Roses are red, terrors are… blue?

Pairing: RoxasXKairi {Roxiri}
Genre: Romance, friendship, humour, drama
Rated: T (M?)
Summary: Roxas's life has always been normal. But after becoming friends with Axel, he enters a whole new family. With two twin terrors.

Chapter Twenty
(final)
Our Family

The pine tree in the corner of the office was a dull green and surprisingly dusty. The ornaments had lost their shine, the colors faded, the glitter vanished.

The lights hidden within the tree were flickering, almost down to their last ends. Even though the office seemed gray and cold, it was an effort to at least create an atmosphere that slightly reminded them of Christmas.

The boy glanced at it, smiling fondly as he thought of home. He couldn't wait to be home again, to their own Christmas tree, to their family waiting for them.

With a small sigh, he looked back at the woman behind the desk, scribbling away in her notebook. First, he had to sit this through, though.

In the corner of his eye, he saw his brother staring passively at the wall, even though his jaw was slightly set.

He wasn't quite fond of these sessions, but if anyone hated these more than he did, it was his brother.

"Do you see your parents in your dreams?"

"Not really," he said, speaking for his brother too as he laughed a bit awkwardly, rubbing the back of his neck. "I mean, my dreams are kinda weird at times, but-"

"Oh," the woman said, and he regretted speaking up at all. "Can you describe one of those dreams for me?"

He noticed his brother smirk slightly and he suppressed the urge to laugh too. Yes, he had done it now.

"Well, I dreamed I was out on a trip with our family and there was this weird, well, bear-dog thing that kept stealing my blanket. I woke up and it was my brother who had grabbed my blanket, so I guess that explains it."

The woman seemed slightly disappointed. "I see. That might indeed be the case, then. Vanitas, dear, do you have any strange dreams?"

"No," Vanitas said flatly.

"All right," the woman said, closing her notebook. "Then that'll be all for this session. Please contact me if you need to talk and I'll see you after Christmas break."

Vanitas was out of the office at once, Sora following him slightly less hasty.

"What a waste of time, again," Vanitas said rather annoyed. "Stupid woman."

"Yeah, sorry," Sora apologized. "I shouldn't have said anything."

"You really are an idiot," Vanitas scoffed. "You shouldn't say anything to her at all."

"But m- Kairi will start to worry," Sora muttered as the exited the school building. The yard was pretty deserted as the big, heavy door closed shut behind them.

School hours were long over as their appointment with the school psychologist was always after the last school hour of the day. Normally a couple of kids would remain to talk, make homework together or other things, but the Christmas break had started, so everyone had gone home as soon as possible.

The sun had started to set already, the enormous lights surrounding the school and the sidewalks flickering on.

Just parked outside was the familiar blue car. The motor and the lights were off, but a figure was waiting patiently behind the wheel in the shadows.

The two teenagers glanced at each other before both grinning widely. "Last one there has to make the other one's homework!" Vanitas called as both of the guys took off as if the Devil himself was chasing them.

"Ah, crap," Sora panted as he was the last one to touch the door of the car. Vanitas laughed, the sound of it echoing a little through the deserted school grounds.

"You're so slow," he said, still laughing as he opened the car. "Hi, Roxas."

Roxas was smiling at their usual antics as he started the car. "Hey guys. How was your appointment?"

"The usual stuff," Vanitas said evasively as he took the seat behind Roxas.

"Yeah, nothing much," Sora agreed, sitting down next to his brother and closing the door. "Is Axel coming home tonight?"

"Yep," Roxas said, grinning now. "He's already there."

"Really?!" Sora said, almost bouncing up and down in his seat with excitement. "When did he arrive?" Vanitas added excitedly, leaning forward and around the car seat to look at the blonde guy behind the wheel.

"This afternoon," Roxas said, his eyes on the road, but flickering momentarily to his rear mirror to meet the boys' gazes with a smile. "You'd better be ready because he has a lot of plans for the upcoming two weeks. You won't be even able to rest for one minute, I believe."

A lot had changed since ten years ago. They had lived for quite some time with their brother and sister and her boyfriend in the house of their parents, but as their sister married, the newlyweds moved out of the house into one of their own and both the boys moved with them.

Nevertheless, at Christmas, their brother stayed over at their house for the entirety of the Christmas break and they would often go out and do fun things. Such as going to the park and building igloos like last year.

The purpose of building those igloos seemed rather diverse, however. Sora and Roxas had tried their best to build one which was big enough for all of them to camp in and Vanitas and Axel had been quite keen on destroying whatever effort was made on the igloo while Kairi was hiding out somewhere in a shop nearby (where it was warm).

"Sweet!" Vanitas said excitedly. "What are we gonna do this year?"

"Wouldn't you like to know? He'll kill me if I tell you, so you'll have to wait for just a bit longer."

"No fair," Sora complained. "You can tell us! We'll keep it a secret!"

"Yeah, just like the secret you promised to keep two years ago," Roxas deadpanned as he took a left. "We all remember how that went down in history. We're almost home anyway."

"Hey, it wasn't so bad that Axel had dressed the cat," Vanitas said soothingly.

"You weren't the one who had to take the stupid sweater off the cat," Roxas said, raising his brow as he pulled into the driveway. "There are still scars on my face, you know."

Neither Sora nor Vanitas had time to listen to that complaint as they burst out of the car and ran straight into the house to greet their older brother.

With a chuckle, Roxas followed them, at a slightly slower pace.

"No, you guys can go ahead," Kairi said with a smile. "I'll pass this time."

After Axel had been reunited with his younger siblings (he hadn't seen them in an entire period of three days, after all), we had packed our things to head out at once.

Even though Kairi had found it ridiculous, Axel had insisted on going with two cars (as he had gotten himself a new car, the showoff) and the boys had gone with him.

We had arrived just a bit earlier at the ice skating rink and we, well, I was good to go.

They had finally arrived as well and were putting on their ice-skates as I tried to convince Kairi to join us.

I was a bit worried about her. She had come down with a weird kind of virus or something of the sort.

I really felt bad for her that she had to feel so miserable during the holidays.

"Oh, come on," I said to her with a smile, as she let go of my hand. "Sora and Vanitas have never gone ice-skating before, so you can't be the worst one of us all."

"You wanna bet?" she said, laughing as she gave me a gentle push in my back. "Just go and show off, you lousy husband."

"You really don't want to go?" I tried one more time. She shook her head as she leaned over the railing. "I'm good with just looking," she assured me.

"How are you feeling? If you don't feel well, I'm not going out there, you know." I added, frowning a bit as I studied her face.

She gave me a thumbs-up. "No throwing up, no nasty coughs so far. I'm fine."

I placed my feet carefully on the ice and made a small round around the railing so I faced her again. "Well, all right then," I said, kissing her forehead. "If you change your mind, we'll be here."

She nodded as Axel dashed past her onto the ice, shouting a bit in excitement, the sound echoing through the hall.

Sora and Vanitas slowly wobbled towards the rink too, a bit unsteady on their ice skates as this was the first time for both of them.

When they set their feet on the ice, I extended my hands to help them out.

As I had expected, Vanitas turned the other way at once, trying to get accustomed to the ice by himself, holding one hand on the railing as he tested his footing.

Axel, of course, had to come to his side to tease him a little, nudging his sides to try and make him fall over as the sweet, caring big brother that he was.

Sora, however, immediately put his full weight in my hands, the tip of his tongue visible as he tried to regain control over his unsteady footing. "Shoot," he muttered. "That didn't go as well as planned."

"You're on your feet, that's the start," I said encouragingly. "One foot at a time. That's it, there you go."

I skated backwards, glancing over my shoulder to see whether I could move without bumping into someone else.

We were lucky that there weren't many other persons around, so we could take all the space that we needed.

Sora was holding onto my hands, his balance still a bit poor.

Vanitas, on the other hand, had already started to chase Axel as they raced us by.

Sora didn't even glance up from his feet, the part of his face that was visible above his scarf red in concentration.

He was slowly getting it, each time he moved one of his feet he became slightly more confident in his movements.

But confidence rarely comes priceless and he started to sway, all control vanished over his feet.

Before he could tumble backwards, I caught him, steadying both myself and my little brother-in-law. "Whew, that was a close one," I said, laughing a bit. I hadn't done this in quite some time either, so I had gotten a bit rusty, too.

He breathed out in relief. "I really thought I was a goner there. This is so much harder than it looks in the movies!"

"Don't worry," I said as I took a bit more distance so we could continue his skating session. "Everyone falls once in a -"

"Gotcha!"

I hadn't seen Axel hurtling himself towards the two of us, but I was too late when I realized he was.

He had grabbed Sora around the waist to keep him standing, but I, of course, had to go down, which I obediently and involuntarily did.

He laughed, his mission accomplished as I slowly got back to my feet, rubbing the sore spot on my behind. "Damnit, Axel!"

Vanitas was laughing as he made a wobbly turn around us. "That was cool, Axel! Do that again!"

"Can you stand on your own?" Axel asked Sora, who gave an uncertain nod.

I held out a hand again, just in case, but he didn't take it this time, standing straight, even though his knees were turned inwards and he didn't dare move. It was kind of funny, but I decided against laughing.

Vanitas, however, grabbed his brother's hands and started pulling. "Come on, Sora! Let's go for a spin!"

"I'm trying! No, wait!" he called, a bit anxious now that his brother (who knows with what plan in mind) had taken the lead. "Not so fast! Not so- VAN!"

"Now that it's the two of us," Axel said to me with a grin as the brothers had taken off to the other side of the rink. "Wanna find out which one of us is faster?"

"Last one there treats us to ice-cream," I said, smirking as I immediately took off.

Axel was a tiny little bit faster than I was on a good day, so I would have to cheat just a little to make sure I would remain victorious.

"Hey!" he called, immediately speeding up behind me, crossing the distance alarmingly fast. Man, I really had gotten rusty over the years.

I didn't brake at all just in case he had completely caught up with me, so I crashed into the other side of the ice rink. "Ha!" I panted. "Got you!"

"You're such a cheat," Axel scoffed. "That didn't count. One more time, on three, okay?"

"Fine, whatever," I huffed, already accepting my defeat. "One more time, then."

As we left our spot on the count of three, he had already gained a few inches of advantage and as I passed the halfway mark, he was almost at the other side already.

"Hah! I win, I win!" Axel said triumphantly. "Did you see that, Kairi? I won!"

She giggled a little as I leaned on my side of the railing with my back, catching my breath. "I'm getting old. I really am getting old."

She rubbed my back. "That's all right. I still think it looked rather impressively."

"Thanks," I said, as she gave me a kiss on my cheek. "You're too nice to me. Is everything still good?"

She smiled. "Yeah, it's a lot better than yesterday."

"Good," I said as I ran my hand through her hair, looking for Vanitas and Sora, to see whether the latter would need my help. Vanitas was forcing poor Sora to make pirouettes as he stumbled his way over the ice. "In that case, I think I'm going to save Sora."

"Hey, Van," Axel, as usual, was quick to cooperate and called his black haired brother. "Wanna do a little race?"

His brother looked up and grinned widely. "Sure! What can I win?"

Axel smirked. "A week's worth of pocket money!"

Vanitas let go of Sora's wrist, who reached out and grabbed the railing just in time to keep himself standing. "Two week's worth of pocket money," Vanitas said, thoughtfully.

"Fine, two week's worth of pocket money it is then, you spoiled brat," Axel said, rolling his eyes as Vanitas came over his way. I left to rush to Sora's aid instead.

"Hey, kiddo," I said as I came up to his side and held out my hands again to support him as he struggled to balance himself. "Let's get back to teaching you how to skate, all right?"

He sighed in relief as he grabbed my wrists. "Thanks."

"You know," I said encouragingly as I slowly moved backwards, tugging him along with me so he could pay attention to his footing. "You're not that bad, really. It took me weeks to learn how to ice skate."

"Weeks?" Sora said, laughing a little. "That's slow!"

"Yeah, yeah," I said amusedly. "I was told so too."

It was enough to battle down his insecurity, as I had hoped, and he started progressing a lot as we slowly made our way around the ice rink.

It always amused me how Sora was the confident one in a lot of ways, and Vanitas in all the other ways.

Sora wasn't particularly insecure about himself, about his direction in life, but he really felt uncertain if he had to show off his skills or learn something new, whereas Vanitas was terribly insecure about himself, but who loved to show off, no matter what he had to do.

When they were together, however, they really were a team. Even though Vanitas loved to tease Sora and the other way around, they were always there to support each other, in the end. Just like the old days.

I couldn't believe it had been ten years, as I was watching Sora's satisfied smile as his steps grew bolder and more confident.

Then, he snapped me out of my thoughts when he was moving on his own next to me, only a little bit wobbly as he sometimes grabbed my extended arm to regain his balance.

"Say, dad?"

It had definitely been a strange thing; growing up, they had seen Kairi and me as their parents.

As they grew older, the realization dawned on them that Kairi was not their mother and I was definitely not their dad. This was easily fixed by not calling us as such anymore, instead just calling us by our names.

The feeling, however, wasn't as easily disregarded. At certain times, when no one else was around, they would still call out to us as if we were their parents.

"Yeah?" I slowed down a bit and he glanced up at me, his blue eyes just a few shades darker than Kairi's.

"Do we really have to keep going to that psychologist?"

"Well," I said as he grabbed my elbow for support, rubbing my neck with my free hand. "Kairi thinks it's important that the two of you have someone outside our family to talk to, whenever you feel like it."

"I know," Sora muttered. "Vanitas hates it, he doesn't really want to talk about it."

"Do you want to talk about it?" I hadn't expected Vanitas to like it.

It was hard enough for Axel, Kairi and me to get Vanitas to talk to us once in a while.

The only one Vanitas really talked to was Sora, in the end.

To me, that was reassuring enough, but Kairi was slightly more worried about it than I was and nearly implored him to join his brother in therapy. Even then, he went because Sora went.

"I mean," Sora said, an apologetic look on his face. "I don't really say a lot either because I'm kind of speaking for the both of us since we're twins and all. I don't feel like she's the one to talk to, either."

"We can try to get you someone else," I offered, frowning a bit.

I had kind of seen this conversation coming after the lack of enthusiasm of the boys for the appointments; even so, I had to agree with Kairi that with their backstory, it might be good for them to open up to other people about it.

Their past hadn't really been anything normal, after all. I think that most of all, she was afraid that she had dealt some extra damage. That was something I definitely didn't agree on. She had done the very best she could, and still did so to this very day.

He shook his head at my suggestion. "Nah, it's cool. It's not like the psychologist would make a huge difference anyway. They never talk about things you want to talk about, after all."

"What do you want to talk about, then?"

He glanced up, almost shy now. "I do miss my parents," he whispered, as if he was afraid others might hear him. "Whenever m- Kairi tells stories about them, or Axel tells something about them, I feel like I want to know them too. But I don't feel like I'm an orphan, you know," he added even softer. I had to strain myself to hear him speak. "I mean, it's just -"

He seemed embarrassed and he hid his face in his scarf. "I still feel like you and Kairi are my mom and dad. People think it's weird, and I know it's not what it is, but if I really can't see you like that anymore… that's what makes me sad about it, really. Then I would lose my parents again."

I smiled a bit as he was now silent beside me, his hands on my arm and his face a bit red, blue eyes darting over the ice rink, afraid that someone had heard.

"You know," I spoke softly so that our conversation remained private as a couple of youngsters passed us by, laughing and talking so hard I doubted they would have heard us either way. "I can still remember the day when you two started to call me 'dad'."

"We didn't always call you 'dad', then?" Sora asked, a bit curious now.

"No, you called me 'Roxy' at first," I said, holding back a laugh. "But after I had literally just confessed to Kairi earlier and we had just decided to keep things silent for a bit as we figured out what to do and how to do things as a couple when the two of you decided to call me out on it. So, thanks, for really putting me in an awkward spot back then."

Sora laughed, the seriousness fading from his face along with it. "No, you're making that up!"

"I'm not," I said, laughing too. "Do you remember Riku?"

"Riku? That guy with silver hair?"

"Yeah, when I started coming over at you guys' home, he was always there and there was this one time when you declared war to him and you stole Kairi's lipstick to paint war stripes on your face."

Sora shook his head, a wide grin on his face in anticipation. "And then?"

"Well, you guys went for it, I'm not even joking here. We had to run away to dodge your stupid toy swords and Riku even had to fight you with a broomstick. You guys bit and kicked me and Axel. It was insane. Well, in the end, we fed Riku to the wolves. Excuse me, I mean, we fed him to you two."

"Fed him to us?"

"Oh, yeah, he had to blow up this huge pool manually and then had to sit in his underwear in the pool with you two, having to pretend to be your dolphin."

Sora snorted. "That sounds like my idea."

"It was," I assured him with a grin.

"Where did he go, anyway?" Sora said thoughtfully. "This Riku guy?"

"Your mother ditched him," I said darkly, not even realizing myself that I had slipped up slightly again. It was hard not to do that, but Sora didn't say anything about it. "Thank God for that."

"I see," Sora said, smiling slightly as he nudged me. "You were jealous."

"Oh, I was, all right," I said brightly. "Do you remember the pirate ship Axel and I made for you?"

Sora nodded, his face brightening up. "Oh, yeah! The one that could really float in the water, right!"

"Yep. Axel sunk, though."

Sora started to laugh. "Yeah, I remember that too. That was funny. We should build one again, but a lot bigger this time!"

"We should," I agreed with a grin. "Axel's become a pro in testing them, after all."

Sora chuckled. "Man, now I'm really looking forward to Summer!"

"Anyway, my point is," I said quietly, smiling at the boy. "You are like a son to me, too. After everything we've been through all these years, it really feels like that, to me too. So if it feels good to consider your mother and me as your parents, you just keep doing that until you feel like it's not appropriate anymore. Deal?"

"Deal," Sora beamed at me. "Thanks, dad."

Just then, Vanitas came crashing into us. "Oops. Hey, Sora! Hold onto me, look at how fast I can go!"

Sora let go of my arm as he grabbed the back of Vanitas's jacket, Vanitas gaining speed again, tugging Sora along, who was still grinning happily as he let out a shout of excitement as they nearly ran over Axel, who could dive out of the way just in time.

As Axel followed them to have his revenge, the shouts started to become a mix between excited yells and howling laughter.

I grinned as I watched them, slowly making my way over to my wife, who was rubbing her hands together at the side.

"Hey," I said, taking her hands in mine and rubbing them warm. "You're still good?"

"I'm good," she said, smiling up at me. "What was up with Sora?"

"It's the psychologist," I said, rubbing the back of my neck as I turned slightly to watch her younger brothers, our kids, really. "They don't really feel like they can talk to her."

Kairi frowned slightly, biting her lip a bit. "Do we have to find a new one? This one was connected to school… but maybe someone else…-"

"I don't think that's going to work," I said quietly. "They're asking questions based on the assumption that they remember their parents. They do remember them, through you and Axel, but not for themselves. For them, we are their parents, even, well, now."

She sighed. "Maybe I should have stopped them from calling me, from calling us that in the first place."

"Maybe," I said, shrugging. "I'd like to think we gave them back the feeling of having parents around that they initially lost."

Kairi leaned forward more to wrap her arms around my waist. "You're sweet, you know that?"

"I have my moments," I said with a smile, wrapping one arm around her shoulders. "You know, I did teach Sora how to ice skate, I can teach you too. I really don't want you to feel left out, especially if you feel a little better than yesterday."

She smiled at me, a strange shimmer in her eye. "I really want to tell you," she said quietly. "But I'll have to wait."

"Tell me what?" I said, slightly confused.

She stood on her tip-toes to kiss my cheek. "Patience, my love. For both of us."

"All right," I said, still as confused as I was before. "Patience it is, then."

She giggled. "Go have fun," she ordered me sternly, though she was still laughing. "It's almost Christmas, after all."

We were laying in bed on Christmas Eve.

Today my parents, my cousin Ventus (as he had gotten together with Aqua with a little help from my side) and Kairi's family had come over to celebrate with us and it had been pretty chaotic.

Even so, it had been pretty fun and Kairi and I were getting skilled at this over the course of the years.

Nevertheless, I was still a bit glad that it was over and that Axel, Sora and Vanitas had gone to bed.

After all, Kairi hadn't felt really well that entire day and she had to dash to the bathroom multiple times during the dinner.

Even so, I was glad that Axel could help out so I could stick to her side. I think nobody even noticed too much, so we had done a great job, in the end.

Kairi and I were still awake, both looking at the small fake Christmas tree in our bedroom.

The lights were reflected in her eyes as she watched them flicker with a smile on her face, her head resting on her arms that she had folded over my chest.

"How are you feeling?" I said quietly as I ran a hand through her hair.

She glanced up at me momentarily with a smile. "Better. I shouldn't move too much, though."

We fell silent as we listened to the silence in the house as the lights gently flickered.

Outside, there were a couple of people out, laughing and talking, their voices slowly fading as they crossed the street and turned around the corner.

"Are you happy?" I asked a few minutes later, feeling a familiar warm bubble form in my chest as usual as she nodded.

"Very," she whispered. "Merry Christmas."

"Merry Christmas," I chuckled as I leaned forward to kiss her forehead.

"So," she said softly, with a secretive smile. "You thought I had bought one gift for you this year."

"Yeah…?" I said, raising a brow. "I guess I thought wrong."

"You did," she said, beaming at me.

Then, she rolled onto her back and pulled me with her, slightly, so I was on my side, hovering over her a bit. "Should I be freaking out right now or act 'surprisingly excited' for your surprise?" I said amusedly.

She giggled. "Surprisingly excited, please."

"I would also like to remind you that you shouldn't move around too much," I couldn't help but add a bit worryingly.

She simply rolled her eyes, the smile not fading from her face as she, very slowly, took my hand and put it on her stomach.

It clicked right away.

Now, you see, Kairi and I had decided ever since we had gotten married that we would try and see where 'trying for a baby' would lead us.

After it led us nowhere for the first year, we had intensified the trying. It was a rough process because the tests kept coming back negatively and we really, really wanted a baby.

Of course, we had Sora and Vanitas to take care of, too, and in the end, it got to the point where it was starting to weigh us down in our daily lives.

We felt miserable and insecure and since the twins needed us, whether it was as their brother and sister or as the parents, I had told Kairi we would stop trying so hard.

We would just go about our year as we usually did before we got married and try again next year, with the help of professionals maybe, if that was what it took.

She had agreed and it had done us good to stop trying. Maybe more than I had anticipated, so it seemed.

"Oh," I said, my voice a bit higher, my eyes wide as I stared at my wife. "The throwing up. The mood swings. The back pain. Oh."

"I can't believe you didn't notice sooner," she said with a shaky laugh. "Roxas, we're going to have a baby."

"How-How far along?" I whispered, my hand still on her stomach, hers gripping mine tightly.

"Seven weeks," she said softly. "Our first appointment is next week."

"You're pregnant!" I said, an excited laugh bubbling over my lips, even though the comment was a huge understatement at this point. "You really are pregnant!"

"Yes," she said, smiling, reaching out to touch my cheek. "I'm pregnant."

"We're going to have a baby," I half laughed, half sobbed as I hugged her tight. "We're finally going to have a baby!"

"I know," she said as she started to cry too.

A few weeks later

"Here, take that!" Vanitas said, laughing as he dipped the paint brush in the container of paint and whipped it through the air, spreading drops of the blue paint everywhere, most of it landing on Sora's face.

His brother started to laugh as he held up his arm to avoid the paint from getting in his eyes. "Wait, wait," he said hurriedly, bending his knees to dip his fingers in the paint, spreading stripes over his cheeks. "Attention, attention, I hereby declare war!"

"Oooh," Vanitas said with a shimmer in his eyes. "That sounds like a terribly good idea, Sora!"

He too stuck his fingers in the paint and dragged them across his cheeks. "All right, I am ready."

"Paint brushes, ready?" Sora called.

"Ready!" Vanitas shouted as both of them started to attack the other with the paint brushes.

"Hey, knock it off!" I shouted at them from my corner in the room, as they were now spraying paint all across the room and I finally dared to say something when I got off the ladder. It was old and it creaked, so I didn't dare move too much or say too much whenever I was on that thing. I really had to say something now, though, as they were spraying the paint everywhere. It even got on the just white painted walls, to my dismay. "You'll get it everywhere!"

"Isn't that the point of paint?" Vanitas asked me sweetly.

"Don't be a smart-ass with me, young man," I said sternly, apprehensively glancing at the damage. Well, this certainly wasn't what Kairi had in mind when she had explained the concept to me.

"Oh no," I groaned, rubbing the back of my neck. "Now you've done it. Kairi's not going to like this."

"She will be fine with this," Sora assured me brightly. "It's artistic."

"All this wall says to me is that you two have been busy here," I grumbled. "And we were almost done, too."

"Ah, come on, stop complaining," Vanitas said, patting my back. "It'll be all right."

"Van, did you just put your hand, your hand that was completely covered in paint, on my back?" I slowly said, massaging my forehead.

"Oops," Vanitas said tauntingly. "My mistake."

I flicked my paint brush at him. "You're so childish, Van."

He laughed as he deflected the paint with his arm. "Dad! You're just as childish! You're such a baby!"

"A baby who's having a baby," Sora chuckled. "That's weird!"

He came up to me, stood on his tiptoes and rubbed his thumbs over my cheeks in the similar stripe-fashion as he had done to himself. "Now you're ready for war too," he said with a grin.

"The one who loses is going to paint this room all by themselves!" I said, just when Vanitas had pressed his paintbrush up in my face.

If you can't beat them, join them, they said. It would be fun, they said. Except they didn't know Vanitas, apparently.

"Well, then, you lose," Vanitas said mercilessly. "One down, one to go!"

I couldn't help but laugh at his antics anyway.

I grabbed him by his leg and arm and heaved him over my shoulder. It wasn't as easy anymore as it used to be when he was ten years younger, but I could still manage it, even though my legs started to shake.

"Dad! Let me down, let me down!" he exclaimed, though he was laughing. Sora was clutching his stomach, gasping for air as he laughed too.

"Who's going to paint this room by themselves, huh?" I said with a grin.

"You are!" Vanitas shouted as he wriggled against my grip. "You're the dad after all!"

"I said, who is going to paint this room by themselves?!"

"I am," Vanitas now shouted, laughing. "Happy now? Let me down!"

As I put Vanitas down, the three of us glanced at the wall.

It was white, with a big baby blue stripe on the bottom that went up to the half of the wall. On the parts that had been a nice white, there were now multiple, disorganized small dots of blue paint and strange, thin lines as we had sprayed the paint everywhere.

"I really think mom will like them," Sora said genuinely.

"Yeah, I think so too," I said, wrapping my arms around the boys' shoulders. "But you get to tell her."

"What? No way! You're guilty too!" Vanitas said, laughing as he pushed me off a little.

"Are you excited?" Sora suddenly asked me. "For the baby?"

"Extremely excited," I said with a grin.

"Even though you raised two twin terrors?" Vanitas said, raising a brow.

"Yeah," I said, glancing at the doorway, where my lovely wife had appeared. "We must be crazy; adding another small terror to this family," I said jokingly to her.

After having the twins around for so long, Kairi needed one look on the wall and one look on our striped faces before realizing what had happened.

"Guys," she sighed with a smile. "What did you not understand about the assignment: go paint the baby room?"

"We did paint it," Vanitas argued. "You weren't specific enough on how to paint it."

"But it looks good, right?" Sora added with a grin.

"I thought it had something cool," I said in their defense. "Something… creative?"

"Yeah, yeah," she said, having surrendered already. "It does look like you two have been around here. You three, actually."

"Yeah," Vanitas said with a grin as he nudged Sora from behind my back. "After all, roses are red and…"

"Terrors are blue," Sora finished with a grin as he pointed at the blue stripes on his face. "We'll welcome our little terrorizing brother here and we'll educate him in all the terrorizing ways."

"We'll be prepared," Kairi promised them as she smiled up at me. "Right, Roxas?"

"Oh, yes," I said, smirking as I let the boys go. "We've had years of experience, after all. Wait, Kairi!"

She stopped as she had already turned in the doorway, glancing back at me curiously. "Yeah?"

I took my chance and I dove forward, sneaking an arm around her waist and resting my free hand on her belly, which had grown significantly as our baby was growing and kept on growing until we finally would get to meet the little Strife baby.

She blinked twice. "Hey," she said, rather confusedly. "What's up?"

Sora and Vanitas had already realized what I had done, covering up their laughter with coughs.

Then, it dawned on her too as she quickly grabbed my wrist, moving my hand away from her T-shirt. Right there, on her white T-shirt, there was my blue handprint.

"You child!" she scolded me, though she was laughing as well. "Stop laughing!"

"But mom," Sora suddenly said as Vanitas rested his arm on his brother's shoulder. "Now the baby can join us in the big family war. It's tradition!"

I saw her eyes watering up (it's all hormones, apparently) and I pressed her against me, my other hand (also covered in paint) in her hair, grinning. "Boys, don't make your mother cry! How dare you do this to your poor-"

"Stop getting paint on me!" Kairi said as she gently pushed me away, laughing through her tears.

"Mom attack!" Vanitas exclaimed as he dove for Kairi's legs and pressed his hands on her jeans.

Sora came for her back and soon she too was covered in the blue marks.

Even so, she was laughing as hard as her brothers and when she glanced up at me with that smile on her face, I realized we had come such a long way from the start.

I had married the strongest woman in the world, I had become part of the best family ever, with her awesome brother and two twin terror brothers and our very welcome little one.

There was no man in the world happier than I was to be part of this makeshift family.

After all, this was home.

Merry Christmas!

Actually, I finished this a few days prior (the raw version, at least. I stayed up all night to get it rolling), but you already waited so long, you now have an official occasion to celebrate the final chapter of this series with me!

And boy, has it been a long while, so sorry for that, once again. Thank you so much for sticking by my side. I appreciate it very much, as always.

I don't dare reread this story as some of the mistakes seem ghastly to me now, but hey, that's how improving works, or so I hope.

I hope I have given you the ending you hoped for, we skipped a lot of time in this one, but it's how it is. This is what I envisioned from the start, actually.

This was supposed to be up in July, but a lot of things happened and it got delayed pretty badly. I had parts of it written before things went downhill. I wasn't happy with myself and neither the chapter was satisfactory anymore. Well, 2016 might have been a rough patch for all of us in its own way, no? I can't wait for 2017 to come and one thing I would like to do is to become more active again.

So if you like to follow me work on other stories and improve (as I always hope to achieve), I'll see you in other upcoming stories and again, thanks so much for your support throughout this series. You guys kept me going, so thank you so much. I really hope you like this.

Merry Christmas once more and I wish you all the best for 2017!

Well, then, I'm signing off for this year and I'll see you all in the next one!

Lots of love,

your author,
PrincessM