Raindrops & Whiskers

A Kingdom Hearts fanfic by Raberba girl

Summary: The mother of all thunderstorms descends upon the castle. Xion's scared to death. Platonic AkuRokuShi (mostly AkuShi) fluff.

o.o.o

He woke up because he sensed someone killing his Assassins. Axel shot upright, flaming chakram half-summoned in his hand before he realized that it was Xion, frantically trying to fend off his agitated servants in the doorway. "Oi, back off," he snapped. The lesser Nobodies hesitated, then sank into the floor and vanished.

Xion stared at him with the most humongous liquid puppy eyes he had ever seen, and that was saying something.

"What-?"

There was an incredible crash from outside, prompting a panicked scream from the girl. Axel finally registered the sound of pouring rain, and the fact that his room was flooded with light from the little Keybearer's powers. "Ugh," he finally realized. "Again?"

There was a shimmer, and Roxas appeared in the portal, that hair of his looking like a wreck in its sleep-tousled state. The boy blinked muzzily and shielded his eyes from the brightness.

Axel sighed and scooted over to make room. Needing no further encouragement, Xion dashed forward and did not so much climb onto the bed as hurl herself straight into Axel, nearly knocking him off on the other side. "Ow! Watch it, Xi."

Roxas shuffled over and crawled up to join them, pressing close until they were basically making a Xion sandwich. Even with the two of them on either side of her, she was still shaking like a leaf. It was not seeming to help the way it had last time, though granted, last time had only been an average storm. The thunder on this one was making the roof quake, and the rain was so fierce it was practically roaring.

"Xion," Roxas realized groggily, "are you crying?"

The only answer was a series of repressed sniffling sounds.

"Favorite things, Xion," Axel reminded her.

Her voice was so wobbly that he could barely understand her. "I-Ice cream on the clock t-tower with you two, going to Ch-Christmas Town, playing with the p-puppies in Trav-"

CRASH!

Xion shrieked and dove for the sheet that had gotten kicked into a heap at the foot of the bed, yanking it up over her head. This meant that half of Axel's face was getting suffocated with fabric, while in her heedless scramble, she was now rather painfully squashing his arm.

"Xi, calm down-"

"SING THE SONG!" she screamed at him.

"Absolutely not," he shot back, yanking the sheet off his face with his unsquashed arm. "I told you that would be the only, only time."

She buried her face in his chest and burst into full-fledged tears.

"Xion, stop," he said in exasperation. "It's just a little rain, it's not hurting you."

CRASH!

She cried out again, flinching. When the cracking echoes had died away, she wriggled around to face Roxas. Axel wondered, in all seriousness, if she had broken his poor arm in the process. "Roxas, why aren't you scared?" she demanded.

"I dunno," he mumbled. "It's not a Heartless. Can't get at us."

"I can't get at it, either," she sobbed. "I can't hit it with my Keyblade and make it STOP, it just keeps going!"

CRASH!

She let out a wail.

"Xion, get off my arm please," Axel sighed. Then, when there was no response, "Xi. Seriously. I can't move, you are crushing my arm."

Eventually, he managed to tug free. He got up and rummaged around until he found the CD he had made Zexion burn for him after the previous incident. On his way past, Axel glanced out the window and frowned, surveying the forecourt of Memory's Skyscraper. "What the- I think Demyx has half the Dancers in existence out there. Non-existence, whatever. And please don't tell me that's Chester..."

Well, there was not exactly an abundance of friendly Shadows hanging around. "Demyx is performing a musical number in the rain with a million Dancers and Chester," Axel confirmed in disbelief. He also thought he could hear Larxene yelling happily from somewhere in the castle nearby. "Is anyone sleeping through this?"

At least one person was, apparently. Roxas had fallen asleep again by the time Axel put the CD in the music player and turned back. As soon as Axel's eyes met hers, Xion immediately reached out, a horrible desperate expression on her face. "It's okay, Xi." She did not answer.

The most soothing classical music in Zexion's collection filled the room as Axel climbed back into bed, trying not to mind when Xion latched onto him and started crying into his solar plexus. He also tried to ignore the somewhat disheartening sound of the music getting drowned out every few seconds by the ridiculously obnoxious thunder.

"Xi..."

"It's just the sound of an atmospheric electrostatic discharge," she sobbed. "Vexen explained everything to me. And maybe you were right, too, about the thunder saying hello back to the lightning. Why is it still so scary? Why is it scary, Axel?"

'How should I know!' "Look, Xi..." CRASH! Her grip tightened convulsively. He was definitely going to have bruises later. "Everyone's scared of something or other. Zexion's scared of that Riku doll, Demyx is scared of Larxene, Roxas is...understandably...scared of Infernal Engines, and you're scared of thunder. It's normal."

"What are you scared of, Axel?" she whispered.

'Being forgotten. Seeing you two get hurt. Losing your trust.' "Spiders," he said.

She blinked those huge wet eyes at him. "Really?"

"Yeah," he lied easily. "Big eight-legged disgusting...insect-things...totally creep me out."

More thunder. She hid her face again. She was still trembling. This was not helping.

Axel took a deep breath. The other thing that was not helping was the music, throwing him off so that he sounded even more out-of-tune than usual. "Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens...bright copper kettles and warm woolen mittens..."

Eventually, the thunder began to fade into the distance, and the rain softened. The light inside had gradually dimmed along with Number XIV's consciousness. Even though it was now completely dark, there was no lightning to jolt the shadows. It had danced away along with its noisy partner.

The music was still playing, now easily audible. Axel was just going to have to get up again in a couple of hours to prepare for work, but the music was peaceful, and he was tired. Xion's warm, limp body was pinning him down, and the kids' deep breathing was more persuasive than the music. He felt his eyes dragging closed.

By the time the CD whirred quietly to a stop, no one in the room was awake.

o.o.o

Author's Notes: Inspired when I woke up at 3:00 a.m. last night to a CRAZY rain/thunder/lightning storm. (It's now 6:00, and it's still raining.) I actually wrote half the fic in my head while I was still asleep, but forgot it all by the time I turned my computer on, so I had to start again from scratch. My dreamfics are terrible anyway, so this is surely a good thing. ^^;

Lol, Demyx's pet Shadow, Chester, is from JenxtheJinx's YouTube videos.

Oh, and please, please tell me you've seen The Sound of Music! Otherwise, some things about this fic probably make no sense.