Keys to the Heart

A Kingdom Hearts fanfic

YAJJ

Date: 8/20/2014; 9:35 am

Inspired by Raberba girl and her fantastic AkuSaiRokuShi fanfics. It's also slightly written in her style, too... *sheepish blush*

Disclaimer: No, I still don't own Kingdom Hearts. :(

Saïx put Roxas and Xion on a mission together, again. It was a boss battle, and normally one or the other could handle it on their own; kids though they may be, they were very powerful. But Saïx didn't feel up to losing either of their two Keybearers, so he placed them together and expected perfection.

It was a creature called "Iceman". In Halloween Town, supposedly somewhere in the Graveyard. So Roxas and Xion equipped their panels to the teeth with Potions and Magic and abilities and headed on their way.

Axel, exhausted from a mission to Atlantica that had nearly ended in his termination, didn't get to see them off like he usually did.

Instead, he slept until eleven and then wandered into the Gray Room, being watched by Saïx and Demyx. He slumped onto a couch beside Demyx and leaned back against it, practically falling asleep right there.

His mission was to go to the Coliseum. Olympus Coliseum, just poking around for clues and destroying any Heartless who got in his way. He made it to Twilight Town early, purchased an ice cream, and made his way to the top of the tower.

He ate alone that night, the kids never coming up to meet him. He waited for two hours up there, letting his ice cream melt, then decided that they must have had an early day, or were still working at it, and RTC'd straight into his bed.

Come morning, he awoke considerably earlier (well, ten) and went to see if the kids were still in. His first stop was room XIII, Roxas'. He just slowly peeked into the room and found it empty, save a few Samurais who were slumped around the bed, looking excessively bored. He closed the door before he gained the attention of the Samurais and moved across the hall to Xion's room.

Also empty. The kids had already left. Without even waking him to say goodbye, like they sometimes did. Normally, he hated it when they did this, but when it was to tell him that they were going on an 'uber dangerous mission that we might be late for ice cream for', he did kind of appreciate it.

A little disgruntled, Axel made his way out to the Gray Room and plopped down on an empty couch, putting his feet up on the table (only to piss of Saïx, who was a neatfreak all the way). He crossed an arm over his stomach and let flames dance across his free hand.

"VIII!" snapped said neatfreak from across the room, marching over to him. They were the only two in the Gray Room.

"What?"

"Are you prepared for your mission?"

"My mission?" Axel whined childishly. He stuck out a hand for the brief, and only because Axel was Axel and Saïx was Saïx did Saïx give Axel the brief with no complaint.

Neverland. He was going to Neverland. With… Roxas…? "I'm going with Roxas?" But hadn't Roxas already left for his mission? Maybe he was just waiting for him in Neverland, whiling the time away by flying all around.

"Yes; I thought it best for today, should he ever wake up."

Axel's eyes flashed up to look at the second-in-command but chose not to mention that Roxas already was up, or at the very least wasn't in his room. "Um… alright. Doing what? Just collecting hearts…?"

"Yes. It would appear that yesterday's heart quota didn't get filled, so I've set an extra high one, and babysitters for the Keybearers to make sure they get their work done this time. You can do so, can't you?" Saïx's face gave way to no fake emotion, daring Axel to disagree.

"Yeah, yeah, we'll blow your quota right out of the water. Whatever. I'm gonna head out then, I guess. Tell Roxas to meet me there?"

"I shall inform him that you are waiting, yes."

Rolling his eyes at his friend's formality, Axel called forth a dark corridor and strode inside.

Axel waited for an hour. An entire hour. He found the sweet little pixie and chatted with her, danced in the air, found every stinking treasure chest in that world, before he flew down near his initial dark corridor and just sat and waited. Gah, he was so bored. Where in all creation was Roxas?

It was as he pondered his small friend's whereabouts and sat forlornly beside his corridor that a giant Berserker Nobody appeared out of its own corridor, striding up to him. It looked right at him and said, 'Luna Diviner wishes you return to Castle and to speak with him'.

At first Axel waved it off, he had to wait for Roxas, but as soon as he brushed it off, the Berserker stooped, grabbed him in one hammy hand, and tossed him right through the portal, following him quietly afterward.

Axel landed in… his room…? He turned to the Berserker, and jerked in surprise when he noticed Saïx sitting on his bed, watching him with little interest.

"Axel," Saïx greeted.

"What's going on? I haven't even started my mission yet," Axel said, climbing to his feet and dusting off his coat. "Couldn't you just wait for me to get back…?"

"Roxas wasn't with you." It wasn't a question.

"..." Axel gazed at his friend cautiously. "...No, he never did show…"

"I didn't think so." Saïx stood and turned to the window, watching Kingdom Hearts. "He never returned to the castle last night."

"Ahh…" Axel was about to jump to Roxas' defense—how, he didn't know, but it was going to happen! But then he fell silent. He hadn't returned at all?

"Nor did Number XIV. They have yet to report from their last mission. No progress was made on that mission. I thought it a failure and gave him an alternative should he so choose, as well as Xion, but they haven't been seen this morning, either. The Dusks report that they haven't seen either of them."

"Since last night…?" Roxas and Xion hadn't returned home from yesterday's mission at all. Which would explain why he'd ate alone last night, and why their rooms had been empty when he'd gone to see them that morning.

"No."

"Why…" Axel felt his hands start shaking -what happened to them?- and he hid them behind his back. "Why are you telling me? It doesn't—" Why was he shaking so much? "—matter to me."

Saïx let a bit of fake emotion crack his face—amusement? "Clearly. I thought you might know best where they'd disappeared to. I'm sending you out immediately to locate them."

Axel felt his throat clog up for a moment, so he quickly cleared it. "Where was their mission?"

"Halloween Town. They were to track down a Heartless threat around the Graveyard."

"I should go, then."

"You may want to stock up on items, VIII. If two members couldn't defeat it, it may be detrimental to the one we send after them," Saïx said blankly, tossing a Mega Potion at him. Axel easily caught it and stowed it away in his pocket. "Should anything happen to you, I can't afford to send more members."

"I'll be careful," Axel sighed. He clasped his hands together and wound his fingers, willing the shaking to stop. "I'll be back, kiddies in tow, in a few hours."

Axel didn't return until well after midnight. He awoke the majority of the castle, storming through to Saïx's room, looking convincingly frightened.

"I couldn't find them anywhere!"

Saïx groaned and flopped over—as stoic as he was in the day, he needed his sleep to not be interrupted by frantic redheads. "What?"

"I couldn't find them. Anywhere. I looked all over Halloween Town. In the Square, the Graveyard, that stupid twisty hill, Oogie's place, the forest… I can't think of anywhere that I didn't look! Something happened to them, I know it!"

"Axel, do you know what time it is?"

"I don't really care! They could be in trouble!" Axel retorted. "We need to send out a search party. Each member to every world. They could be anywhere! Something happened to them." He turned around when the door creaked open a little more, revealing a tired-looking and very confused Xigbar. "Xigbar! Perfect timing!" He ignored his friend and turned to II, who watched with curiosity as the fully-grown man scrambled over to him, nearly tripping over himself in his panic. "I need your help with something!"

"With something?" asked Xigbar.

"Yes. I need you to go to Atlantica and look around for Roxas and Xion. They never returned from their mission and something happened to them I just know it, so I need you to go and investigate. Or Demyx. You could go elsewhere, Demyx loves the water and he always does recon so I'll make him do it and—" Axel could no longer think straight. His mouth was working faster than his brain, and he was fisting his coat and damn if he wasn't terrified.

"II, ignore him," Saïx ordered, climbing out of his bed and smoothing back his messy blue hair. "I'm sure that XIII and XIV are fine. Go back to bed. I will discuss this with VIII alone."

"Did somethin' happen?" asked Xigbar, looking between Axel and Saïx. "What's up with the kids?"

Axel sighed loudly and looked at him, ignoring Saïx's annoyed grunt. "Two days ago, Roxas and Xion had a mission to go on in Halloween Town where they had to fight this boss Heartless, apparently. They never returned from it, but I didn't know about it until yesterday, since I was supposed to be going on a mission with Roxas but he never showed up. So I went to look for them in Halloween Town, 'cause that's where Saïx said they were, and I was looking fucking everywhere, okay? Everywhere. But I couldn't find them, so I know that something happened to them because… well, because they are who they are, they don't just go around ignoring that I'm out looking for them, they don't just skip the clock tower unless it's something important, so I know something happened to them and I need everyone's help to find them."

Xigbar lifted a brow, watching Axel's descent into panic. "Axel, I'm sure they're fi—"

"Don't say that! If they were fine, they would be here! Something happened to them!" he insisted.

"Axel, you're being irrational. Even if something happened to them, we can't afford to send out anymore members! We're shorthanded enough after Castle Oblivion and with the Keybearers gone, we can't send out any others," Saïx said. Then he sighed. "This will distract you from your missions, won't it."

"Those kids are my life, if something happened to them, I don't know what I'd do."

"You were getting on fine before them," Saïx stated.

"That was before I basically raised them both."

Saïx sighed again, louder, sounding absolutely exasperated. "If this will distract you, I will allow you to continue your search until you find them. However, I will be speaking with the Superior about the reason that our goals are becoming farther and farther away as we speak, I will expect a full, detailed mission report everyday and if I do not receive one, I will give you real missions and expect them flawless. Do you understand me?"

"Yes! Yes, yes to all of it. Thank you."

Saïx could hardly tell if it was sarcastic or genuine. "Whatever. Just find them soon, so I can actually send you on missions. And go to bed. Exhaustion doesn't do well for you."

Axel gave a mock bow and turned away, to march back out to his room and plot his next move.

Sleep certainly wouldn't be happening tonight.

Axel went back to Halloween Town the next day, double and triple checking everything. He looked beneath stairs, behind doors, snuggled against tombstones... Every nook and cranny there was to be looked in, it was scoured.

As before, he came up empty-handed and just as confused as before.

'They must have gone to a different world,' he thought. Why, he didn't know, but it was probably a good guess. The two were curious little buggers, and apt to explore.

He quickly opened a dark corridor and went back to Atlantica (ugh, he hated swimming), and then went to Neverland and Pride Rock. He took a moment's break, just to recollect his bearings, and then went to Olympus Coliseum, where he'd heard Xigbar was going for the day. Maybe he could enlist some help.

"You haven't found them yet?" asked Xigbar when he saw Axel step out of a dark corridor, cocking one brow suspiciously.

"No. I looked everywhere in Halloween Town—again!—and in Atlantica and Neverland and Pride Rock, and there's nothing there. Nothing out of the ordinary. I'm thinking that I'll just start sending out Dusks or Assassins, but… they can't tell when something's real or fake…" Axel clenched his hands into fists and felt them start shaking again, watching his fellow Nobody.

Xigbar's brow only rose, noting Axel's shaking hands. "There are like a thousand other worlds out there. Wonderland, Monstro, here, Deep Jungle, Agrabah… and I ain't even scraping the surface here, buddy."

"I know! But I can't look everywhere by myself, if I try then something worse could happen to them, and I was just hoping if maybe you could poke around…?" Axel flashed a look to Xigbar, hoping that it would work. After all, Axel never asked for help on anything. That should explain how desperate he was to find the brats.

Xigbar's brow couldn't go any higher. "Wasn't this supposed to be your mission?"

Axel flashed a little pout that paled in comparison to the puppydog eyes the kids gave, pleading that it would work because if he wanted them home, he needed help.

Xigbar only patiently waited.

"...Er… yes, but…" Axel flushed and gave a kind-of-but-not-really faked pathetic noise. "I-I mean I know that it was supposed to be but come on, it's not like I'm asking you to give up your firstborn or kill the Queen of Wonderland or something… but if you wouldn't mind going to Wonderland, that'd be great…"

Xigbar sighed loudly and shook his head. "You're pathetic, you know that?"

Well, Axel couldn't exactly deny that. But he would try. "I am n—"

"These kids have got you wrapped around their little fingers without even trying. They've given you a very real weakness."

"A weakness? I'm not weak!" Axel exclaimed with no hesitation. "How is it weak that I want to protect my friends?"

"For one," said Xigbar fiercely, throwing up one finger. "I never said that you were weak. I said they gave you a weakness, albeit a very powerful weakness. Two different things there, Torch. And for two, yes. They have given you a weakness. They will tear you down and apart without even lifting a finger." He shrugged heavily. "Their choice or not. Look at what it's doing to you now."

Axel looked down at himself, and slumped a little after a moment. Xigbar was right. He did look absolutely frazzled. And he'd once prided himself on being able to keep his cool after bad happenings like this...

"Yeah, well… it doesn't mean anything," he countered with a little hesitation. "And it doesn't make me pathetic. It just makes me… worried."

Xigbar shook his head, a grin splashing across his scarred face. "Interesting choice of words there, Pyro. 'Worried'. You know what it takes for that?"

"Yes, I know, but I don't know what else to call it!" Axel snarled. He turned on his heel; he wasn't dealing with all this teasing anymore. He had some kids to find. "If you don't want to help, that's fine. All that you had to say was 'no'." He threw up a hand and watched a dark corridor form in front of him.

"Now wait one second, Pyro. No one said anything about not helpin' ya. I ain't making promises, but I miss the little tykes running all over the place, too."

Axel stopped, halfway in the portal already. He stepped out and turned around, the portal zipping shut. "...Really?"

Xigbar shrugged again offhandishly. "Yeah! And I ain't sayin' that I'm gonna take time out of my day like you are. As if. But I'll keep an eye out for 'em. I'll get some of the others, too. Problem taken care of."

Yeah. Problem not taken care of.

Axel had most of the Organization on board. Xaldin, who did numerous missions in Beast's Castle, claimed to spend half of his mission time searching every nook and cranny for the brats. Which was good, whether he was exaggerating or not, because there were a lot of nooks and crannies in which two little Nobodies could be hidden in Beast's Castle. Demyx went to Atlantica a lot, it being an underwater city and filled with an assortment of musical contests (it was like a Demyx-paradise!) and he looked in every cranny, cavern, and grotto there was to look in. Again, a lot of places to hold two tiny Nobodies, but only if they'd changed them to sea creatures like Demyx was keen to do.

Xigbar poked his nose all around Mount Olympus, including the Underworld, and traveled every so often to Neverland. Luxord dipped in to Wonderland whenever he had the chance.

It was nice, having so many members of the Organization pitching in.

And then… there was Saix and Xemnas.

It was like the two didn't even care if Roxas and Xion were ever found. Never mind that they were the only two Keybearers and thus were desperately needed. The kids got themselves taken, they must have thought, so they'd have to get themselves back.

Axel finally understood what being a parent felt like. No doubt about it. He'd just suffered through the longest two weeks of his life, and it wasn't quite done dragging out.

"I'm never going to be a parent."

Xigbar looked at him, amusement flashing in his eye. "Oh? Why not?"

"I'm being driven nuts. Off my rocker. Out of my mind. By two little kids!"

Luxord stopped shuffling his deck and offered his coworker a supportive glance. "Well, it's hardly surprising," he said conversationally. He started dealing out the cards, one at a time, to each player.

"He's not wrong."

"You did let yourself get attached."

"I warned you."

"I don't need this from you guys!" Axel spat. He hopped off of the couch, which he and the guys were crowded around, playing poker (or some other ridiculous card game).

Xaldin barked with laughter at the redhead, who was stalking over to the windows and starting to pace, anxiety coursing through every footfall. "Hey, kid, have you seen you? You're overreacting. I'm sure they're fine. They're not babies. They can take care of themselves, you know."

Axel turned one eye to look at the dark haired man, the other hidden behind his hand. "Babies…?" He'd never considered the kids as babies. Little kids, yes. But babies…? But… were they? He had taught them everything that they knew. No, they weren't babies, not by definition, but… "They were born a half year ago. I… I taught Roxas how to eat. They…" Man, he was in deep now. And he knew he'd never live this down, but he didn't care a whole lot, anyway. "They are babies! They are my babies! A-and they've been gone for two weeks, and I have no clue where they are and…" Axel bent over where he stood, shooting pain lacing through his stomach. He sat down and buried his face in his hands. "And... gah, my stomach hurts…"

Four pairs of eyes watched him, brows raised in amusement and surprise. Demyx stood to go over to the ailing redhead, while the other three just watched on.

"You know…" Xigbar commented, scratching his cheek. "I've never even seen a human so well personify that one phrase… whatever it is. What was it?" He looked at Xaldin for help. The larger man shrugged and offered, "worried sick?"

Luxord shrugged. "I didn't think it was an actual thing."

"That's the one! Worried sick. Interesting."

"Yeah?" Axel hissed, shrugging Demyx's hand off of his shoulder. "That's not helping!" He forced his feet under him and formed a dark corridor. "Well, whatever. I'm done playing around. I'm going back out."

"I'd be careful with what you're doing, if I were you," Luxord said evenly. "The bossman ain't too happy that we're down three people instead of just the two. You've been given a bad hand, and that's going to turn around and smack you soon. I get the feeling you'll start being assigned some real missions soon. You'd better find the kids before then."

Axel eyed him cautiously, then turned into the corridor and shook his head. "I'll find them before that becomes a problem." He clenched his fists and walked on, leaving four worried-looking Nobodies behind. "I've got to."

Okay you guys, so this is a semi-old fic (like, I started writing it almost as soon as I got back into my KH phase, which was around Christmas), so the writing style is a little tiny bit different. Also, if none of you have noticed, I'm awful at writing Luxord. Heh...

Thanks for checking it out, though! It gets kind of dark in chapter 2, but not like so bad, but it's in a different perspective, and now we get to learn what happened to the kids... All of chapter 2 is written, and will probably be posted next week, when I'm bored in between classes. Chapter 3 will probably take a bit longer after that...

Okay, so as per the norm, all reviews will be answered via PM. Please review, and if you're bored (go shameless advertising!), please check out my other story, Burning Out! Alrighty then, well... see you next time!