Prologue

The sound of laughter filled the air as two young boys chased each other through the streets of their hometown.

One was a small, seven-year-old mouse with large round ears and a long thin tail wearing red shorts, and the other was a slightly taller, ten-year-old rabbit, with long ears, a small cotton tail and blue shorts. Other than the obvious difference of being a mouse and a rabbit, the two looked very similar. Both were entirely black aside from their faces, which were a light peach color.

The two raced for the bridge at the edge of town. For most of the race it looked as though the mouse would win, but just as the bridge came into sight, the rabbit gave a smirk, and put on a burst of speed, overtaking the mouse and slapping his hand on the bridge.

"Ha, beat you!" the rabbit said tauntingly, beaming down at the shorter of the pair.

"No fair, Ossie," the mouse complained in a high-pitched voice. "You cheated."

"It's not cheating, it's skill," the rabbit, Ossie, said sticking his tongue out at the other. "I'm stronger, faster, and luckier than you Mickey, and don't you forget it. It's the older brother privilege."

"You're just lucky because you have rabbit feet," Mickey grumbled.

Ossie laughed, and ruffled his brother's head between his ears. "Cheer up Mick, maybe one day you'll get lucky and grow taller than me."

Mickey perked up at that. "You think so?"

Ossie shrugged, not looking like he believed it. "Not likely, but maybe."

"Ossie!" Mickey whined.

The rabbit laughed at his pout, but the laughter quickly died as he caught sight of something behind the mouse. "Mickey! Get back!" he shouted suddenly, grabbing his little brother and shoving him behind him.

Mickey stumbled at the rough treatment, but quickly paled as he realized the cause of it.

Three snickering thugs wearing hoods and masks slowly made their way out from under the bridge, all three bigger then the two youngsters, and grinned down at them wickedly. Despite this, Ossie kept himself firmly between them and Mickey. "What do you creeps want?" he asked snidely.

That just caused them to laugh louder. "So glad yous asked," the biggest of the thugs said with a sneer. "We jus' want everythin' yous got. Hand over your valuables and yer little brother won' get hurt, Ossie, was it?"

The sneer was literally knocked off the biggest thug's face as Ossie gave it a strong kick. "Only people I like can call me that," he snapped, raising his fists to fight. "It's Oswald to you creeps!"

The other thugs helped the third back to his feet, and their mocking taunts turned to anger, as one of them grabbed Ossie by his long ears, and held him dangling in the air.

"Ossie!" Mickey cried as his brother was snatched away from him.

"You'll pay for that, brat!" snarled one of the thugs as he raised his fist in the air. But before he could strike a blow, a rock hit him in the eye, making him howl in pain and drop Ossie back to the ground, and allowed the boy to scramble away.

Further enraged, the thugs tried to grab the rabbit once again, but a new voice rang out, freezing them in their tracks.

"Halt!"

All turned to see three tall men in royal musketeer uniforms standing proudly a short distance away. "Leave these children be," ordered the one who had spoken before.

The thugs turned their sneering gaze onto the three soldiers. "Or else what?" one of them said.

The musketeers shared a grin, before the closest punched one of the thugs in the face, thus beginning a fairly one-sided battle in the musketeer's favor.

While this happened, Ossie made his way back to Mickey. Standing protectively in front of him again, Ossie spared his brother a grin. "Nice shot with the rock, Mick."

At the lack of response, he did a double take. "Mick?"

But Mickey barely heard him as he stared in awe at the fight before them. "Whoa," he whispered.

Ossie glanced back to the skirmish just as the musketeers sent the thugs packing. He had to admit, it was impressive, but he didn't see what had Mickey so entranced.

With the bad guys gone, one of the musketeers made his way over to the children. "Are you boys alright?" he asked kindly.

"W-we're alright," Mickey said, still staring at the musketeer in awe.

"Yeah, those guys were nothing," said Ossie confidently.

The musketeer chuckled at their responses. "I saw how you two defended each other. That was very brave. A lot like us musketeers."

"Really?" Mickey squeaked.

The musketeer nodded. "Yes, as royal musketeers, our code is "All for One, and One for All. Teamwork and defending each other is how we win the day."

Ossie cocked his head, looking interested. "That's some motto."

The musketeer smiled and offered them his hat. "Well, perhaps such brave young boys like yourself might be musketeers yourself someday. I'm sure we'd be glad to have you."

Mickey took the hat, staring at it like it was a priceless treasure, but Oswald looked skeptical. "Us? Musketeers?" he asked with an eyebrow raised.

"Anything is possible," the musketeer said, standing to leave. "You boys be good now."

With that the musketeer joined his companions, and they all made to leave.

"W-wait!" came a shout, stopping them.

They turned back to see Mickey shuffling shyly, before running over to them and holding out the hat and a pen from his pocket. "Could, uh, could I have your autographs, please?" he asked.

The musketeers laughed humorously at the request, but accepted the pen and each wrote their name under the brim, before handing it back to the mouse and continuing on their way.

Once they were out of sight, Ossie realized they needed to go home too, and gestured for Mickey to follow. "Come on, Mick, I bet Dad will want to hear all about this."

Mickey snapped out of his star struck daze, and hurried to walk beside him, fidgeting with the hat in his hands. "Do you think I could ever be a musketeer like he said?" he asked his brother uncertainly.

Ossie paused and looked over at Mickey in surprise. Well, that at least explained his reaction to the whole ordeal. Honestly, Ossie didn't think either of them could make the cut to be a musketeer, as those were supposed to be the best of the best, and neither of them were likely to grow very big, but there was no way he would tell his brother that at the risk of seeing his crestfallen face.

Instead he said, "… Yeah, maybe someday… When you're bigger."

Mickey's head shot up. "You mean it."

"Well, sure. Like that guy said…" Ossie said, reaching for the hat, and placing it on Mickey's head. "…Anything is possible."

Peeking out from beneath the too-big hat, Mickey beamed up at him with stars in his eyes.

"Now come on, we're gonna be late for dinner," said Ossie, hurrying on ahead, making Mickey run to catch up.

As they ran, Mickey had one more question that needed answering. "Hey Oswald, you said you only let people you like call you Ossie."

"Yeah, so?" asked Ossie.

"So does that mean you like that Ortensia girl? She's the only one who calls you Ossie aside from me and Dad?" Mickey asked innocently.

Ossie stopped dead in his tracks, and his entire face burned fire engine red. "MICKEY!" he shouted in a scandalized tone, and chased his little brother the rest of the way home. "GET BACK HERE! MICKEY!"

A/N If you can't tell, this fic is going to be my little headcanon of Mikey's backstory from the Kingdom Hearts games, with elements borrowed from both Epic Mickey and The Three Musketeers. This is an idea I've been sitting on for a while. It's one I'd wanted to write for some time, and then finally got around to doing it. I like how it came out, and I hope you enjoy it to. I'll just keep my fingers crossed we'll someday get Oswald in Kingdom Hearts. That's something I'd really like to see. Let me know what you think.

Disclaimer: I own nothing