[KH] Stepsiblings AU: Fourth of July, part 2

Stepsiblings: Fourth of July, part 2 (rough draft)

A Kingdom Hearts fanfic by Raberba girl

The morning air was refreshing, though of course it was going to get uncomfortably hot later in the day.  If we were going to be frolicking about outside, this would be the best time to do it.

I made a purchase on the way to the library, hid it in my bag, then walked inside and found my target happily scribbling away in a notepad, with a laptop sitting nearby and stacks of books taking up the rest of the table.

"Hello, Vexen."

"Oh, it's you," he said absently.

"I made a promise to some people today."

"Could you go away?  I'm busy now."

I ignored him and continued.  "It will get rather dull fulfilling it by myself, and you're the only option I have on such short notice."

"What in the world are you talking about?"

"Put the books away, we're going to the Independence Day parade."

"Are you mad, Saïx?" he said indignantly.  Despite everything, I couldn't help feeling a slight wisp of affection for the vocabulary.  We could relate on that level, at least.

"A little harassed, yes, but mad, no.  Please don't argue, I'd rather not force you."

"I'm not leaving," he said defiantly.  "Surely you don't imagine I would give up this prime opportunity to get some quality work done, do you?"

"Vexen.  Let's please pretend that we are normal human beings, just for today."

"Go adopt some canines, or whatever it is you do when you're not interrupting me."

I drew in a deep breath.  Even after all this time, I wasn't very good at this...the Speech was so instinctive, I was still not entirely sure how to control it, other than crudely willing negative thoughts at other people.  But to tailor what came out of my eyes to make it more effective on those who were accustomed to it....

'I'm lonely,' I thought, hard.  'You're lonely, too.  Come with me, leave the dust behind, let's step out into the sunshine together....'

He was rigid, staring at me.  One hand groped unsteadily to drag the notepad closer.  "Determination, longing, impatience, affection," he was muttering under his breath, scribbling the words down.  Was that what he saw in my eyes?  ...Affection?

"Surprise, horror, disgust...."

Focus, Saïx.  'Come,' I thought again.

It was obviously having an effect on him - he was cringing like most people did whenever I looked at them, or like people who were used to me did when I was angry at them.  (Everyone except Axel.  Axel, for some reason, seemed to have an almost complete immunity, which could be as much of a relief as it was infuriating.)

"Got it," he finally said triumphantly.  "You may cease now."  He reached for the computer.

"This isn't an experiment, Vexen.  I really do want you to put the books away and accompany me."

"It's a holiday!"

"Exactly."  Was this what Axel felt like whenever he annoyed me into socializing?

"This is preposterous.  I am older than you--"  By four months.  "--and therefore have seniority, you can't pressure me into participating in something I have no interest in!"

Yet, ten minutes later, we were walking out of the library together, Vexen making a long string of complaints that I did not attempt to stem.  I rather thought he was entitled to it.

"...absolutely ridiculous, precious time being wasted, you have no idea how close I am to discovering the--"

I dug out the paper bag of kolaches and silently offered it.

"What is that?"

"Breakfast.  Which I assume you didn't eat before dashing off to the library first thing upon awakening."

"How I take care of my body is none of your business," he said haughtily, digging out one of the bread-wrapped sausages.

"I already have to put up with my brother forgetting to feed himself adequately, I really don't need it from you, either.  Your face could use some filling out."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

Only that he'd grown unhealthily gaunt since the beginning of the summer.  It hadn't been nearly this bad when we were still living together - though, granted, when we were roommates, I'd looked after him a lot more than I'd ever expected to have to look after someone my own age.  Redirected energies after having gotten so used to taking care of Xion, perhaps....

"No matter.  We'll stop by your place so you can drop off your books, then go find out where to register."

"You owe me for this, Saïx."

"Pass the bill to my siblings.  It's their fault we're both out here, not being hermits."

"How do you tolerate them?" he wondered, taking another kolache.

"Practice."

"I never had siblings," he said thoughtfully.  "I wonder what it would have been like...utterly miserable, I'm sure."

"...Only partially miserable.  Then, after a while, you get used to it."

"Fascinating," he said clinically.

When we finally figured out where people, mostly other college students, were gathering to sign up, I drew back behind Vexen and let him do the talking, a habit which my friends were all used to (much as it annoyed some of them).

"Hi!" the young woman with frizzy pigtails said brightly.  "Here to sign up for the parade?"

"No," Vexen said bluntly.

"Yes," I corrected, giving him a warning glare.

The girl got a good look at me for the first time and seemed to freeze.  I lowered my gaze to the ground again.

"My associate here is forcing me to participate," Vexen sulked.

"Ask for the clipboard," I growled.

Vexen held out his hand imperiously.  She handed the sign-up sheet over without a word, her eyes still fixed on me.  He signed his name in an illegible scrawl, then handed the registry to me.  Saïx Acerbi, I wrote.  I snapped a picture with my phone and texted the proof to my brother.  "There, are you satisfied now?"

"yaaaaaaayyyyyyy send us pix of u in parade later k? rox says hi xi says ilu"

"You three are impossible."  I looked up to find the girl still staring at me, as Vexen took notes on her reaction.

"Your eyes," she whispered.  "They're very...."

"Yes?" Vexen said eagerly when she failed to finish her sentence.  "Very what?  What descriptor would you use for them, exactly?"

With a mental sigh, I folded my arms, looked her in the face for the first time, and waited.  ...And remembered my brother's advice to smile, so I did.

She gulped.  "Th-They're amazing," she said nervously.

"Really?" Vexen laughed.  "That's an unusual one.  Fascinating...."

"My girlfriend likes them, too," I tried.  I've found that saying such things sometimes has favorable results.

Sure enough, her eyes widened.  "You have a girlfriend?"

"Yes.  Unfortunately, we were not able to be together today, so I'll have to do something nice to make it up to her later."

Her face changed to that expression of wonder that it always does whenever they...'unlock' me, as Xion would put it.  I quickly looked away.  Sometimes I don't know which is worse, the way they cower in terror or the way they seem to be able to read my mind.  I wish so often that I was normal.

"Ohhh...can I?"

I quickly moved back out of reach.  "No.  Please."  Call me unreasonable, but I do not like it when complete strangers try to touch my face.  It seems to be a natural reaction with the women, especially.  "...She wouldn't like it."  Jasmine would think it was amusing, actually, but she wasn't here right now.

The girl actually giggled, her previous fear of me gone.  "Sorry.  Didn't mean to pester you.  Oh!  I sure did get distracted; here you go!"  She rummaged around in a box and handed each of us a sash and a flag.  "Just put these on, and then you can go wait over there with the others.  There's refreshments, feel free to enjoy yourselves and get to know everyone!  We'll be starting in about an hour."

We did not exactly 'get to know everyone,' but after a while I stopped 'hiding' (as Axel would have put it) and ventured to initiate conversation.  With a woman I had long known from her job at a coffee shop near my old dorm building, but still.  She was a talkative person who soothed her nervous friends and readily accepted us into her circle, so that the time passed reasonably pleasant enough.

"Why aren't you back home with that adorable little brother and sister of yours?  Sounded like they miss you whenever you're gone."

"My academic performance warranted boosting...."

She laughed.  "You always have such a funny way of talking.  And you, sugar?  You taking summer school too, or just working?"

Vexen stared.  I was willing to bet that he had never been called 'sugar' in his life before.

"Vexen is also enrolled in summer session.  We used to be roommates, back at Tram."

"Is that so!  Well, I remember you now, honey; only you had a bit more meat on your bones, then...."

"What is she saying?" Vexen asked me blankly, as if she was speaking a different language.

"You need to eat more."

In the general shuffle and confusion of the parade's start, I lost track of our pre-event companions, and reached out to grasp hold of Vexen's shirt without thinking.

He stared at me.  "What are you doing?"

I quickly let go.  'Trying not to lose you.'  "Let's move farther up where there's less people."

"I feel ridiculous, wearing this thing."  He tugged contemptuously at the patriotic sash that had been slung over one shoulder.

"Well, so do I, but we'll look stranger if we're not festive."  I took a photo for my siblings' sake.  "Satisfied with my humiliation?"

"totally smokin!!"

"You do engage in quite a lot of contact with those siblings of yours," Vexen observed.

"They don't leave me alone otherwise."

"Has it occurred to you that this kind of thing only encourages them?"

"They're annoying either way."  Not really.  Not anymore.  I spoke out of habit....  "I'd just prefer them to be in a good mood when they pester me rather than an unpleasant one."

"Sensible enough, I suppose."

Everyone was walking now.  The noise was a little overwhelming, with a roar of cheering from the people lining the road, happy shouts back and forth, and noisemakers blaring.  This was not exactly my element.  I waved and tried to smile and tried to not look directly at anyone.

"It's such a pointless celebration, if you think about it," Vexen was lecturing at my side.  "People would do much better to actually research this nation's history and delve into all the primary sources and later analyses of the revolution, rather than gathering together just to make noise and consume junk food and waste time putting up all these decorations that will just end up in landfills, such as this flag, for example, if you consider just the plastic handle, the energy and resources that went into its manufacture and its environmental impact after being thrown away, obviously added up with all the other plastic trivialities just like it...."

I started tuning him out pretty early on.  It became this strange sort of dreamlike experience, walking on and on with the endless noise on all sides and my companion staying close, rambling on in a soothing drone....

I was trying hard not to look at anyone, so my eyes inevitably ended up focusing on the road much of the time instead.  I saw the child - a girl, so tiny, toddling about with pink clips fastened in her smooth black hair - before anyone else did, wandering unsupervised too close to the wheel of the float in front of us.  Abruptly tripping, falling in the wheel's path--

"That child--" Vexen started to say, but I was already scooping her up in my arms.

She burst into tears.  I found myself trembling just a little, to my annoyance, since it was involuntary.  Just...realizing how close she had come to harm...the memory of my own tiny sister so strong in my mind....

"Boo boo," the child said dolefully, trying to get a look at her bloodied knees.

"You'll be all right," I said quietly.  The scrapes were not deep, the blood was smeared widely across her skin but already drying.  I looked around for an adult or older child she should belong to, but no one looked frantic or even concerned.  We were still walking.  I looked back, but though a few people were staring at us in mild, detached concern, no one seemed suitably alarmed.  I don't think anyone other than Vexen and I even realized she had been bleeding; my arms covered most of it.

"Who on earth does she belong to?" Vexen was saying in outrage.  "Letting small children run loose like that, completely irresponsible, as if this isn't inconvenient enough without things going wrong on top of that...."

The girl raised her head and met my eyes for the first time.  I found myself cringing in anticipation, looking away again.  She gave a little gasp.

"Puppy!"

'Why.  WHY does this sort of thing happen to me so often nowadays.  This is Axel's fault.'

The child gurgled in delight and reached up.

"Vexen," I said, "I have a suggestion for a future experiment."

"What would that be?"

"Find out why so many females who 'unlock my doomgaze' try to touch my face directly afterward."

"I'll consider it," he said with mild interest, watching as the girl happily patted me with her chubby toddler hands.  I gave her my flag in an attempt to distract her.

She was a good-humored child, seeming to forget entirely about her injuries as she played with the flag and with my hair and sash, and eventually got a little too active for me to keep hold of.  We got her to the clinic station none too soon, I was more than half afraid that she would give us the slip before then, despite the fact that both Vexen and I were entirely focused on her.

"Puppy!  Play!"  She threw the flag across the grass as if she expected me to fetch it.

I sighed heavily.  "Will she be all right?" I asked the nurse who kept eyeing me warily as she rinsed the dried blood from the child's skin.

"I should say so, these don't look serious.  Just keep them clean and covered like you'd do with any scrape...."

I didn't bother correcting our relation to the child as I went to retrieve the little flag to give back to her.

The nurse had just finished bandaging her up when her guardians finally came bursting in on us, a huge man with a blue and purple hat, and a much smaller man wearing a green T-shirt with a huge single eye pictured on the front.

"Boo!"

"There you are!"

'Boo?'  I hadn't thought that any child's name could surpass 'Rox-my-socks' in ridiculousness, but apparently it was possible.

"Daddy!  Uncle Mike!" she said happily as they scooped her up and practically smothered her in joyful relief.  Then they rounded on us before we could slip away, but before things could get too awkward or heated, the girl...Boo...wriggled out of her father's arms and trotted over to me.

"Puppy, here."  She thrust the flag at me proudly.

She was too young to understand, so I accepted it from her and then offered it again, resting across both open palms.  "It's yours.  Take it, Boo."  It was not like I would have any need of the thing in the future.

She picked the little flag off my hands, inspected it for a moment, then grinned and waved it in my face.

The two men were watching me.  "Who did you fellas say you were again?"

"My name is Saïx."

"Puppy!"

"My friend is Vexen," I said, ignoring Boo's humiliating declarations as best as I could.

"Former roommate," Vexen corrected.

"Friend."  I looked him in the eye.  "Because if not for me, you wouldn't have any friends, Vexen, so I would advise you to take what you can get."

"Hmph, I have no need of friends."

"You know what, I used to think that, also.  I don't anymore.  Don't learn it the hard way, Vexen."

Boo's father and uncle were still watching us, now exchanging thoughtful looks.  "Saïx and Vexen, eh?"

"Much obliged for looking after the munchkin, you know."

"You're welcome," I said.

Boo threw the flag again.  "Puppy get stick!"

I tried not to sigh audibly.

"So if you boys don't have any plans, whaddaya say to coming along with us to the company picnic we're having over in Cloudsfair Park?"

Which was how I ended up with two strangers, my cranky former roommate, and a little girl named Boo at a picnic for a company I'd never heard of on the Fourth of July.  With Boo sitting in my lap, happily eating a sandwich and dripping blackberry jam all over my clothes, Sully laughing loudly enough to hurt my ears, and Vexen and Mike arguing about something trivial, I raised my phone again to take another picture.

"I made some new friends.  What do you think?" I texted Axel along with the photo.

"SO PROUD OF U SAISAI!!!"

"Shut up."

"Toy?" Boo said interestedly, and I hurriedly lifted my phone out of reach of her sticky fingers.

"No, not a toy.  Here, take the sash."

"This is why I don't talk to amateurs," Vexen stormed under his breath, pointedly going over to sit on my other side.  "No idea what they're talking about."

"Vexen, it's a picnic," I told him.  "You're supposed to be enjoying yourself, not getting into fights with your hosts."  I glanced over at the righteously sulking Mike, who seemed to be mollified when Sully offered him some cookies.

"Cookie!" Boo shrieked eagerly, and Sully handed me one which I in turn let her have.

"Who says I'm not enjoying myself?" Vexen snorted.  "He may be an idiot, but he brought up several valid points which I need to prove wrong, and I think I have an idea of how to go about it...."

I smiled a little.  "Happy Independence Day, Vexen."

"What?  Oh.  Happy Independence Day, Saïx, or whatever it is you want to hear."

"Cookie?" Boo offered, holding one in Vexen's face.  He stared at it.

"Just think, Vexen.  You would have never gotten to eaten that cookie if I hadn't dragged you out here to celebrate."

"Well, obviously."  He plucked the cookie out of Boo's hand.  "I hope you're not expecting me to thank you."

"You could thank Boo, at least."

"Hmph."

"Thank you, Boo," I said for him.

"Yay!  Puppy get stick!"  Once more, the flag went sailing out into the grass.

"Vexen:  new experiment.  See if we can teach Boo how to say my name properly."

"Heh, challenge accepted."

o.o.o

Author's Notes:  Uh...so I looked it up, and apparently the things that restaurants in my city call "kolaches" are not real kolaches in their country of origin. *sweatdrop*  Basically, kolaches are desserts with fruit fillings, but there are several places where I live that sell sausages in bread and call them "kolaches."

Apparently, Beast's real name is not mentioned anywhere except in some obscure computer game.  It's Adam. XD

I seriously need to re-watch Monsters, Inc.

Oh, and THIS actually counts as the first time I've written Vexen positively, since last time was technically Even (whom I like better). ^^  Though...you could argue that I still haven't written canon!Vexen positively yet.... *sweatdrop*