Stepsiblings: Flurry of Dancing Flames, 100 Moments

Kingdom Hearts fanwork: AU challenge by Wishing-Fire, written by Raberba girl

Summary: 100 moments in the life of Axel Deucalion Hayes. Stepsiblings universe.

Introduction: Apparently I'm as addicted to challenges as I am to Pairing Days. *sweatdrop* This one calls for the writer to take one character and write their AU life story from beginning to end. I thought it'd be interesting to try it with StepsibsAxel, especially since I was already working on a challenge for StepsibsSaix. I've had Axel's entire series planned out for a long time, but only just recently got a chance to sit down and write the first part of it.

As usual, I can't stick to word count limits, so I didn't try. I'm going to divide the drabble sets according to certain time periods in Axel's life. I actually started with Axel being about six years old rather than a newborn, just after he meets Ven.

OH BY THE WAY, I changed the name of Axel & Roxas's mom. (Long story; I was discussing it in my journals and polls a while ago.) Her name is now Eleanor, which she hates, so more formal people like Xem & Saïx call her "Lenore," and everyone else calls her "Norrie."

Part 1: Fresh Breeze

Summary: Young as Axel is, he's already well-acquainted with emotional pain. Ventus has his work cut out for him.

1. Smile

The doorbell rings.

"Axel, get the door!" Mom yells.

I'm playing. "I'm busy!"

"GET THE DOOR!"

"FINE!"

I go open it and I'm about to call whoever it is bad names, but then I forget to say anything. It's that guy from before, when we went on the date together. He's back.

He smiles. "Hi, Axel."

"What are you doing here?"

"I think you might have left this in my car."

He holds out - my Gundam card. The one I lost. He has it. Why does he have it?! I grab it and back away.

"I had fun the other night," he says. "We should do it again soon."

"What?" Why is he here? They never come back after they see me. They never come back. Especially since I ruined the big date like Mom was yelling at me for when we got home.

"Axel, who is it?" Mom yells.

"IT'S THE VEN GUY!" I yell back. "The porcupine head!"

There's a lot of noise like Mom dropped stuff, and she runs into the front hall. The look on her face is funny, so I laugh. "V-Ven?!"

He waves. "Hi, Norrie. Just stopped by to give this back to Axel."

"O-Oh...what?"

He came back for me... For me?

"Also, I uh...wanted to know, um, if you'd be interested in going out again...maybe this weekend...?"

"What?!"

"Why?" I ask.

He smiles again. "Well, I like your mom, Axel. I like you, too. I'd like to get to know you both better."

Mom grabs my shoulder like she's hugging me, but it hurts. I shove her away. "You mean you still want to-?! It's not a problem that I- That Axel-?!"

"I'm Mom's son," I tell him. "Guys don't want girlfriends who have kids, but my mom has a kid, and it's me. I'm here."

"I know that, Axel," he says. "I wouldn't have it any other way."

"Liar!" I yell. I run to hide my card in my room so I'll never lose it again. Why would he say that stuff? Doesn't he know it's not supposed to work like that? He's stupid! Mom's stuck with me and she'll always be alone because of me, all the other idiots got it but Ven didn't get it so he must be even more of an idiot than them, I hope Mom slams the door in his face and we never see him again.

2. Eternity

Sooooooooooo muuuuuuuuuuuuuuuch taaaaaaaaaaaalkiiiiiiiiiiiiiing... I'm tiiiiiiiiired, the pastor guy won't shut uuuuuuuuuup, why won't Mom and Ven just kiss already so we can go eeeeeeeaaaaaaaat...

I flip the rings on the ribbon some more, but that's boring too and weddings are boring. I sit down on the steps and wonder if I could use the pillow to take a nap on, but Mom'd probably get really mad at me.

"Axel," she hisses. She's already mad at me. Whatever.

"Ssshh, Norrie, it's okay," Ven says, and nods at the pastor guy so he'll keep going.

Mom's still mad, though. She keeps looking at me and making faces, so I stick my tongue out at her.

Mom looks like she's gonna come after me, and I'm ready to hit her with the ring pillow, but then Ven kisses her and whispers, "I love you." She looks at him and he says, "Eyes on me, Star Girl, all right? Don't ignore me at our wedding~"

She hugs him and doesn't look at me anymore. Now they're both ignoring me. I'm mad until Ven looks over his shoulder and winks at me. He's not ignoring me, he just said it so she'll stop being mad at me... I smile at him and stand up again. He's nice.

3. Rivalry

MOM HOGS HIM ALL THE TIME. It's my turn. It's my turn. "Daaaad!"

"What is it?!" he asks through the phone.

"Mom won't let me have Roxas! I only got to play with him for like two seconds but she keeps taking him and it's MY TURN!"

"Was Roxas crying?"

But it wasn't my fault, I was trying to make him feel better! "...No."

"Are you sure? Because sometimes he cries when he's hungry, and he's too little for you to feed him yet."

"..." Mom's in there letting Roxas [. . .] and I guess he's not crying anymore but it's not fair, I'm always the one who makes him stop crying, me or Dad, he likes me better he likes me better IT'S MY TURN TO PLAY WITH HIM.

"Axel...are you cry-?"

"NO!" I slam the phone down. Fine. I don't care. I'll just go play outside and if Roxas wants me I won't be there but he won't care because he has his precious Mom and it's not fair it's not fair it's not faaaaaiiiir, I wanna play with Roxas, I don't like sharing...

4. Judgment

Dad's dad is scary and mean, and I'm not gonna call him 'Grandpa.' I'm gonna call him Darth Scarface. He looks mad when we come in, and Dad makes us go back and take our shoes off and put them by the door, but Darth Scarface still looks mad.

"Hello, Father."

"Son."

"It's been a while, hasn't it!"

"Yes," Darth Scarface says, but he looks at us like we're dirty things messing up his clean perfect house. I want to grab one of the pictures off the wall and smash it.

"Hello, Eraqus!" Mom says in her kindergarten teacher voice. Fake, I hate it when she talks like that, like she's happy even though she's not.

"Please address me as Mr. King."

"Oh...okay."

"Umm... So, uh, this is the first time you guys have been here, right?" Dad says. "This is the house where I grew up, Axel."

Does he expect me to tell him I like it or something? "Poor you."

Dad covers his mouth real quick. I can't tell if he's horrified or laughing.

"Axel." Mom's mad when she whispers, but then she sounds all perky again. "It's a lovely house, I'm sure that Ven and his brother and sister really loved living here!"

"...Well, come in," Darth Scarface says.

We all go in the living room and after I finish eating the cookies from the plate I'm booooored, why can't we watch TV instead of just talk talk talk? But then Mom finally puts Roxas on a blanket on the floor, and I kneel down so I can poke his stomach and let him grab my fingers and play peek-a-boo with him. Mom and Darth Scarface both keep telling me to be quiet, but I ignore them.

Roxas was happy for a long time, but now he's not smiling anymore and he keeps making his 'I'm mad' noises and finally he starts crying. "Roxyyy! Come on Rox, don't cry, see, look!"

"I think he's hungry, Ax," Dad says.

"Um," Mom says, "is there maybe somewhere I could...have some privacy...?"

"Aqua's room," Dad says. "Come on, Axel, I'll show you my old room, too."

The three of us go upstairs, and Dad's room is cooler than the rest of the house, it's got video games in it. I'm looking at them when Darth Scarface comes and asks him something. After a while I decide which game I wanna play, but when I look up to ask where the controller is, I'm alone. "Dad?" I go downstairs to look for him.

Dad and Darth Scarface are talking in the living room, all quiet like they don't want us to hear.

"...but I don't like her, Ventus," Scarface says. I hide behind the wall thing so I can hear better.

"Father. I truly am in love with her, as much now as I was when I first got to know her. Besides, we're already married, we've had a child together, it's not like there's anything you or I could do about even if there was a problem. Which there isn't."

"You don't sense her insincerity? Her voice itself is irritating on its own-"

"Father!" Dad almost never sounds mad, but he sounds mad now. "Ignoring your unfair nit-picking for now, are you questioning whether she cares for me or not? You don't know her like I do. I assure you, she adores me as much as I do her. We're both willing to do whatever it takes to keep our marriage strong and healthy, which would be easier if we had support from our loved ones instead of constant criticism-"

"There is darkness in her heart, Ventus!"

"There's darkness in everyone's heart. Mine, too, and yours. If you wanted me to wait until I found a completely perfect woman to be my wife, I'd never have gotten married."

"Not perfect, of course, but at least someone... Her past, Ventus! That boy of hers, you don't even know-"

"You mean Ax-?" Dad suddenly looks over his shoulder, and I duck back but I know he saw me, and I wonder if I should run before he drags me out, but then he starts talking again. I look back at them, carefully, but they're still just talking. I guess he didn't see me after all. "Axel is my son, Father."

"Your steps-"

"My son."

"You didn't adopt him, which is probably the only wise decision you've made about this whole-"

"I'm going to, we just haven't been able to get that done yet. And it doesn't matter. Whether he's my son on paper or not, he's already my son in our hearts."

"So you find it acceptable to let your children eavesdrop on conversations they were not meant to hear?"

I get this cold feeling in my stomach.

"Ax. Come on out here, okay?"

Dad never sounds mad even when I'm in trouble, so I look out at him again, but he doesn't look mad, either. He's...smiling a little, actually, and holding out his hand. I wanna keep hiding, but they both know I'm here, and I'd rather be with Dad than alone. I go the rest of the way down the stairs and stand next to him, and he puts his arm around my shoulders. I like how it feels, like we're partners.

"Axel, don't listen in when other people are talking."

"Why? Maybe you guys shouldn't be dissing people."

He laughs, and I feel relieved. "Good point. But still, don't eavesdrop, okay?"

It's a lie to say I won't, but I want to make him happy. "...Okay." I shouldn't have said that...

5. Laughter

Roxas is so freaking cute, I can't stand it. He can walk now, a little, not by himself but he'll pull himself up on the coffee table or something and kind of edge along, like each step is this huge giant hard thing to do and every time he does it, I'm so proud of him.

Mom's watching TV, and me and Dad are playing Monopoly on the floor. Roxas was playing with his toys but now he says "Da" and crawls over to the table so he can stand up.

"Come on, Roxas!" I say. "Come on, Rox, you can do it!"

Roxas slooooowly stands up, like it's as hard as climbing a mountain, but he does it anyway.

"Yaaaay! Good job, Roxas, now come here! Come on!"

"Da." Roxas takes a step. And another.

"Good job, big guy," Dad tells him, talking all high and cute too. Aunt Aqua says not to baby-talk at Roxas because it's bad for him or something, but I don't even notice I'm doing it 'til Dad does it, too, and neither of us cares. "Good job, Roxas! Come on, Rox-my-socks, almost there!"

Roxas's hand suddenly slips off the table and he plops down on his bottom. But he fell on the money holder thing so he doesn't just sit, he flips right over onto his back.

We're all surprised for a second.

"What happened?!" Mom says. "Roxas?!" She gets up and comes over to us.

For a second I'm scared that Roxas got hurt, but then Dad bursts into laughter and scoots over and holds his hands over Roxas, and I think Roxas was gonna cry but when he sees Dad looming over him, he just holds onto Dad's fingers and says "Da."

"That's right, Roxas, it's Daddy," Dad says.

"Is he okay?!" Mom asks.

"It's Dad, Roxas," I say. "You found him."

Roxas blows a spit bubble like it's serious business.

"I love you," Dad says, leaning down to kiss his forehead.

"I love you, too," I say, and I kiss him too.

Mom pushes us out of the way and scoops up Roxas and cuddles him. "I love you soooo much," she says.

Sometimes it feels like loving Roxas is the only thing all three of us can agree on...

6. Tiny

Is it okay for Roxas to still be so small? I mean, he seems big to me because he's bigger now than he was before, but he looks tiny when I see him next to the other babies his age. "...Dad?"

"Yeah?"

"Is Roxas gonna be all scrawny and wimpy when he grows up?"

"What makes you say that, Axel?"

"He's so small..."

"Heh. Well, his brother's pretty scrawny, too." He pokes me in the side.

"Ow!"

"Seriously, though, you worry me, Axel... Come on, let's go get some hamburgers."

"But I'm not hungry."

"Axel, it's lunch time. Just because you're not hungry doesn't mean you shouldn't eat..."

7. If

What does he want? I go up and ask him. "Hey, creep, why're you staring at me?"

"Well, you're a bold one, aren't you."

"Why are your eyes yellow?"

"The better to eat you with, my dear," he says as if it's a joke, but it's just stupid.

"You can't eat people with your eyes."

"Well, humans certainly can't."

"Are you an alien or something?"

"If I was, what would you do?" he asks. I don't like how he's grinning.

"I dunno..."

"Call the police? Watch me get dissected? Steal all my superior technology in order to invade my homeworld?"

That kind of thing happens in the movies, but it sounds weird to hear him say it, like none of it would ever happen if he was an alien for real.

"You're not an alien, you just make dumb jokes."

"Alas, my grasp of Earth humor can use some fine-tuning," he says, but he's still smiling like that's a joke, too.

"Whatever. Bye."

"Good-bye, Axel."

8. Enchantment

The other kids at school complain about getting baby-sat, but...I kind of like it. I like my new aunts and uncles a lot.

Aunt Ella is reading us a bedtime story. "...and as soon as her lips touched the frog's smooth, slimy head, the enchantment was broken, and he transformed into a handsome prince!"

Roxas is already asleep in the arm she's not holding the book with. I'm sitting next to her on the bed with my head on her shoulder, and I'm too tired to keep my eyes open but I like listening to her read. She has a pretty voice.

"...and so they got married and lived happily ever after." I feel her close the book. "The end~!"

"Mm."

"Did you like the story, Axel?"

I'm too tired to talk. "Nngh."

"Are the fairy tales all right with you, or would you like me to read from a chapter book next time?"

I don't care. Hearing Ella read is hearing Ella read, it doesn't matter what she's reading. "Mrrrrh."

She kisses my hair. "Good night, Axel sweetheart. I love you."

It feels weird to say to anyone else, but for some reason I don't mind saying it to Aunt Ella. I wish she was my mom instead of Mom. "Loveyoutoo."

9. Dancer

I hate playing DDR and Guitar Hero and all those other music games, Demyx always always ALWAYS wins and I bet he cheats.

But everyone at the birthday party's had a turn at DDR and I don't like how they're looking at me, like they think I won't play because my score will suck so much next to theirs. "Fine! It's my turn, move."

I don't care what song it is, this whole thing is stupid so I just let the girl pick. I hate this game, hate it...stupid arrows...stomp stomp stomp, Demyx I wish I could stomp your face in, it's not fair he's a better dancer than me I bet he actually-

I won. What? I got the highest score at the whole party. The highest score. What?! What?! I'm the best?! Demyx isn't here, and he's the only one I can't beat but I guess I'm better than everyone else...?! "HAH! I'm awesome!"

10. Excuse

Don't look at me like that don't look at me like that! You're supposed to never get mad, Dad, DON'T! I'm sorry! I won't do it again just stop being mad at me!

"So that's your excuse?" he says in this scary flat voice.

I don't know what to say.

"Look me in the eyes when I'm talking to you, Axel," he says, so loud and kind of mad that I get scared and look at him. I can't stand it so I look away, but he holds my chin and makes me look at him again. I feel sick. I'm gonna throw up. I wish I hadn't done it but it's too late now and I can't fix it even though I really really want to, what do I do?! "I need you to explain to me, in your own words, what exactly was going through your head when you did this. Did you think this was a good idea? Did-?" He stops talking and lets go of me and takes a deep breath, and suddenly I just run. I know I shouldn't, it'll just be worse later, but I couldn't stand it, it hurts. I wish I could hide in a hole and never come out.

It takes a long time, but Dad finally finds me. I don't move or say anything as if he won't see me if I'm quiet, but of course he sees me, I know he's looking right at me. He sits down next to me. I wish he'd yell at me, so I can yell back and feel better, but he doesn't say anything, so I feel like crying instead but I really don't want to.

He puts his hand on my head. "Hey. Ax." His voice is all soft like he's not mad anymore, and that's even worse. I can't say anything even if I wanted to, because I'll cry if I do. "I apologize for getting angry."

I'm sorry. I'm really, really sorry. I wish I could fix it, but I can't, and I don't know what to do.

"...Axel?"

"..."

"I do really need you to talk to me, though."

"...It wasn't my fault." My voice surprises me, all thick and scratchy. It hurts to talk.

"It wasn't?" he says, like he doesn't believe me, and of course he doesn't because of course it was my fault.

"...Dad..."

"What is it, Axel?" he says, and he sounds so friggin' nice, it's not fair.

"Can I...pay you...back?"

"That's not really-" He's been kind of patting my hair a little all this time, and it felt nice, but now he stops. He puts his hands on my shoulders and tries to make me sit up, but I really, really, really don't want to, I can't look at him. "Axel. Please look at me." He doesn't sound mad anymore, but I know I have to look at him even though I really don't want to, so I make myself. It hurts. "Axel, I need to hear an apology. Please. Please tell me you're sorry."

"...I'm sorry." As soon as I say it, I burst into tears, I hate myself but then he hugs me and it feels so good to be hugged, it doesn't hurt as much anymore. "I'm sorry, Dad...I'm sorry...I'm sorry..."

"Ssshh, Ax, it's all right. I forgive you."

11. Inspiration

We're coloring together. I'm giving Santa a blue-and-purple suit and a green beard and evil red demon eyes. Roxas has a yellow crayon and is happily scribbling over the elf on the other page. "That's beauuuutiful, Roxas. Good job coloring!"

"Goo." He flops to the side and puts his face on my knee for some reason, then after a second he rolls back and goes back to coloring. He left a drool mark on my jeans.

"Thanks, buddy."

"Aaah." He reaches over and starts scribbling yellow on my Santa.

"Is that supposed to be pee or something?"

"Eee."

"He drank too much milk, huh."

"Uh."

"Roxas."

He just keeps coloring.

"Heh. 'Roxas' is hard to say, isn't it. Raaaaah."

"Ah."

Dad comes in, carrying a basket of laundry. "Oooohh, nice work, boys!"

"Christmas is very inspirational," I tell him. "We're making a story where Demon Santa drank too much milk and peed on the roof."

Dad laughs. "I see."

"Da." Roxas lets go of the crayon, crawls over to Dad, and sits on his foot.

"Aww, big guy." Dad puts down the basket and scoops up Roxas, who laughs. "You rock my world!" Dad says, lifting Roxas up and down, and up and down. "You rock my world! And my socks! And everything!"

Roxas keeps laughing and hits Dad's head with both hands.

"Ow!"

o.o.o

Author's Notes: "Fresh Breeze" is the Japanese name of Ven's default Keyblade in Birth by Sleep.

3. Rivalry - ...There was a tiny censored part because I couldn't imagine Axel saying anything else, but it just seemed too crass in a fanfiction context. -.- I don't think it would have sounded quite as bad with original characters who don't have fandom baggage.

5. Laughter - Axel heard the expression "Rocks my socks" from Ven, then turned it into a nickname for Roxas, which Ven soon picked up on. :)

7. If - The yellow-eyed creep who mysteriously knew Axel's name was Xehanort. :p