The Light In Their Eyes

(rough draft)

A Kingdom Hearts fanfic by Raberba girl

Dedicated to Bon-Bon, because this was originally meant to be a gift for her; and to Infamousplot, for inspiration. ^^

Summary: Axel finally realizes that he brought the wrong kid home from school.

A/N: Modern AU; Roxas is five years old, Xion is four. It's the first day of school. And apparently Xion goes to pre-k in public school, and they have uniforms. IDK.

o.o.o

"What do you mean, 'Get right on it'?" Saïx said over the speakerphone. "I've been 'on it' for three days now. I am, in fact, ready to submit it as soon as I hear back from Xemnas."

Axel lifted a hand from the steering wheel and waved it distractedly, as if Saïx could see him. "Right, sorry, I was thinking of something else...gah I hate being disorganized." Then, turning his head a little to bellow towards the backseat, "OI! KEEP IT DOWN BACK THERE!"

"But-!" the kids started to chorus in unison.

"Roxas, give her the pony back, Xion stop whining, and both of you put all that back in your backpacks, I don't need you taking twenty minutes to get out of the car once we get there!"

"Are you ever not running late?" Saïx wondered over the phone.

"Shut up. Anyway, so thanks for taking care of that, I'll let the boss know and get those numbers to you by tomorrow..."

They pulled up three minutes before the tardy bell rang and thirteen minutes before Axel was supposed to be at work, which meant that Axel didn't have time to find a parking spot and walk the kids inside like he'd wanted to. He briefly considered just being late - again, - but no...Eraqus was fed up enough with him already, he couldn't afford to hand the guy reasons to fire him. "Rox? Xi? Can you be a big boy and girl and find your classes all by yourself?"

"I can do it myself," Roxas asserted, as Xion nodded vigorously beside him.

"Good. Ask someone in the front office if you get lost, okay?"

"Okay. Love you, Daddy," Xion said, shoving halfway into the front seat to kiss him.

"Love you, too, princess."

"Bye, Dad," Roxas said, half-falling out of the door when the patrol opened it for him.

"Have a good day, Rox-my-socks."

"Don't call me that!"

Once they were out of the car, Roxas and Xion trotted off toward the cafeteria because the kids in front of them were heading there, then they got kicked out because it was too late and the serving line doors were closed, then they saw a squirrel and went to chase it, then they saw the playground and managed to get the latch of the gate open, and by the time the assistant principal came across them and dragged them out and scolded them and talked into her walkie-talkie and shoved them into their classrooms, announcements were already over.

"Oh my - goodness!" the teacher exclaimed, staring back and forth between Roxas and the little boy sitting on the picture of a violin.

"Hey," Roxas said, frowning.

The other kids were whispering with great interest.

"Hey," said the violin boy, looking confused.

"And...what's your name again, honey?" the teacher said, looking at some papers.

"I told you. I'm Roxas. Get it memorized."

At recess, Xion ran out onto the playground with all the other kids in her class, and screamed happily when she saw her brother by the slide. She raced over to glomp him.

"Oof!"

They both crashed into the ground.

"Roxas, I L-O-V-E Y-O-U, you," she sang, sitting on him.

He stared up at her, looking scared.

"Roxas? What's wrong?"

Another kid came down the slide. "Xion, don't sit on him."

Xion stared. "There's two Roxases!"

"No!" he yelled. "I'M Roxas, he's Ven. I'm Roxas! Me!" He sounded really mad, but he looked scared. Xion felt bad. She got up and shoved him down next to the boy who wasn't Roxas and hugged them both and sang, "I L-O-V-E Y-O-U, you, I love you love you love you, yay!"

"That's a stupid song," Roxas said, but he didn't look scared anymore.

"I'm Ven," said the other Roxas. "You're heavy, please."

"Say the magic word," said Xion.

"Please?"

"Twilight Sparkle," said Roxas, and Xion stopped sitting on them so they could get up.

"...is a poopiehead," Roxas finished with a grin, and ran away before Xion could push him.

"Come back here!" she shrieked, and ran after him. They ran and ran and ran, laughing, then they saw that Ven was just standing there watching them, so they grabbed his arms and twirled until he was laughing, too. Then they all got dizzy and fell down. Xion was on top, and she looked and looked and looked into their faces and their blue eyes. "You look the same," she said. "Roxas looks like Ven, and Ven looks like Roxas. I have two brothers!"

"Which one is me?" Roxas demanded anxiously.

"You're Roxas. You're on fire. And you're Ven, you're nice," she said. "You don't look the same." Their expressions, she meant. The light in their eyes was different. She loved them both, but they were easy to tell apart.

"Don't ever call me Ven, okay?" said Roxas.

"Okay."

"Xion," Ven said, "can you get off, please? You're squashing me. The magic word is Twilight Sparkle."

She smiled and kissed him and got off, and they went to find sticks and pretend they were samurai.

They had to line up and go inside when the teachers blew the whistle. Xion had to leave her brother and her new friend. She hugged them both and cried. Her teacher finally pried her off and dragged her away, and Roxas told her to stop being a baby and Ven told her they could play again next time.

o.o.o.o.o

When Axel came to pick up the kids, the first thing he saw was Xion crying. He immediately got out of the car and hurried over, ignoring all the people yelling at him for leaving the car idling in the pick-up lane. "Princess, what's wrong?" he said, scooping her into his arms.

"She took Roxas away," Xion sobbed. "The blue hair lady came and took Roxas away and she wouldn't listen, and I want my brother baaaack!"

Axel looked around in a panic, and was greatly relieved to see Roxas sitting with a class close by. Unfortunately, he was sitting there with tears dripping silently down his face, but at least he wasn't gone. "Xi, look, he's right there."

"No!" she sobbed. "Nooooo!"

"It's okay, princess, it's okay." He went over to his son. "Hey, Rox-my-socks!"

He expected the kid's face to light up as usual, but Roxas simply stared up at him in utter misery.

"Hey...hey, buddy, what's up?"

"I want my mommy," Roxas whispered.

Axel's chest suddenly felt tight. "Rox..." He knelt down, still holding Xion. "Roxas, remember how we talked about this?" he said gently. "We don't know where your mommy is yet. Me and Mr. Saïx have been looking for her, but we need a little more time, okay? And remember how we said that even if we do find her, she might-"

"I'm not Roxas," he burst out.

Axel sighed. He knew he'd probably have to explain things more than once, but...this was not exactly the most convenient time. "You'll always be you, kiddo. Always. Doesn't matter what name is on your birth certificate, I love you just as much whether you're Roxas or Al or Adam or Eric, okay?"

"I'm Ven. I'm Ven!"

"Okay," Axel said indulgently. "Ven? We can try that out for now. You wanna go grab some ice cream on our way to Grandma's?"

Roxas just stared at him.

"Sea-salt is really good, you'll see," Xion said, sounding doleful.

"Xi, he's had it a million times," Axel laughed. He held out a hand to Roxas. "Come on, buddy. Let's go get some ice cream, and later when I get home, we can talk about your mom, okay?"

"...Okay," Roxas sniffled, taking his hand. "You're not a stranger, right?"

Before Axel could figure out how to reply to this, Xion said, "He's my daddy!" and Roxas said, "Okay."

"Pffft, I'm both you guys' daddy, geez..."

As he stood up, the teacher came back over and said in a worried tone, "Sir, this is your son, right?"

"What the-? I think I should know who my own kid is!"

"Yes, but-"

"Look, here's my I.D., okay? Okay. I gotta get back to work, so I'll see you at Open House on Friday."

"A-All right, I just-"

Axel swung Xion down and took both the kids' hands, leading them to the car. "Man, you two, lighten up...was the first day at school that bad?"

They were subdued all the way to the shop and then in the car afterwards, licking morosely at their ice cream bars.

"It tastes good," Roxas finally murmured.

"We told you it did," Xion murmured back. "It's our favorite."

Axel shook his head in slightly exasperated amusement, but didn't say anything.

When they got to Axel's grandmother's house, he took one look at her struggling down the hallway and exclaimed, "I told you not to bother getting up! I have a key!"

"I had to come say hello to you," she fussed, dropping one of the crutches and nearly falling against the wall.

Axel caught her, and stooped down to retrieve the crutch. "Go back and sit down," he ordered. "And where's your wheelchair?"

"I told you, I'm not using that thing! It makes me feel old."

"You are old. Way too old to not be taking that fracture seriously, so sit down."

"Your daddy's mean," she pouted playfully to the kids. Then she frowned, noticing their faces. "What's wrong, sweetie?" she asked as Xion wrapped her arms around her uninjured leg and buried her face in it.

"Roxas is goooone!"

"But he's right here, love!"

"I'm Ven," the boy said, looking on the verge of tears himself. "Mommy took Roxas home instead of me."

"Oh, poor baby," Grandma exclaimed, opening her arms wide so that Roxas suddenly lunged into her embrace, nearly knocking her over again. Over the kids' heads, she raised a questioning eyebrow at Axel, who shrugged. "They've been upset ever since I picked them up from school. I'll talk to them later, but I really need to get back now."

"It's all right, my loves," she cooed, awkwardly herding her great-grandchildren into the living room as best she could with her leg injured. "You can sit right here and watch TV with me, how does that sound?"

After Axel had left, and Xion and the cat were settled on one side of Grandma and Ven on the other, Ven cautiously raised his head and asked, "May I please use the restroom?"

"Oh my, how polite! Certainly you may, Roxas dear," she said, kissing him.

Ven let himself be kissed, then climbed to the floor and trotted off to find a bathroom. He used the potty so he wouldn't be lying, then found a phone. He pressed the buttons with the numbers Mommy had told him to remember in case he ever got lost.

o.o.o.o.o

"Ventus! What has gotten into you today?!"

"I'M NOT VEN!"

"Speak like that to your mother again and you will regret it, young man," she warned.

"You're not my mom! I don't have a mom! My mom ran away and left me all alone until the police came and Dad said he'd keep me, and I don't want him and Mr. Saïx to find Mom because I hate her and I wanna live with Dad and Xion forever and you can't take me away because you're not my mom and if you are then I hate you and-!"

Then he got in trouble.

o.o.o

Aqua just sat there for a while after she had turned off the car. Then she looked apprehensively at the rearview mirror, and her heart hurt at the sight of her son sitting there with his arms wrapped around himself, face tight and red, looking so cornered and miserable.

She finally sighed and got out and came around so she could open the door and crouch down to Ven's level. "Ventus," she said gently.

He turned his face away.

"Ven, my love, tell me what's wrong. Did something happen at school today?"

"..."

"Ven..." She reached for him, but he seemed to panic and started yanking fruitlessly at the door handle, which was child-locked. When she came around to open it from the outside, he scrambled out the other door and then paused for a moment, not seeing any exits.

"Ven, come here."

"Let me go home!" he screamed. "I want to go home! I want my dad!"

"Ventus, we are home! Daddy is still at work, but he'll be home soon." 'Why don't you want me?' she thought.

He threw his head back. "Help me! Help! Help! Help! Help!"

"Ventus!" What was wrong with him today?! He was like an entirely different person...

"Help meeeeeeee-!"

The door to the house suddenly opened. "What in the world is going on in here?"

"Terra!" she cried. "What are you doing home so early?"

"This is the first day of the schedule shift, remember?"

"Oh..." Aqua looked at the boy. "Ven, daddy's home."

Ven gave Terra a wary look and didn't move.

"What's going on, big guy?" Terra asked, coming into the garage. To their surprise, Ven ducked away from him and dashed into the house.

"I don't know what's wrong with him!" Aqua cried. "Ever since I picked him up from school, he's been acting like a- like a monster!"

"Maybe he's just hungry," Terra said, taking her into his arms when he saw how upset she was. "You know how kids get when-"

"But he's never like this! Calling me names, rejecting me, being so rude and defiant to my face, it's like he's not even Ven anymore."

"I'll talk to him," Terra promised. "Go inside and take it easy, okay? You want me to warm something up for dinner?"

"Please," she said gratefully.

"All right." He kissed her. "It'll be okay, Aqua."

"Yes..."

o.o.o

Roxas decided that the big guy was nice but kind of dumb. "She's not imaginary. She's my sister and she's real," he said as he ate the ants-on-a-log.

"Ven...your mom and I can't have kids, you know that, and we have to wait a while before we adopt someone else..."

Roxas gave up. "Do you have video games?"

"Ven, grounding means that you can't play video games."

"I know. But it's Ven who's grounded, not me. I wanna see what games he has."

"Ven, you're kind of creeping me out a little..."

It was when Ven's mom was in her room and Ven's dad was mowing the lawn that the phone rang. Roxas stuck another cookie in his mouth before shoving the package back out of sight and going to answer it. "Hwoh?"

"Mommy?"

"Ahoks."

"What?"

"Ug." Roxas chomped his teeth and swallowed. "I had to eat my cookie."

"Where's Mommy?"

"Is this Ven?"

"Yeah."

"This is Roxas."

"Oh."

"Mommy's asleep. I mean, YOUR mom's asleep. My mom's somewhere being dumb."

"Roxas?"

"Yeah?"

"Are we gonna be lost forever?"

"Well, we have to go to school tomorrow." Roxas's face brightened. "We have to go to school."

"We'll see each other tomorrow!"

"There's markers at school. I'll write VEN real big on your face and I'll put ROXAS on mine, and Dad will have to take me home instead of you."

"I can't wait 'til tomorrow."

"Me too. I miss Xion."

"She's watching TV with a grandma and a cat."

"Tell her-" Roxas thought a minute. "Tell her I like her a lot."

"Okay."

"I wanna see her."

"Yeah."

"I'll see her tomorrow."

"Yeah."

"Okay."

"Okay. Bye, Roxas."

"Bye, Ven." He hung up, feeling better.

o.o.o.o.o

Axel was relieved to find the kids in a much better mood when he picked them up from his grandmother's house later. "But I see you're still going by 'Ven,' huh."

"I'm Ven."

"Can we have McDonald's for dinner?" Xion asked. "Ven said he's not allowed, and I said the fries were really good."

"Fries are tasty, but we had fast food the last couple of nights and I'm starting to feel like a fail dad..."

"Pleeeeaaaase, Daddy, please?"

"For the love of- Don't look at me like that, Xi!"

"But Ven's never had it..."

"Xion, he just changed his name, not his whole life."

"It's okay, Xion," said Roxas/Ven/Whatever. "Mommy wouldn't want me to eat McDonald's, anyway - if I do, I'll get in trouble when I go home."

"Oh...okay."

Axel frowned. "Rox- Ven, I hope you're not getting any funny ideas about running away or anything."

"It's okay. I can spend the night with Xion, and tomorrow I'll see Roxas at school."

"...Right." He might be in a better mood, but Roxas was still acting strange...

That night, they had fun making a mess in the kitchen while cooking spaghetti together. Then Axel dozed off during a movie and woke up to find Xion showing Roxas the photo album her great-grandmother had helped her put together. "...and this is us at Fall Festival. Daddy tried to make Mr. Saïx wear puppy ears but he wouldn't do it, he just went around all grumpy face and people were scared of him even though he didn't wear a costume. It was funny."

"Your family sounds fun. I wish I had a sister."

"Rox," Axel said firmly.

Both kids looked at him, Roxas with a little apprehension.

Axel got up and went over there and knelt down to his level and held his hands. "Roxas, I dunno why all this started, but whatever happened, no matter what anyone said to you - you're my son, all right? You belong in this family. You used to be part of another family, and that's okay. You can still be part of them, too, if you want. But what's certain is that you're in this family now, and that is never ever going to change. We are never ever going to stop loving you. You don't have to pretend, you don't have to be somebody else, you don't have to leave. You can be yourself, no matter where you are. Do you understand?"

Roxas gazed at him seriously. "I'm me. No one else."

"That's right. You still wanna talk about your mom?"

"It's okay. She's okay." Roxas smiled. "You're a good dad."

"Oh...uh, thanks. You're a good kid, too, Rox."

Ven smiled indulgently and let Xion's dad ruffle his hair.

The next morning, Axel was awakened when Xion came to flop her whole body on top of him. "Wake up, Daddy! We need to go to school!"

"Uggghhh...Xi...?"

"Hurry, Daddy, hurry! Ven wants to go to school!"

Axel groaned and allowed himself to be dragged out of bed, and was surprised to find Roxas out there, dressed and ready to go. "No cartoons this morning, buddy?"

"Huh?"

"Heh, new teacher of yours must be awesome if you're this rarin' to get to class..."

"I wanna go to school and see Roxas and go home with Mommy."

Axel sighed.

It was while he was turning on the TV for the news that he noticed the photo album still out. For a while, he debated whether to put it away or leave it. "No, Axel...you told Sai you'd get more organized...this is totally not a hard job..." He sighed heavily and picked it up. His lazy grasp was not secure enough, and the back cover flopped open, scattering extra photos that had been tucked into a flap rather than placed properly for display. "SIIIIGH." He stooped to pick them up.

...Why was he kneeling here, staring at pictures of Roxas showing off his 'battle scar' rather than cleaning up? "Come on, Axel."

...Something was bothering him about this. These photos, taken the day Roxas had gotten the stitches removed. "Roxas isn't hurt anymore," Axel told himself slowly. "He's fine. Got a scar, but he's fine."

After a while, he finally gave up, stuffed the photos back into the album, and went to go take it to Xion.

"DADDY!" she shrieked, jerking her shirt the rest of the way down.

"Sorry!" he cried hastily, slamming the door shut again. She'd recently gotten modest and now refused to let him or her brother see her get dressed and the like; he still hadn't gotten used to knocking every time. "Xi," he called through the door, "I'm gonna leave your alb-"

Last night. When Roxas had been getting ready for bed. Axel had subconsciously sensed something wrong, hadn't given it any thought because he was tired and busy, but now he suddenly made the connection-

"Roxas!" Axel burst into the front hallway, where the boy was struggling to tie his shoelaces.

"Is something wrong?"

"Roxas! Can I see your battle scar for a minute?"

"Huh?"

Axel went cold. "Your scar. On your back. From when Yuffie dared you to jump off the fence, and you fell into the wood pile."

Roxas simply stared at him like he had no clue what he was talking about.

"Roxas!" Axel cried, terrified now. (Since when did Roxas ever tuck his shirt in...?) "Let me see-" He pushed up the kid's sleeve until his shoulder blade was exposed.

"What's wrong?" the boy asked uncomfortably. "Are you mad?"

"Mad... No, I-" Maybe it was on the other side? Axel could have sworn it was on the right, but he desperately pushed up the left sleeve, anyway, and stared.

Nothing. Clear, smooth flesh on both sides; no scar, it had completely vanished. "I..." Axel was at a loss for a minute. Then he suddenly seized the boy's shoulders and pulled him back around to face him. "Who are you?" he demanded.

"I'm Ven. I told you." He looked frightened, and Axel loosened his grip.

He felt like he was choking, but managed to ask, "Where's Roxas? Where's my son?"

"I told you...I have to go to school so I can see Roxas, and Mommy can take me home and you can take him home."

"You're not Ro-?! Why do you look like him?!"

"I don't know...we look the same. Only Xion can tell us apart."

But Axel could see it, too, now that he knew to look. The tiny indications that this boy he held was not his son. "Xion!" Axel barged into her room, forgetting to knock again. "Xion, who is this kid?!"

She stared at him in surprise. "He's Ven. He's our friend now. We have to go to school so we can get Roxas back."

"Holy-! Let's go. Let's go, we're leaving; get in the car now!"

o.o.o

As soon as Axel had the car parked, he jumped out and rushed the kids to follow suit. "C'mon c'mon c'mon c'mon c'mon...!"

"Okay, we're going," Xion said in exasperation.

When he flung open the classroom door, the first thing he saw was a (gorgeous) dark-haired woman arguing with a little boy. "I don't know what's gotten into you lately, but if you don't stop this and start behaving-"

"Mommy!" Ven screamed, running to fling his arms around her.

Aqua looked down at him, and her jaw dropped.

"Roxas!" "Roxas!" "Dad! Xion!" the other three were all yelling at the same time.

It was chaotic for a few minutes.

"I don't understand," Aqua said in bewilderment, pulling her son over to stand next to Roxas. "There are two of them?!"

"Like peas in a pod," Axel said in awe.

The boys giggled a little as they stood next to each other, the center of attention.

"Hey," Axel suddenly said. "Your kid doesn't look anything like you. Roxas was adopted."

"Ven was, too," Aqua gasped. "We couldn't have- So-"

They both stared some more.

"You can switch places like in The Parent Trap," Xion suggested.

Roxas frowned. "We're not girls."

"We already switched places," Ven said in puzzlement.

Axel grinned. "Roxas, guess what. Ven is your long-lost brother."

"Well, duh." Roxas patted his twin's back. "We're not the same. We're brothers."

"I'm glad I found you," said Ven, hugging him, and Xion hugged them both in delight.

Axel laughed and looked at Aqua. "Let's ditch school and go somewhere to celebrate."

"We can't take them out of school!"

"What, you're gonna just leave?"

Aqua looked uncertainly back at the children. It was true that she was very unwilling to just walk away and leave her son here all day after she had apparently lost him. "I have work..."

"I'm calling in sick."

Roxas and Xion were now teaching Ven the We Pwn dance, and Aqua smiled as she watched them. "They're finally reunited." She looked back at Axel. "Very well. I suppose it is a special occasion. We ought to get to know each other."

"Awesome. Rox, Xi, Ven! Let's go out and be a big family together!"

"Okay!"

o.o.o

Author's Notes: I know that Bon-Bon likes Axel/Aqua and I hadn't tried that pairing before, so I wanted to write her a drabble with that couple as a Christmas present. But it was difficult to come up with a plot bunny, and thanks to Infamousplot's cute musings, this was the story I eventually settled on. But it got way too long, and Axel & Aqua were only actually onscreen together for, like, two seconds. *sweatdrop* So I decided to make this a separate one-shot and write an Axel/Aqua drabble for Bon-Bon set in this universe, but it wouldn't cooperate, and it ended up as Christmas Shopping in Neverland instead. ^^;;;; Apparently I just can't write this pairing, even platonically; I find their kids way more interesting... It's not so much that my Axel doesn't want to be shipped, as that he's way too attached to Sai and his beloved kiddos. He can't settle on a Significant Other, because then that would steal his time and attention away from the people he actually cares about. XD

Ftr, this story was written before Because It Tastes Like Friendship.

I actually do prefer the "Ven & Roxas are the same person" concept, but emphasizing their individuality worked better in this fic (which is an AU, you know? :p). And I think canon's working against me now, too. *sweatdrop* But I just wanted to clarify that even though this fic was all "VEN & ROXAS ARE DIFFERENT PEOPLE! D8", that's not actually my view outside the story. XD