trying to understand. He shook his head and went out into the labyrinth of hallways.

The hallways were still dark due partially to the lack of windows or the fact that the sun never rose in The City that Never Was. At this time, much of the Organization was still asleep. Perhaps Xemnas was up, working on whatever the hell he worked on in that office of his. Vexen might have still been in his lab, Axel swore the guy never slept or came out of that lab. Lexaeus was most likely up early in the kitchen preparing breakfast, but the stove was in a different room from the fridge so no problems there. Those who were up usually had good reason. Everyone else enjoyed the sanctuary of sleep. Which was why being quiet in the halls at this time was so crucial.

Until Axel had much of this figured out he wanted to keep little Roxas hidden from the others. Of course, Xemnas would probably notice the disappearance when he noticed his star key bearer was missing.

While they were walking, Roxas reached up and grabbed a lock of Axel's flaming red hair. Axel looked over at Roxas to see the toddlers' eyes were opened wide with amazement as he gently ran his tiny fingers through Axel's hair. Actually, it felt pretty good...

"What are you doing?" He finally asked. Roxas finally snapped out of his fascination with Axel's hair and turned to face him.

"It's pwetty cus it's my favowite colow."

"Reds not your favorite color." Axel smirked at Roxas as he rested his head against his shoulder once again.

Finally they made it down to the, thankfully empty, kitchen. Roxas sat down as Axel quickly prepared a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. It was an old time favorite of Roxas. Axel handed the sandwich off to Roxas, who still held a look of extreme displeasure on his face.

"What is it now?"

"You didn't cut the cwust off." Roxas stubbornly pushed the sandwich away and crossed his arms.

'Different body, same stubborn Roxas.' Axel thought to himself as he rolled his eyes, taking the sandwich back to cut off the crust. After that, Roxas happily began to munch on his sandwich. In the process he successfully managed covering his hands and the table with grape jelly.

Axel was still pretty clueless about what to do. He paced the floor, talking aloud to himself.

"This is just perfect. Roxas is a... a... who knows how old-"

"Thwee!" Roxas talked through a full mouth and held up three jelly-covered fingers.

"Right... a three year old. Roxas, what the hell happened!" At that, Roxas just shrugged. The boy honestly had no clue what the topic of discussion even was. The sandwich was much too delicious to pay attention to what some grown up said. So he just settled on smiling and nodding for now. "You don't remember anything?" Roxas shook his head. "I got it, maybe this kid isn't even Roxas. But he sounds... a little like Roxas and looks... a little like Roxas. Which means there is a fifty percent chance he is Roxas... Ok kid, what's your name?"

"Woxas, Duh!" He replied as if Axel were slow.

"G-r-e-a-t!" Axel threw his hands up in defeat. "There has to be someone in this castle who knows something.

"Dem-" Roxas stopped to lick some jelly from his finger. "-yx!"

"I doubt it… but in all honesty he's probably all I've got." Axel sighed. If nothing else Demyx might have been able to help him. At the table Roxas had finished his sandwich and was licking his fingers clean. Axel made his way to the door yelling "come on kid" on his way out

Roxas tried to toddle behind him as fast as he could; this of course being extremely difficult to do with his clothes being several sizes to big for him. Trying to run to keep up with Axel's quick footsteps, Roxas tripped over his cloak and hit the ground roughly. Axel heard the thud and turned to see Roxas laying face down on the floor. Roxas lifted his head. His big blue eyes were wet with the beginning of what looked like another one of his crying episodes. Axel flew to his side to put a hand over his mouth. He felt a few of Roxas's stray tears fall onto his hand clasped tightly over his mouth. Axel brushed his thumb under his eyes to wipe the remaining tears away.

"Remember, quiet." Axel whispered.

"But it huwts weally bad." Roxas whimpered, pointing to a red lump forming on his forehead. "Make it bettew."

"Roxas, it'll go away in a little while. There's no way I can make it better."

"Yes thewe is!"

"What?" Axel said in a harsh whisper.

"Kiss it." Roxas crossed his arms.

"What!" Axel bit the inside of his cheek, clearly not expecting that. Sure, he was just a kid and it was just on the forehead, but it felt a little awkward when just a few hours ago he was fifteen. Just then, the unwanted mental image of him leaning in to kiss the fifteen-year-old Roxas gently on the forehead popped up. Axel shook his head, now cursing himself wildly at what his own mind had come up with.

'He's three for now, not fifteen Axel... Calm down.' Reluctantly, Axel put his pale lips against Roxas' forehead and kissed the mark lightly. When he pulled away, Roxas was finally showing off the smile Axel knew so well.

"Happy?"

"Feews bettew!" Roxas yelled happily and wrapped his arms around Axel's neck.

"Shhh, Remember the deal we had?"

"Uh-huh, Got it memowized." Roxas laughed to himself wildly while Axel was trying to stifle a laugh himself. Hearing his most loved phrase being used by a three-year-old Roxas was too good not to laugh at. 'Where was a tape recorder when you needed it?' Axel thought. 'This has to be shown to the real Roxas. He'd get a kick out of it for sure. If nothing else, it's perfect blackmail.'

xXx

The door to the melodious nocturnes darkened room slowly cracked open and two shadowy figures stepped inside. Axel set Roxas down. The toddler immediately ran for cover behind Axel's leg. Axel hated Demyx's room with a fiery passion (no pun intended). The walls were painted a bright blinding shade of blue with various stickers of every kind of fish imaginable plastered all over the walls. His clothes and other personal possessions were carelessly thrown all over the floor. So much so that Roxas would have tripped for a second time if Axel didn't catch him in time. In the middle of this disaster, Demyx lay in his oversized bed, surrounded by sea themed stuffed animals, snoring loudly. Demyx liked to keep things... homey. He always told Axel his room was based off of a memory he had of his somebody... Axel had to wonder if this memory of his wasn't accidentally from when his somebody was three.

"Demyx... Demyx wake up." Axel sat on the edge of his bed. Roxas held on tightly to Axel's pant leg and stared wide eyed at Demyx's swirling blue lava lamp. When talking failed at rousing the sleeping man, he grabbed his shoulders and shook him violently.

"Wha-whasgoinon!" Demyx's eyes popped open, still in a hazy half-sleep state, only to see Axel glaring at him. "Oh, 's just you Ax. G'night." And with that, he fell back onto his pillow, fast asleep.

'Can't stand this kid...' Axel thought. Seeing Demyx fall back down into a sound sleep made Axel scream in rage, causing a small fire to erupt on the wooden headboard.

"Ok, ok, I'm up!" Demyx jumped from his bed quickly extinguished the fire raging on his headboard. "Oh c'mon! You always do this to my stuff Ax!" Number Nine frowned as he looked at his charred headboard. Just another possession of his that needed replacing now.

"Never mind that. I have a problem and you could help me." Axel whispered hurriedly

"Ohhhh reeeeally?" Demyx smirked. He leaned in closely to Axel with a bit of mischief flashing in his Sea-foam eyes. "So, you've finally cracked and realized how amazing the two of us would be together, don't blame you for coming. I mean it was obvious you were the one to pull that sign prank on me. Your handwriting and all."

"Demyx," Axel stopped himself mid sentence. "you... ARE AN IDIOT!" Axel shouted, making fire rage around them once again.

"Ah- I was just joking! Come on Axel! Learn to take a joke…"

"Listen Demyx. I really need help with this, so stop the joking for five seconds." The redhead pulled Roxas out from his hiding spot behind his leg. Demyx's eyes opened wide before he lunged and grabbed Roxas.

"Oh my Kingdom Hearts! He's so cute!" Demyx squeezed Roxas tightly. The poor toddler was loosing oxygen fast in the death hug. "Awww, wookit his chubby wittle cheeks!" Demyx pinched Roxas's cheeks and practically drowned him in hugs.

All the while Roxas alternated between struggling to escape and looking at Demyx like he was completely stupid. The blue-faced toddler tried to reach out for Axel.

"Monstew!... Can't bweath! Help!"

"Demyx! You moron, you're going to kill him!" Axel ripped Roxas away from him. The three year old buried himself deep under Axel's cloak, occasionally peeking out to give a nervous glance in Demyx's direction.

"Soooo Axel. You never told me you and Larxene had a-"

"You sick freak! This is Roxas!" Axel shuddered at the thought of him and Larxene... No, it was best not even to think like that. Larxene was one he absolutely despised. Even though she was the only female in the Organization, one would have to be mentally insane to want to touch her…or have a death wish.

"You turned Roxas into a baby? You've done some weird crap before Axel but how the hell did you manage that?"

"I didn't do it. I came up here to ask you if you know who did." Axel prodded Roxas to come out from his new hiding spot to face a now calmer Demyx. Roxas hesitated, still clinging very tightly to Axel's thin form.

"No clue. Roxas got sick after eating. It could have been something he ate that day." Demyx said as he reached over to poke Roxas's chubby baby cheeks. Demyx was a sucker for an adorable kid, that was now made fact. "Could also be revenge you know. You two aren't exactly the most well liked around here."

"No touch!" Roxas hit Demyx's hand away and turned to bury himself back into Axel's cloak. "He twied to kill me Ax!"

"Awww, I didn't mean to scare you little buddy! " Demyx ruffled his hair.

"I'm not wittle. I'm big wike Axey!" Roxas batted Demyx's hand away a second time. Axel groaned lightly. He certainly had to get used to Roxas's comments.

"Of course you are." Demyx smiled at him, then looked back up at Axel. "So, what are you going to do now?" Actually, Axel had this whole notion in his head that since Demyx was already there and knew about his Roxas problem, it became more of a 'we' problem.

"I don't know what 'we' are going to do, but 'we' have to think fast. The others will be up any min-"

The low sound of a bell echoed through the halls from some high up tower on the castle. The wake up bell. There came a day when Xemnas got tired of the lack of punctuality in the Organization. Those who lacked discipline would simply get up when they so chose, arriving late for breakfast and even missions on occasion. So came the day when he put in a gigantic bell that was sure to not go unheard. The sound of many footsteps, doors opening, and tired yawns always followed close behind.

"Damn you Marluxia. Get out of the Bathroom!"

"You don't need anymore hair gel Larxene!"

"Use the downstairs bathroom for once!"

"No! Get out or so help me Petal boy, I will-"

A Door was violently slammed somewhere down the hall. Larxene and Marluxia always had raging battles over the upstairs bathroom every single morning.

"Oh shit..." Axel threw his head back, searching every corner of his brain for some sort of an idea. Any idea!