The Next Life
(rough draft)
A Kingdom Hearts fanfic by Raberba girl

For 8-14-13, the ultimate Axel/Xion/Roxas Day. Story inspired by R-O-K-U-S-H-I.

Summary: Lea has no idea how he went from being ripped apart by monsters in Radiant Garden to wandering around this quiet, sunset-lit town. All he knows is that whenever he does manage to make his way home, he'll be bringing these two adorable little orphan kids with him.

o.o.o

This place was called 'Twilight Town,' apparently, and their calendar was TOTALLY DIFFERENT than the Garden's, so Lea had absolutely no idea how much time he'd missed.

Or how he'd gotten here, for that matter. The last thing he remembered, Radiant Garden was being invaded by an entire army of those shadow monsters; he and Isa had been running; he'd turned back at the sound of Isa's cry of pain; hands burning as he tried to rip the shadows away from his friend; then he was on the ground feeling like his heart was being torn out of his chest. Darkness. Despair. Something like a long, long nightmare he couldn't remember.

Then waking up here on the sun-warmed pavement without a scratch on him, as if none of it had ever happened. His chest had ached for a while, something was weird about the way his heart beat - but he got used to it, and now here he was, at an ice cream shop. He was here because he didn't have anywhere else to be.

This town wasn't big, and he'd looked over every inch of it. None of it seemed familiar beyond a vague sense of déjà vu. He didn't know anyone here, and vice versa; and no one had any clue what he was talking about when he tried to ask them how to get back to Radiant Garden. Less than a handful of people even showed a trace of recognition, and even that wasn't much to go on: three teenagers who gave him uneasy looks, the blonde belligerently ordering Lea to get lost, the girl admonishing, "Now, Hayner, I know he looks like that kidnapper, but there's no way they're the same," and the shorter boy murmuring, "Man, they've got the exact same eyes, and that hair; I wonder if they're related?" Lea hadn't been able to ask for more, though. That Hayner guy really seemed to hate him.

So not counting that trio, it was just the ice cream lady who had gasped in surprised delight when he'd come up to the counter. "Ohhh, you look just like that regular of mine, the one I haven't seen in weeks! Are you two related?"

"Dunno. What's his name?"

Of course she hadn't known. And the guy hadn't really sounded familiar when she described him, either. Maybe a bit like Uncle Reno, except the tattoos were wrong.

"Well, whatever. I'll ask Mom about it when I get home."

If he ever got home. Of course he would, but...he just hadn't thought of a way to get there yet. Apparently he couldn't just take a train there, partly because none of these people had ever heard of the place, and partly because he had no munny.

Speaking of which, it was kind of amazing how important munny became when you were temporarily homeless. When you didn't have it, you couldn't ride the trams, couldn't even eat, couldn't sleep anywhere but on the street, it was crazy.

It was pretty easy to pick up an odd job here and there in order to score a meal, but Lea quickly discovered that it was going to take more than that to live. Hence the ice cream shop... The lady had looked at him for a while, then smiled and hired him, probably as a charity case. Didn't matter. Lea mopped the floor and washed dishes and took out the trash and made deliveries all day so that he had a steady source of income that was more than a pittance. He had to start saving. Gummi blocks were expensive.

"You're gonna make a ship?" his boss had said in astonishment, pouring ingredients into the mixer as Lea stuck popsicle sticks into each compartment of the tray she'd just finished.

"Yeah. Only way I can think of to get back to my homeworld."

"Your 'homeworld,'" she'd laughed. "Are you an alien or something?"

He didn't know why he was so very sure that there were other worlds out there, and that Radiant Garden was one of them. But he did know, quite strongly, that this Twilight Town place was not the only one that existed. "Maybe? I dunno. I just know I can't live here forever."

It wasn't that he didn't like it here - he actually did, a lot. But there was a part of him that felt like something was missing, that there were people waiting for him who needed him. 'Isa, and my family.' They probably had no idea where he was, how to find him or even look for him. So he had to get back home and make everything right again. Maybe one day he would come back to live in Twilight Town, maybe not; but for now, he couldn't stay a minute longer than he had to. 'Just hold on, guys...I'm coming, as fast as I can. Wait for me.' Isa, his parents, his sisters and brother.

But there was someone else, too, wasn't there? Who was he forgetting...?

On the fourth morning, Lea woke up in his new hotel room to the sound of the alarm clock he had set. He was tempted to just roll over and fall back asleep, but for some reason, it was easier to get out of bed these days, as if he had somehow magically gotten used to waking up early. "Hooray, off to work," he grumbled. Working in an ice cream shop wasn't bad, though, and he whistled a cheerful tune as he pulled on his clothes and reached for the hair gel.

Making his way to the shop in the fresh morning air, munching on a cinnamon roll for breakfast, Lea paused when he saw the Cute Th- The kids playing in an alley. Well, not 'playing,' exactly... The little boy was crouched on a shed roof, a determined look in his eyes as he stared at the trash can below. The little girl was crouched similarly on the ground, eyes fixed on the same target. Both children looked to be about four or five years old.

'Are they planning to-?' Lea started to wonder, but then the boy let out a(n adorable) little battle-cry and leaped, landing on top of the can. Lea gasped in concern as the thing toppled over, but the boy scrambled clear as if he'd been expecting to fall. The girl was already jumping to catch the trash can, flinging her body at it to prevent it from rolling down the inclined street.

There was a pause. Then the children exchanged a look and a giggle, faces lit up as if to say, "We did it!"

"Hey," Lea said, "are you ok-?"

The boy gave him a wary look and hurried to join the girl. "Quick," he said to her, and started stabbing at one of the plastic trash bags with a stick.

"Maybe there's chicken nuggets like last time," she murmured hopefully, sticking her fingers into the hole her friend had made and trying to pry the plastic farther apart.

"Are you guys trying to eat garbage?!" Lea exclaimed in horror.

The little boy flew at him with the stick. "Go away," he snarled. "It's ours it's ours it's ours, no one wants it so let us have it!"

"Roxas, I found a pizza," the girl called urgently, clutching a cardboard box to her chest that was almost as big as she was, staring at Lea in fear. "Let's go!"

The boy dropped the stick and tried to run, but Lea managed to catch him by the back of his shirt. The boy shrieked and struggled, but Lea kept his arm clamped firmly around him as he tugged the pizza box out of the little girl's hands and opened it to reveal a disgusting, dried-out slab of bread clinging to the inside of the cardboard by the stiff remains of tomato sauce. "You guys can't eat this."

"Let Roxas go," the girl pleaded tearfully. "Please give him back. I promise we won't eat your pizza, but please don't hurt him."

Both of them were a mess...faces and clothes smeared with grime, wild greasy hair, scabs and bruises on their flesh, including where the boy had scraped his hands and knees from knocking over the trash can...

"Flaming pants. Are you two orphans or what?"

The girl reached for Roxas's hands, and he clung to her. She braced her tiny feet on the ground and heaved back, trying hard to pull Roxas out of Lea's grip.

"Flaming pants..." Lea scooped her up in his other arm and started carrying them both toward the nearest restaurant.

"Let go! Jerk! I'll hit you!"

"Let us go! Pleeeaaase, please let us go!"

Of course he got a lot of weird looks, ordering pancakes while holding a couple of yelling, struggling small children, but whatever. As long as they got a few mouthfuls of food before the police showed up, he didn't care.

He went and shoved them into a booth, blocking their way with his body. When he wouldn't let them escape either over or under the table, Roxas finally crawled over the girl in order to stand between her and Lea, hands pressed against Lea's chest as if to hold him back, glaring fiercely.

"Hey," Lea said gently, "I'm not gonna hurt you. We're here to eat breakfast."

"I killed a Heartless," the boy growled, "me and Xion did. We can kill you, too."

'Heartless?' Lea wasn't quite sure what the word meant, but for some reason, it instantly summoned to his mind a memory of the shadow monsters that had nearly destroyed him in the Garden. "That'd be a bad idea, though, since I'm your meal ticket."

"..."

A grim-looking waitress came over and set a plate of pancakes on the table. "Here's your-"

The little girl - Xion? - instantly seized the plate and dragged it close, cramming a handful of pancakes into her mouth as she did so. Roxas quickly sat down and shoved back against her, feet braced against Lea as if to continue holding him at bay, the knife and fork gripped in his fists like weapons. He kept glaring as he opened his mouth to let Xion feed him pancakes, too.

'They're like a little team,' Lea thought, tears pricking at his eyes from the mix of admiration and squee and sadness filling his heart. 'I don't know how long they've been on the streets, but it's like they can read each other's minds, like they know each other's roles and trust each other without question...'

"Can we talk?" the waitress said meaningfully.

Lea sighed and got up, following her away from the table. Roxas and Xion were now focused on the food like starving animals and made no move to escape. "I found them on the street," he said, knowing that explanations wouldn't help but going through the motions anyway. "They're hungry. I'm just buying them breakfast."

"Uh huh." She looked doubtful, but kept glancing at the children, whose behavior didn't clash with Lea's story. "Well, when some strange guy comes strolling in, dragging a couple of screaming kids, people are gonna make assumptions-"

"I know. Okay? I know. Just keep the food coming, and I'll tell you where to send the bill."

Roxas and Xion, no longer paying any attention to Lea, were slurping milk out of the same bowl of cereal when the police arrived. Lea stood up without a word and let them handcuff him, smiling a little when the kids paused in their devouring to watch in wary confusion. "You guys just ask the ladies for whatever else you want to eat, okay?"

"What's happening?" Xion asked urgently, and Roxas stood up on the seat with the knife and fork in his fists again. For a five-year-old with syrup and chocolate and milk smeared all over his face, he looked strangely deadly.

"Hello, honey," the female officer said in a soothing tone. "Was this person bothering you?"

"Where are you going?!" Xion called after Lea, staring as the other officer began pulling him away.

"There's food here," Roxas told the policewoman, but his eyes were fixed on Lea, too.

"Do you know that person?" she asked again.

Roxas and Xion climbed to the floor and rushed after Lea, clinging to him with fingers made sticky from their meal. "Don't go away!"

"They think I'm a kidnapper or something," Lea told them.

They stared, uncomprehending.

"Where are your parents?" the male officer asked the children.

"You can't take him away," Roxas said. "I want him."

"Please please please don't take him away," Xion begged.

"Where are their parents?" the police asked Lea.

"Um...well...I don't know where their parents went, so I've been...taking care of them."

"What is your relation to them?"

"I'm...their..."

"Best friends," Roxas suddenly said, and everyone looked at him. "Best friends. We wanna be together forever. And...something sweet. And salty."

"Somewhere way up high," Xion said softly. "With the sun."

'Where have I heard that before?' Lea wondered, feeling like he had almost, almost remembered something from a dream.

There was a long pause.

"What are their names?" the police finally asked.

"The boy's Roxas. And, um, the girl is Xion," Lea said, hoping he'd guessed right.

"Roxas and Xion? Are those your names?" the lady said.

"Uh huh. Number XIII."

'Where have I heard this before?!' Lea wondered, starting to feel desperate at the strong déjà vu. 'Did I already know these kids somehow?'

"Roxas and Xion, how did you meet this person?"

'He found us digging through the trash,' Lea thought in half-amused and half-anxious anticipation.

"We're best friends forever," Xion said, clinging so tightly that Lea's leg was starting to hurt.

"And we do have hearts," said Roxas.

"Hmmm." The police eventually let Lea go, with a warning that both they and the townspeople would be keeping an eye on him and the children. Lea pretended he was Isa, trying to be as polite and respectful and obedient as he could so they'd get off his case, and felt nearly breathless with freedom when he was finally able to walk out, hand in hand with his two tiny new 'best friends.'

"Man...flaming pants, that was..."

"We got to keep him," Xion said mischievously.

Roxas grinned back at her, squeezing Lea's hand. "He's big. He can reach the high places and push over the heavy stuff."

"What am I, your servant?" Lea laughed.

At the ice cream shop, he greeted his boss, Gina, with a sheepish smile. "Hey...sorry I was late, I just, um..." He looked down at the kids, who held tightly to his hands and gazed up at Gina with huge, adorable, slightly apprehensive eyes.

"Ooooohhhhh, is this your little brother and sister?!" she exclaimed in delight.

"Uh - no, but..."

"They're so precious!"

"Axel's big," Roxas told her.

"He got us food," Xion said. "Good food. I don't feel sick."

"They're street rats or something," Lea explained. "Found 'em digging through garbage on my way here..."

"Ohhhh!" she cried, now looking compassionately distressed.

"By the way," Lea said to the kids, "my name is Lea. L-E-A. Got it memorized?"

Xion said "Oh," and Roxas gave him a sulky look.

"Do you want some ice cream?" Gina asked, and the kids' faces completely lit up.

They both immediately pointed to the sea-salt without even glancing at any other flavors, and finished their ice cream bars quickly, making many loud exclamations of joy and rapture. After that, though, they got pretty restless, and it soon became clear that Gina and Lea were not going to be able to run the shop with the two small children underfoot.

"Here," Gina finally said, handing Lea a slip of paper. "Can you take the kids with you on this delivery?"

Lea read the address. "Man, that's all the way by the beach..."

"You can take your time," Gina said, and winked when Lea looked at her. "Take as much time as you need. All day, if you have to."

Lea smiled. "Man, you are an awesome boss..."

"They kind of remind me of those other two regulars, too," she murmured, watching the children affectionately. "It's just like seeing the three of you all together, except ten years younger..."

"The three of us?"

The delivery was light enough for Lea to carry on his back. Although Roxas and Xion were rambunctious and often strayed, they always came running back when he called them.

"There's a dog over there," Roxas told him.

"Really?"

"He's soooo cute," Xion gushed. "He licked me with his big slobbery tongue." She giggled.

"You guys are kinda filthy," Lea observed. "Hey, at the beach, let's go swimming, okay?"

"What's swimming?"

"What's-? You know, swimming! In the water?"

They looked at him and shrugged.

"You don't know what swimming is?!"

"I know lots of things," Roxas pouted.

"It's fun, right?" Xion said. "It's not scary?"

"Of course it's fun! I'll teach you."

They took off as soon as they got off the tram and heard the sound of ocean waves. Lea was a bit worried when they didn't answer his call this time, but after he hurriedly dropped off his delivery, he found the kids on the beach quite soon. Roxas was shrieking happily as he alternately chased and fled the edge of the water, and Xion was on her knees in the wet sand, cradling a few seashells in her hands like they were jewels. "Look, Axel! They're pretty!"

"They are, aren't they," he agreed, crouching beside her. "And my name is Lea, remember?"

"One for each day," she said.

"Huh?"

"I don't know... Lots of these on a pillow. There was one every day, but I don't remember why."

That made him wonder. "What do you remember?"

"Huh?"

Lea settled himself more comfortably. It felt a bit strange, sitting on wet sand while fully clothed with seawater splashing across him, but they'd been intending to swim anyway, and it wasn't like they had anything to change into. "You know. Where'd you come from, kid?"

Roxas dashed over and set his hands on Lea's shoulders, face alight with a heart-meltingly adorable grin. "The water goes up and down."

"You already look cleaner," Lea laughed. "How about you, Roxas? Do you remember where you came from?"

Roxas glanced restlessly out at the water. "It goes on forever."

Lea was starting to get the impression that they changed the subject whenever they didn't know the answer to a question. "What's the very, very, very first thing you guys remember?" he asked, and they both turned their attention back to him.

"Black," said Xion.

"It was bad, in the dark," said Roxas. "But we held on tight and woke up in the sun."

"I like that place," said Xion. "And here. So much sun. And ice cream." She smiled. "And you."

Lea was surprised to find his eyes smarting with tears again, and quickly blinked them away. "How long ago?"

Apparently confused again, their attention wandered.

"How many days were you on the street in Twilight Town?"

"Days," Roxas murmured. "Lots and lots...I counted, but I forgot."

Xion was counting on her fingers. "This many?" she said hesitantly. "Or maybe this many. We were hungry."

"Three or four? Huh." 'Did they show up in Twilight Town the same time I did?' Lea wondered. "Were you on the street a lot longer than Xion was, Roxas?"

"No," Roxas growled, and the children were gripping each other's hands again. "I didn't let Xion go this time. We're always gonna be together."

'Heh, now I'm the one confused...' "But you said you forgot how many days, because there were so many."

"That was before," Roxas said impatiently.

"Before the dark?"

"I guess."

"Where were you before the dark?"

"I dunno." Then they said in perfect unison, "Sun and ice cream." Roxas poked at Lea's face, right under his eye, and added quietly, "And you."

"Did you...know me? Before the dark?"

"I dunno." They were getting restless again, but he sensed this time that it was because they were simply getting tired of being interrogated, of trying to chase after lost memories.

"...Well, I guess I promised I'd teach you how to swim, huh."

Xion latched onto Lea's arm. "We're not gonna go out there, are we?" she said nervously, and her eyes widened when he laughed.

Lea first rented a surfboard, since they didn't have any flotation devices. Then he pulled off all their shoes and sat the kids on the surfboard, towing them out until they were in water too deep for them to stand in. It came up to about his stomach.

They both looked simultaneously scared and excited, gripping the edges of the board tightly, yet giggling as they splashed their legs in the water. "You ready?" Lea asked.

"No," Xion said breathlessly, eyes alight.

Roxas simply watched him, tense as if not sure yet how much to trust him. Lea gently took hold of Roxas, pausing a moment to give the boy more of a choice. Roxas reached up and gripped Lea's elbows tightly, jaw clenched, looking like he was about to head into battle.

"I'm gonna take you off the board, okay?"

"Don't drop me," Roxas said tightly.

"I gotcha, okay?" Lea pulled him all the way into the water. Roxas and Xion both gasped, then fixed their eyes full of desperate trust on Lea. "Okay, so what you're gonna have to do is kick your legs-" There was a surge of churning water as Roxas started kicking mightily. Xion shrieked as she was splashed, and Lea burst into laughter.

They both picked it up shockingly quickly. Much sooner than Lea expected, the children were paddling easily around him, no longer fixated on him as a lifeline, occasionally grasping his shirt when they needed a rest. They seemed to have figured out how to tread water all by themselves.

"You guys are naturals..."

"I lived here a long time ago," Roxas suddenly said.

"In the ocean?" Lea said in surprise.

"You can hear it in the shell," Xion said.

"There was a yellow star," Roxas said. "And a race. And a boat. And another boy."

"We were all friends," Xion said. "It was really hard. But we did it." She clung to both Lea and Roxas. "It was so scary, and it hurt, but I'd rather fall in the black than Roxas or Axel get hurt."

Lea felt cold. "Let's...get back to the beach and find something to eat, okay?"

He spent the last of his munny on hot dogs and pretzels, and they sat in the sand to eat them, shivering for only a minute or two until the sun warmed them up again.

"Aw, he's hungry," Xion said.

Lea looked were she was pointing, and gasped. "No, Xion, don't-!" It was too late - she'd already thrown a bit of hot dog bun at the seagull.

"Aaahhhh!" Roxas screamed as they were suddenly mobbed by hungry birds, "The Heartless!"

Lea was laughing as he seized the kids' arms and dragged them up to run with him.

"Run, run, run!" they were both shrieking, sounding more gleeful now.

By the time they returned to the hotel that evening, they were tired and hungry again, and all grainy from the saltwater that had dried on them and the remaining sand that had escaped Lea's dusting. They were, however, quite happy, and the kids were both significantly more clean than they had been in the morning.

"Man, what're we gonna do for dinner?" Lea wondered under his breath as they walked into the lobby.

The receptionist smiled in relief. "Oh! There you are. The, er, police were asking about you."

Lea rolled his eyes. "The kids are fine."

"We went to the beach!" Xion told her in excitement. "We swam!"

"The seagulls chased us," Roxas said, and let out a cackle of laughter at the memory.

The lady smiled. "Well, I'm glad to hear you three had fun."

"Hey," Lea said, "if we wash dishes or sweep floors or something, you think we could get some food in exchange? I already spent everything I earned today, and I won't have more munny until tomorrow..."

She eyed him. "Well, you can order room service and charge it to your bill, if you like."

Lea winced. 'So expensive...' Whatever; it was just for one night, then tomorrow he'd be more careful about budgeting his wages. "All right."

After they ate, he finally managed to get the kids settled in the other bed, where they fell asleep together like puppies after he had told them a story about a genie in a lamp who granted wishes. But sometime in the middle of the night, he sleepily cracked his eyes open to find two small, warm bodies curled up beside his own, and realized that they must have moved. "Silly things..."

"You're warm, Axel," Xion murmured in her sleep, nuzzling his arm a little.

"Man, I keep telling you my name's- Ah, forget it; Axel, fine," he chuckled with a helpless smile. After all, it wasn't such a bad name, and something about it felt...so natural...

"Let's meet again," Roxas mumbled, also asleep, so that Lea was barely able to distinguish the words, "in the next..."

'...I know you,' Lea finally thought. 'Both of you. Whatever happened in that long nightmare I can't remember...something happened, because I had to have met you two. There's no way we're strangers. We must have loved each other enough to find each other again, and I swear I will never lose you this time.'

"Always be there..."

"To bring us back..."

o.o.o.o.o

Lea wasn't quite sure what to do with his new charges the next morning. "Hey...if I tell you guys to stay here in the hotel room all day, will you stay put?"

They both gazed up at him silently.

"Heh, I'll take that as a no." He scratched his head. "Look, guys, I have to work. I have to earn munny so I can buy food for us to eat, and pay for this hotel room and stuff. What are you gonna do all day while I'm working?"

They looked at each other. Then they looked back at him and shrugged.

"Hmm...what if I give you a mission?"

They perked up at that. Not exactly as if they were looking forward to it, but as if he had said something they recognized.

"We worked really hard," said Xion.

"We're good at missions," said Roxas.

Lea got the notepad from beside the phone and wrote their 'assignment' on it. Not that they could read, but it somehow felt right to write it down, and they eagerly grasped the paper when he handed it to them. "Okay, so your mission is to stand in front of the shop and ask everyone you see if they want to buy an ice cream bar."

"Ice cream?!"

"You're asking other people if they want to buy some."

"Sea-salt is the best!"

"Here, let's practice."

Once they had memorized what they were supposed to say, Roxas and Xion took Lea's hands and trotted off to work with him. "Still have the kids," he called a little smugly as he passed the receptionist. "They're still alive and happy. Guys, say good morning."

"Good morning~! Would you like to buy some ice cream?"

"It's really yummy~"

"Guys, wait 'til we're actually at the ice cream shop first..."

Gina laughed a lot when she saw her new advertisers at work. "Looks like we're gonna have quite a busy day today, Lea."

"I'd like to see the person who can say no to those Puppy Eyes," Lea agreed.

He could probably have counted the number of them on one hand. Not that he had time to actually do so - he and Gina were both too busy whirling around the shop, getting in each other's way, frantically mixing and freezing and cleaning and chatting up customers so they wouldn't be bored as they waited. Roxas and Xion were doing their jobs quite well, accosting every passerby and trying to ask, wheedle, beg, or threaten a sale out of them.

"It's the yummiest ice cream in the universe."

"You'll be soooo happy if you eat this ice cream!"

"You might even get a WINNER stick!" (Had Lea told them about the WINNER sticks? He couldn't remember.)

"Only the best people eat Miss Gina's ice cream!"

Lea decided that enough was enough when they started coming up with stuff like, "I'll be your best friend if you buy some ice cream" and "I'll tell the Heartless to eat you if you don't buy any," not to mention, "No! Not the strawberry, the sea-salt, buy the sea-salt!"

"Nice job, guys," he said, towing them firmly inside, "but it look like it's time for you to retire."

"Nooo, we have to go make people buy more ice cream!"

"Our mission!" Xion insisted, waving the 'mission brief' he'd written for them.

Lea gave Gina an exasperated look. "You got another delivery for me or anything, so I can get them out of your hair? I promise I'll come back this time."

Gina smiled a little. "Why don't you take this box over to the daycare center on the other side of the Common? And here, let me give you the kids' wages-"

"Oh, no, man, I didn't mean for you to pay 'em or anything, I was just trying to keep them occupied. I know you're only taking me on just to be nice, so-"

"It's enough to cover the center's fee for the rest of the day," she said meaningfully, "until you get off work and can pick them up again."

"..." Lea finally smiled, on the verge of tears again from how freaking nice she was. "You really are like my mom away from home..."

She patted the top of his head. "You're working so hard, kiddo. You didn't choose to end up alone here - plus, I like you. Call it gratitude for being such a loyal customer."

Customer? "We only met a few days ago," Lea chuckled, then took the delivery and the munny and signaled to the kids. "Let's go, guys! New adventure!"

Living. Was. So. Dang. Expensive. Lea was a bit depressed as he walked back to the ice cream shop, trying to calculate how much it would cost to put the kids in daycare every day. At this rate, he was going to be using up his entire earnings just to keep himself and the children alive, and he would never get back home.

"You all right?" Gina asked when he came back in.

"Yeah...yeah, I'm fine." He smiled. "You been able to keep up with the flood while I was gone?"

"It's moving back to normal levels," she chuckled, handing him a tray. "Sticks, please."

"You got it."

He was a little apprehensive when he went to pick the kids up, wondering if they resented being stuck in daycare all afternoon, but they seemed as happy to see him as ever. "Axeeeeelll! *GLOMP*"

"Heh...just out of curiosity, why do you call me that...?"

"Number VIII," Xion said, swinging his hand. "We built a big tower, just like the clock tower!"

"Then we knocked it over," Roxas said with relish.

"And built it again."

"Bwsshh." Roxas mimed something tall being toppled over.

"Speaking of which - how'd you guys like to camp out tonight?"

"Camp?"

They went back to the hotel only just long enough for Lea to collect his meager handful of things, check out, and give the hotel what he'd earned that day to pay the last of the bill. Then it was off to the train station.

"Are we gonna make a fire?" Xion asked with interest.

"Well, it's pretty warm tonight, so probably not."

"Aww, but you can make good fires," Roxas said.

"...How do you know that?"

Roxas shrugged. "Big ones. Fire everywhere. You were mad, but I beat you, but it's okay because you like me again now."

The very faintest scrap of memory wisped through Lea's mind, and he paused. 'Fire...everywhere...I was so angry, so angry at Roxas, because he was tearing my heart in two, but...what happened?' He clenched his teeth in frustration, wishing he could remember more.

"Heartless!" Xion suddenly shrieked as they were passing a construction site, sounding more excited than frightened.

Lea took a startled step back, seeing the shadowy yellow-eyed figure wriggle up from the ground.

"No! I lost my stick!" Roxas looked around, then ran to the construction site, ducked under the yellow caution tape, and caught up a couple of poles from the ground, short and light enough for him to carry. "Here's your Keyblade, Xion!"

"I got it, Roxas!" she cried, grabbing one of the poles.

"Wait, you guys aren't gonna-"

Yelling their hilarious, adorable battle-cries again, Roxas and Xion flung themselves at the Shadow Heartless, beating at it with their poles.

"You guys are crazy brave five-year-olds..." Lea watched closely, ready to intervene the second it looked like one of them might get hurt (intervene with what, though? His bare hands? His palms itched to throw something, but he couldn't remember what it was he wanted to throw...), but there turned out to be no need. The kids' bloodthirsty yells got a bit breathless and ragged by the end, but they eventually managed to damage the Heartless enough for it to burst into two orbs. "Munny," Lea gasped, scooping up the gold one and staring at it in wonderment. 'Of course Heartless drop munny. Why did I forget that?' He looked around to find the kids crouched beside the green orb, staring at it with interest.

"There's only one, but there's two of us," said Roxas.

Lea picked up the green orb in order to stare at it, too.

"Hey! That's ours!"

"I'm just looking," Lea murmured. The orb was squishy in a pleasant way, and had a nice smell. He rather wanted to eat it. He looked back down at the kids and asked, "Are either of you guys hurt?"

"No," said Xion.

Roxas reached up for the orb. "Gimme."

Lea smiled a little. "Let's save this for when one of us is sick or something, okay?"

Both kids sighed loudly, but then said, "Okay," and Lea carefully tucked it away.

"Axel," Roxas said, "we killed a Heartless, me and Xion. We're strong."

"You are strong," Lea agreed. "You guys are pretty amazing."

They all chattered happily until they got to the staircase behind the station, and the kids apparently realized where they were going. They froze.

Lea paused with his foot on the next step, glancing back at them. "What's wrong?"

"...You're going up to the clock tower?" Xion said in a small voice.

"Yeah. We're gonna camp out up there, it'll be fun."

Roxas plopped down to sit on the pavement, crossing his arms and legs, and said sulkily, "Bye, Axel."

"Huh?"

"We can't go up there," Xion said miserably.

Lea came back and crouched down in front of them. "What's wrong? Why can't you go up to the clock tower?"

"There's too many steps, stupid!" Roxas yelled, then burst into tears.

Xion knelt down and hugged him, also crying. "We climbed and climbed," she sobbed, "we went up and up and up, but we never got to the top, and we were so tired and we couldn't keep going and we slept and we were so hungry and then we had to climb down and down and down and we were so hungry and I fell and hurt my knee and we couldn't reach the top and I know there's a short way but we can't find it and we were so, so hungry...!"

Lea put his arms around them both and held them for a long time, until they finally stopped crying and just clung to him quietly. 'The clock tower...they wanted to go up there, just like I do, but they're so small, they couldn't make it on their own...' He knew he wouldn't be able to carry them both all that way, either, and then all the way back down again in the morning. And he knew, also, that there was a shorter way, something easy as magic to get up there without the steps, but he couldn't for the life of him remember it any more than they could. "Okay. Ssshh, it's okay. We won't go up there tonight, all right? We're gonna find somewhere else to sleep."

"We couldn't reach the top," Roxas said miserably.

"I know, Rox. It's okay, we don't have to climb up there tonight, not until you're strong enough." 'Where, though? Where the heck can I take two little kids to sleep all night? Not the tunnels, they're dangerous...the two of them together can handle a Shadow, but those monsters are stronger, and there's more of them, and we'll be asleep...where do we go?'

"Are we going back to the Usual Spot?" Xion asked.

Lea looked at her. "The usual spot?"

"Where we always sleep," Roxas mumbled, "before you took us away."

They had been on the streets on their own for several days before Lea had found them. "Show me," he said.

It was a little nook between two buildings, under a set of train tracks. There was a gate, which was locked, but Roxas simply stretched up his hands and pressed them against the lock for a minute, and it popped open.

"...Wow. Okay," Lea murmured.

Inside was a cozy setup, as if some teenagers had made the place their hangout. The couch was the part he was most interested in - it was one of those that could be unfolded into a bed, and seemed decently clean. There were no sheets, but the 'mattress' part would still be much more comfortable to sleep on than on his spare change of clothes, as he'd been planning before. "You guys are amazing."

They hadn't had much to eat on the way home from work, so Lea took out the food he'd saved from lunch and split it between the kids. Then he spread his jacket over them as a 'blanket,' and stretched out next to them to tell another bedtime story.

"Tell us about a princess this time," Xion requested.

"Okay...um, which one?"

"A princess who kills a giant," Roxas ordered.

Was there a story like that? "Uh, well, maybe not a giant, but one time there was this princess with reeeeaaaaally long hair, who went around beating up bad guys with a frying pan..."

o.o.o.o.o

The next day, close to noon, a teenage customer came up to the counter whom Lea had never seen around Twilight Town. "Hi there!" the guy said.

"Welcome to Twilight Ice," Gina said warmly. "What can I get for you?"

"Oooohhh, everything looks so good... Could I have two sea-salt ice creams, and a-"

After a pause, Lea looked up to see why the guy had broken off, and found him staring straight at him. "Can I help you?" Lea said, trying to sound polite while he was on the clock.

"You look so much like Axel!"

'Why does everyone call me Axel?'

"Do you know him?" Gina asked eagerly. "He's been trying to get to a place called Radiant Garden."

The guy turned away from the counter and bellowed into the distance, "HEY, ISA!"

Lea accidently dropped the bowls he'd been cleaning, splashing himself with soapy water.

"ISAAAA! I THINK I FOUND AXEL!"

Lea crossed the shop in one leap and practically hung over the counter, eyes fixed on the figure in blue clothing coming around the corner.

"Sora, why are you yelling, I can hear you all the way-"

"ISAAA!" Lea screamed.

Isa stopped dead, staring at him. "Lea."

"Isa! Flaming pants!" Lea scrambled straight over the countertop, fell onto the pavement, struggled back to his feet, and ran toward his best friend.

"You're bleeding," Isa exclaimed.

"Isa! Isa!"

"I'm glad you're all right."

"LOOK HAPPY, DANG IT!"

Isa smiled. "It's good to see you, Lea."

"I'M SO EXCITED TO SEE YOU WHY ARE YOU NOT EXCITED TO SEE ME?!"

"I am excited. I missed you. I was worried about you."

The fact that he spoke those words aloud and without hesitation was probably the Isa equivalent of jumping up and down screaming joyfully, so Lea grabbed his hands and jumped for both of them.

"Sacred moon, stop that...!" Isa gasped, but he was still grinning like crazy.

"We found Axel~" Sora sang, doing a little victory dance of his own. "Seventeen down, four left to go!"

"Why does everyone keep calling me Axel?" Lea demanded.

Isa shook his head. "I don't know, half of them keep calling me 'Saïx,' it's irritating..."

"Now we just need Roxas, Ven, Xion, and Demyx," Sora said, counting on his fingers.

Lea stared. "Roxas and Xion? They're at the daycare."

Sora and Isa stared back at him. "Daycare?"

Of course Gina let him leave early. Roxas and Xion, not expecting to be picked up until much later, took a while to notice Lea; but when they did, they instantly abandoned the toys they had been playing with and ran to glomp him.

"Woooowww," Sora breathed in awe, "they're so tiny, just like Naminé and Repliku!"

"More stray puppies?" Isa said in exasperation as he watched his friend cuddling the children.

"Look what I found while you were gone, Isa! Aren't they cute?!" Lea's face was completely alight as he showed off his new Cute Things, but the kids tightened their grip on him as they looked at Isa - Roxas glared, and Xion whispered into Lea's ear, "Axel, I don't like him." Isa's expression was not approving, either.

"Oh, come on," Lea said in exasperation. "You three are seriously not gonna make me choose sides, are you?" 'Not again, not again, not again...'

Sora had knelt down so as to be closer to the kids' level. "Hi, Roxas! Hi! Do you remember me?"

Roxas studied him seriously.

"Do you know him?" Lea exclaimed, suddenly nervous that Sora might know who their parents were and take them away from him.

"Yeah! He's my Nobody. I guess you're like my little brother or something now, huh?" Sora laughed.

"I'm staying with Axel," Roxas growled.

"Oh - okay. But you guys are coming back with us, right?"

"Are you gonna take us back to Radiant Garden?" Lea asked.

Sora shrugged. "If you want. Or the Islands, or wherever you all wanna go. But we have to check in with Master Yen Sid first, okay? We've been looking all over for you guys, I'm glad we finally found you."

"It's a long story," Isa said, in response to Lea's questioning look. "I still don't understand or believe much of it, but it does seem to be pretty clear that we've somehow been incapacitated for over ten years..."

"Ten years?!"

When Lea finally heard the story, of warriors without hearts and keys as weapons and gateways into other realms, he couldn't wrap his head around it, either. Yet...he also couldn't say that he didn't believe it... His dreams, for one thing. He rarely remembered them, but the bits and pieces that did keep tugging at his mind were not easy to dismiss. Plus, there was that bond he had with Roxas and Xion, unexplainable by just a few days' acquaintance; the unexpected skills he kept discovering himself to have; and his weird new obsession with Isa's eyes ("Stop staring at me." "I wasn't staring!" "Yes, you were, like you always do these days. Are you waiting for my eyes to change color or something?" "They're not gonna change color!" "Exactly!" "Stay green!" "I will! I'm not changing." "Never change, Isa! Never, ever change!" "You're the one who's never supposed to change!" "Why are we crying?!" "I don't know! Stop it!" "You stop first...!").

All that was just stuff he wondered about in his spare time, though, which there wasn't much of. He was too busy trying to adjust to how much the Garden had changed in ten years, trying to find his groove again with school, and integrating little Roxas and Xion into his family.

"Lea," his mother exclaimed, "you can't just steal children off the street, what about their families?!"

"They don't have families! All they have is me." 'And that Sora guy, but I don't care, they're staying with me.'

"Lea-"

"Mom, it'll be fine. I'll get a part-time job after school, I can take care of them mostly."

"I just..."

Lea waited for the Puppy Eyes to do their work.

His mother winced. "...Well, all right. But-"

"YES!" Lea was already crowing in triumph.

"Is this a good thing?" Roxas anxiously wanted to know.

"Yup! You and me and Xion get to live with each other from now on."

"With ice cream?"

"Heh heh, I think you guys like ice cream even more than I do..."

o.o.o

Author's Notes: First of all, PLEASE DO NOT TEACH SMALL CHILDREN HOW TO SWIM IN THE OCEAN, OKAY? Teach them in a pool where it's safer. X(

In case it wasn't clear, the idea was that the Organization and other Nobodies/replicas/etc. were restored to humanity in such a way that they had to revert back to younger versions of themselves (or something). ...This fic is supposed to be a one-shot, but I can picture it branching off into YET ANOTHER series. *headdesk*

So, R-O-K-U-S-H-I made this ADORABLE AkuRokuShi picture on devART called "AkuRokuShi: What The Future Holds," where teenage Lea is walking around Twilight Town, carrying little-kid Xion in one arm and ruffling little-kid Roxas's hair with the other. X3 It's one of my favorite AkuRokuShi pictures. I got inspired and wanted to write a story, and while brainstorming ideas for 8-14-13, it occurred to me that I could use this one. :3

Random note: Gina is black. Because even though she's supposed to just be a throwaway OC (I only gave her a name because she was onscreen too much and "the ice cream lady" quickly started sounding awkward), my throwaways have a tendency to keep showing up in other stories and develop actual personalities, and I'm tired of everyone being white, and I already have some Hispanic OCs, so Gina is black, just because I Said So. *sweatdrop*