You Belong with Me, and I Belong with You. For Eternity.
Title: You Belong With Me, and I Belong With You. For Eternity.
Pairings: Roxas/Kairi (Kingdom Hearts yo!)
Rating: PG-13
Word Count: 3,117
Summary: Some people find love after years of peril, some -the lucky some might say- have love find them. This is a story of high school love, a misunderstanding, and how love will kick your ass to show you whose boss, but make it up to you in the end.
A/N: So.. I wrote het. It did not feel nearly as weird as I thought it would. This fic is for my best friend who has put up with me since we met one fateful day when the sun was hot and we both went swimming-- that was eight years ago and I'm increasingly glad with every day that we got over our shyness and stopped hiding on opposite ends of the pool. This is a good month and more late but I hope you still love it hon, because you're awesome and I love you and we better still be friends in eight more years because I can't imagine going through life and not being able to rant about my slash craziness and not have you be there and all awkward and shake your head, because in eight years I will still be a die hard wincest and j2 shipper so prepare yourself ;D Title from Taylor Swift's You Belong with Me because Taylor Swift is my guilty pleasure >.>
He’s been in love with Kairi for years, since freshman year of high school-if you wanted him to get specific he would tell you that it was on January 2nd during first lunch period when the bell was going to ring in three minutes and he had spent the whole lunch period staring at the spot where Kairi was sitting, laughing with her friends and basically looking like everything he’d ever wanted and something he never even knew could exist. Axel had gotten fed up with his “stalker tendencies” and unceremoniously pushed him in her direction, effectively tripping Roxas over her bag and having him land in her lap. He’d basically wanted to die, come back to life to kill his ‘best friend’, and then let the earth take pity on him and kill him again. He’d had every intention of fleeing like the coward he was when his mouth decided that yes, this was exactly the time to open and make a fool of himself. Roxas had wanted to kill Axel- he was blushing so red his face was probably the color of Kairi’s hair and wasn’t that just sad?
So while he was stuttering out something that resembled an apology and some mortifying version of asking if maybe she wouldn’t be so opposed to possibly goingtodinnerwithhimandmaybeamovietoo? Yeah, he was going to run Axel over with his mom’s truck and feel no remorse whatsoever. Imagine Roxas’ shock when Kairi giggled- giggled for Christ’s sake- and said that he could pick her up at seven on Friday and here was her phone number so she could give him the directions to her house later.
When the bell rang and the quad emptied, with Kairi smiling one last time and heading off to her fifth period Algebra 1 class (yes he did have her schedule memorized. Sue him.) she left Roxas staring at the back of her head wondering what the heck just happened and if maybe he’d hit his head tripping over Kairi’s backpack.
Roxas looked down at the crumbled paper with Kairi’s number printed in neat print and thought that maybe he wouldn’t kill Axel after all. Not yet anyway.
:::
Axel loved to say that he was the sole reason Roxas and Kairi had gone out in the first place, loved to rub it in Roxas’ face that Axel was “the best freakin’ friend in the world man. Now hand me a beer”. Of course he was right in every single way, but Roxas wasn’t stupid enough to tell him that thank you very much, so he rolled his eyes and got up off the couch to get Axel his damn beer.
The date with Kairi was basically the most perfect night in the history of ever. Seriously, it was world breaking considering how much of a spaz Roxas tended to be at the most important of times, and the stuttering mess he became when under the spotlight. It was just, he hadn’t been bad at all, and in fact if he was honest with himself, he was pretty fucking fantastic on that date. So much so that Kairi told him she’d love to go on another date and had kissed him when Roxas was walking her up the steps to her house.
For years to come Kairi will tease Roxas about how she made the first move, and Roxas will roll his eyes and let her have her moment of gloating because he knew if he’d been the one to make the move he would have gotten the angle wrong and probably poked her eye out with his nose. The next date was even better, which he’d thought couldn’t even happen but apparently it could and Roxas was just hoping that the Universe wasn’t lulling him into a false sense of security just so it could laugh at him when it all fell apart. Because the thing was Roxas was falling and falling hard. He didn’t know if it was normal to fall in love with someone you’d only gone on five dates with but apparently Roxas got the short end of the stick on everything in his life.
Because it would be just his luck that he’d fallen in love with Kairi and she would freak out when he told her and high tail it to the hills without once looking back. He wouldn’t doubt it either because Kairi had to be the most beautiful girl he’d ever seen in his entire life. He knew he may be biased considering how fucking amazing she was but seriously, she wasn’t just a pretty face in the endless sea of pretty faces. She was funny and quirky, she knew her books and she knew her sci- fi. She could kick his ass at basically every video game he owned and could talk to him for hours about the kind of tooth paste that she used and he would soak up every word without noticing how boring this would be if anyone else was saying this but her. The girl was amazing and possibly the love of Roxas’ very short life and he felt like maybe he’d been planted in a TV drama without noticing it.
He was so screwed and he didn’t care because he’d put up with anything life threw at him if he could just spend five more seconds listening to Kairi’s laugh and looking at the sparkle she gets in her blue, blue eyes when she quirks her lips and tells him to take a picture because that’ll last longer.
:::
They’d been going out for four very perfect months when shit hit the fan.
Roxas had been working up the balls to tell her that he loved her since the first date, and was wondering if maybe he should be a total sap and take her to that fancy new restaurant that opened up in town and take her to the beach to watch the freakin’ sunset. It was cheesy and sappy and possibly the most embarrassing thing Roxas could ever remember himself thinking but he couldn’t find it in himself to care because he loved her dammit and if she said it back so what if he looked like a huge dork?
He’d been heading over to Kairi’s house to see if maybe she wanted to hang out for a while before they headed to the restaurant when he nearly walked into a shiny blue car parked haphazardly in the parking lot. Roxas rubbed his shin and shook his head- he hoped he wasn’t that spacey on the date, or else he’d kill himself. He was just walking around the car when he glanced over at the car one last time and caught sight of a familiar head of red hair in the passenger seat. Confused, he’d walked up to the driver’s side window and felt all the blood drain from his face.
Kairi was sitting in the passenger seat of a blue douchey car making out with some guy with stupid looking black spiky hair who was in Roxas’ second period P.E class. Roxas saw red and then he saw nothing at all, because he was yanking open the door and dragging the guy off his girlfriend and throwing him on the sidewalk. Every instinct that Roxas had told him to beat the crap out of the bastard, but then Roxas looked up and saw Kairi, face red and eyes wide and he couldn’t. Just couldn’t do this.
He turned tail and ran and when he opened his eyes he was standing in his room staring at the mirror where all the pictures they’d taken together were taped on nearly every corner and he felt sick and betrayed and throwing up sounded like a very good idea. So he did.
:::
For three days Roxas stood home eating crappy ice cream and watching bad monster movies and ignoring his phone until finally, after the tenth missed call from Kairi, he turned off his phone and hid it in the bathroom cupboard. He felt like a heart broken teenage girl and felt like his skin was too tight for his body and his heart too big for his chest. He grabbed another spoonful of ice cream and turned up the volume on the movie in time to see a girl crying on screen and thought-yeah, me too.
:::
On the fourth day his mom said he was going to school the next day whether he liked it or not but ended up letting him stay home because he’d already missed four days so what was the point. Then, after he couldn’t even look at ice cream anymore or stay in his room because his mirror made him want to punch the wall, Roxas went out for a walk because he hadn’t been outside for five days and if your eyes felt like they were burning out of their sockets when you looked out the door, it meant you needed sunshine.
When he looked up from his shoes fifteen minutes later to find himself standing in front of Kairi’s house, Roxas wasn’t in the least bit surprised and he wasn’t sure if that was a good thing or a bad thing, but it didn’t stop him from walking up the steps one by one while his feet got heavier and his legs began to shake from the effort of staying standing. As his finger pushed the doorbell his stomach twisted and his mind was screaming run you idiot! RUN! But then Kairi opened the door and she had circles under her eyes and her hair was in tangles and Roxas felt his heart drop and his hands begin to shake and she looked up and her eyes brightened.
“Why?” He said, his voice shaking as much as he was and her eyes dimed and Roxas wanted to kick himself in the balls- which, really. Her hands ran through her hair, trying unsuccessfully to work out the tangles as she bit her lip so hard Roxas was afraid it would bleed.
“It wasn’t what it looked like, Roxas I swear! Just, just hear me out… please?” Roxas would have turned right around and headed home if it wasn’t for the look in her eyes as she stared up at him. So full of hope and desperation and something so close to tears that his stomach tightened even further and he found himself nodding, stepping around her as she closed the door and he sat on the couch. For a second Roxas just wanted to bolt and not look back. Not unlike the way he had in the parking lot even though he knew he should have stayed, should have stayed even just to hear her say why, why would she do this to him, why after all they- just, why.
“His name is David, he’s that exchange student that transferred last month,” Roxas felt his lips tighten and his eyes narrow and Kairi’s eyes widened in desperation as she sat down next to him on the couch. “He, he was being nice to me you know? We were lab partners and we got along and ended up talking and hanging out and we just sort of became friends.” She gulped in a breath and Roxas wondered why she was dragging this out if all she was going to do was tell him she liked David instead and succeed in breaking Roxas’ heart all over again.
“It was our four month anniversary you know?” Roxas did know. He’d picked that day to tell her that he loved her. “I needed a ride to the mall because I wanted to pick out a gift for you and I was going to ask my mom to drive me but David was just leaving and said he’d give me a ride no problem. So we walked over to his car and I was asking him if he had any CD’s to listen to when he kissed me and- and I was just stunned because he knows I am, w-was, dating you.” She turned miserable eyes on him and he felt his stomach roll and his eyes burn and his fists itched to punch David in his face until his arm ached and the guy was out cold.
“He knows that I l-love you because you’re all I ever talk about and I tried to get him off me but he wouldn’t let go and I couldn't breathe, and then he was gone and you were standing there and I knew what it looked like. I wanted to tell you what was going on but you ran and you didn’t answer your phone or the door when I ran after you after I kicked that stupid bastard in the balls.” Roxas never thought he’d been prouder of Kairi in his four months of dating her and he was on his way to telling her, of fixing this stupid mess he’d let them fall into, when his mind stuttered to a halt and his heart stopped and started again so fast he thought he was going to pass out.
“You love me?” He whispered. His voice was hoarse and strained and he sounded ridiculous but he didn’t care because Kairi said she loved him and the world sort of just shrunk and time stopped because apparently he was in a romance novel, but right now he would gladly stay if it meant what he thought it did.
“Maybe?” Kairi said, her cheeks flushed and her eyes were red rimmed form the tears he didn’t notice her cry and her hair was still tangled to all hell and her nose was red and blotchy and Roxas had never seen anything more beautiful in his life so help him God.
“Good, that’s- good.” And then he kissed her and the world melted away until it was just them and Kairi tasted like tea and Doritos and he kissed her that much harder because she was just perfect and he loved this girl so much that it hurt his chest until he couldn’t breathe and the world swam and he couldn’t ask for anything more perfect.
:::
The day he proposed to Kairi they were on Christmas break from their second year of college and were at their families Christmas Eve party. He proposed to her under the mistletoe at 11:58pm while A Christmas Story was on permanent rerun and they were grabbing another cup of eggnog. His palms were sweaty and his legs were trembling and as he looked up he knew this was exactly what he wanted in his life and that resolve was the only thing that helped him not stutter like the first day he asked her out when he’d fallen in her lap during first lunch.
When her mouth opened and her lips formed words she couldn’t speak she dropped her cup of eggnog and yanked him up, kissing him as the clock in the living room struck midnight and his family cheered and chuckled and Kairi tasted like cinnamon and it was exactly what he could have ever wished for on Christmas day.
:::
The day Kairi told him she was pregnant was a year after they graduated from college and gotten married in their hometown with practically everyone jam packed into the small church because everyone knew they were going to get married the first time they saw a young Roxas pull out a chair for a blushing Kairi.
Roxas was pretty sure he stopped breathing for a few long seconds before he was scooping his wife in his arms and twirling her around their small apartment living room and tripped on the leg of the coffee table so that they landed sprawled on the couch where Roxas kissed his pregnant wife until they were both light headed and seeing stars even after nine long perfect years.
:::
The day his daughter was born it was the worst storm the town had seen in years and Roxas was stuck in traffic while Kairi cussed him out from the passenger seat. By the time they had made it to the hospital Roxas had heard how Kairi was going to murder Roxas and how this was his fault and he better damn well make himself scarce the second that baby was out because she was going to strangle him.
When they wheeled Kairi into the delivery room Roxas was left to stress and panic while trying to handle paperwork and get suited up before they let him into the room. He may or may not have wanted to pass out the second he caught sight of Kairi, and her wails of pain and death threats were not helping him calm down one bit. It was a grueling, tiring and frightening seven hours before the doctor was holding a red and sticky blob in his arms and when the tell tale cry did not ring out through room Roxas felt his heart sink and his mouth go dry.
Kairi was panting and looking around for the doctor when there was a flurry of movement and the baby was set out on a table and the doctor was bending over her and all Roxas could think about was how his world was slowly splintering, and all he could see was the pink nursery they had at their new home and all the teddy bears and colorful baby clothes that filled up every surface and he was looking down into the terrified eyes of his wife and knew those thoughts were running through her head too. And their hands were clasped tightly and tears were running down her ragged face when a high pitched wail hit their ears and possibly ripped their eardrums.
It was the most beautiful sound in the entire world.
:::
Years from now, when they’re both old and sitting surrounded by their grandkids with their three children on Christmas day, they will tell them about the time Roxas tripped and fell into Kairi’s lap and blushed and stuttered his way into a date, a story that their own kids had heard so many times that they would just roll their eyes and smile an indulgent smile as their parents looked at each other and knew that there was no better story in the whole world.
Because if Axel hadn’t of pushed a scared Roxas into Kairi’s lap they might not have realized just how amazing their lives would be with the other in it, and if Axel were there he would have smirked and looked over at Roxas and told him to get off his old lazy ass and get him another beer.
End.
Pairings: Roxas/Kairi (Kingdom Hearts yo!)
Rating: PG-13
Word Count: 3,117
Summary: Some people find love after years of peril, some -the lucky some might say- have love find them. This is a story of high school love, a misunderstanding, and how love will kick your ass to show you whose boss, but make it up to you in the end.
A/N: So.. I wrote het. It did not feel nearly as weird as I thought it would. This fic is for my best friend who has put up with me since we met one fateful day when the sun was hot and we both went swimming-- that was eight years ago and I'm increasingly glad with every day that we got over our shyness and stopped hiding on opposite ends of the pool. This is a good month and more late but I hope you still love it hon, because you're awesome and I love you and we better still be friends in eight more years because I can't imagine going through life and not being able to rant about my slash craziness and not have you be there and all awkward and shake your head, because in eight years I will still be a die hard wincest and j2 shipper so prepare yourself ;D Title from Taylor Swift's You Belong with Me because Taylor Swift is my guilty pleasure >.>
He’s been in love with Kairi for years, since freshman year of high school-if you wanted him to get specific he would tell you that it was on January 2nd during first lunch period when the bell was going to ring in three minutes and he had spent the whole lunch period staring at the spot where Kairi was sitting, laughing with her friends and basically looking like everything he’d ever wanted and something he never even knew could exist. Axel had gotten fed up with his “stalker tendencies” and unceremoniously pushed him in her direction, effectively tripping Roxas over her bag and having him land in her lap. He’d basically wanted to die, come back to life to kill his ‘best friend’, and then let the earth take pity on him and kill him again. He’d had every intention of fleeing like the coward he was when his mouth decided that yes, this was exactly the time to open and make a fool of himself. Roxas had wanted to kill Axel- he was blushing so red his face was probably the color of Kairi’s hair and wasn’t that just sad?
So while he was stuttering out something that resembled an apology and some mortifying version of asking if maybe she wouldn’t be so opposed to possibly goingtodinnerwithhimandmaybeamovietoo? Yeah, he was going to run Axel over with his mom’s truck and feel no remorse whatsoever. Imagine Roxas’ shock when Kairi giggled- giggled for Christ’s sake- and said that he could pick her up at seven on Friday and here was her phone number so she could give him the directions to her house later.
When the bell rang and the quad emptied, with Kairi smiling one last time and heading off to her fifth period Algebra 1 class (yes he did have her schedule memorized. Sue him.) she left Roxas staring at the back of her head wondering what the heck just happened and if maybe he’d hit his head tripping over Kairi’s backpack.
Roxas looked down at the crumbled paper with Kairi’s number printed in neat print and thought that maybe he wouldn’t kill Axel after all. Not yet anyway.
:::
Axel loved to say that he was the sole reason Roxas and Kairi had gone out in the first place, loved to rub it in Roxas’ face that Axel was “the best freakin’ friend in the world man. Now hand me a beer”. Of course he was right in every single way, but Roxas wasn’t stupid enough to tell him that thank you very much, so he rolled his eyes and got up off the couch to get Axel his damn beer.
The date with Kairi was basically the most perfect night in the history of ever. Seriously, it was world breaking considering how much of a spaz Roxas tended to be at the most important of times, and the stuttering mess he became when under the spotlight. It was just, he hadn’t been bad at all, and in fact if he was honest with himself, he was pretty fucking fantastic on that date. So much so that Kairi told him she’d love to go on another date and had kissed him when Roxas was walking her up the steps to her house.
For years to come Kairi will tease Roxas about how she made the first move, and Roxas will roll his eyes and let her have her moment of gloating because he knew if he’d been the one to make the move he would have gotten the angle wrong and probably poked her eye out with his nose. The next date was even better, which he’d thought couldn’t even happen but apparently it could and Roxas was just hoping that the Universe wasn’t lulling him into a false sense of security just so it could laugh at him when it all fell apart. Because the thing was Roxas was falling and falling hard. He didn’t know if it was normal to fall in love with someone you’d only gone on five dates with but apparently Roxas got the short end of the stick on everything in his life.
Because it would be just his luck that he’d fallen in love with Kairi and she would freak out when he told her and high tail it to the hills without once looking back. He wouldn’t doubt it either because Kairi had to be the most beautiful girl he’d ever seen in his entire life. He knew he may be biased considering how fucking amazing she was but seriously, she wasn’t just a pretty face in the endless sea of pretty faces. She was funny and quirky, she knew her books and she knew her sci- fi. She could kick his ass at basically every video game he owned and could talk to him for hours about the kind of tooth paste that she used and he would soak up every word without noticing how boring this would be if anyone else was saying this but her. The girl was amazing and possibly the love of Roxas’ very short life and he felt like maybe he’d been planted in a TV drama without noticing it.
He was so screwed and he didn’t care because he’d put up with anything life threw at him if he could just spend five more seconds listening to Kairi’s laugh and looking at the sparkle she gets in her blue, blue eyes when she quirks her lips and tells him to take a picture because that’ll last longer.
:::
They’d been going out for four very perfect months when shit hit the fan.
Roxas had been working up the balls to tell her that he loved her since the first date, and was wondering if maybe he should be a total sap and take her to that fancy new restaurant that opened up in town and take her to the beach to watch the freakin’ sunset. It was cheesy and sappy and possibly the most embarrassing thing Roxas could ever remember himself thinking but he couldn’t find it in himself to care because he loved her dammit and if she said it back so what if he looked like a huge dork?
He’d been heading over to Kairi’s house to see if maybe she wanted to hang out for a while before they headed to the restaurant when he nearly walked into a shiny blue car parked haphazardly in the parking lot. Roxas rubbed his shin and shook his head- he hoped he wasn’t that spacey on the date, or else he’d kill himself. He was just walking around the car when he glanced over at the car one last time and caught sight of a familiar head of red hair in the passenger seat. Confused, he’d walked up to the driver’s side window and felt all the blood drain from his face.
Kairi was sitting in the passenger seat of a blue douchey car making out with some guy with stupid looking black spiky hair who was in Roxas’ second period P.E class. Roxas saw red and then he saw nothing at all, because he was yanking open the door and dragging the guy off his girlfriend and throwing him on the sidewalk. Every instinct that Roxas had told him to beat the crap out of the bastard, but then Roxas looked up and saw Kairi, face red and eyes wide and he couldn’t. Just couldn’t do this.
He turned tail and ran and when he opened his eyes he was standing in his room staring at the mirror where all the pictures they’d taken together were taped on nearly every corner and he felt sick and betrayed and throwing up sounded like a very good idea. So he did.
:::
For three days Roxas stood home eating crappy ice cream and watching bad monster movies and ignoring his phone until finally, after the tenth missed call from Kairi, he turned off his phone and hid it in the bathroom cupboard. He felt like a heart broken teenage girl and felt like his skin was too tight for his body and his heart too big for his chest. He grabbed another spoonful of ice cream and turned up the volume on the movie in time to see a girl crying on screen and thought-yeah, me too.
:::
On the fourth day his mom said he was going to school the next day whether he liked it or not but ended up letting him stay home because he’d already missed four days so what was the point. Then, after he couldn’t even look at ice cream anymore or stay in his room because his mirror made him want to punch the wall, Roxas went out for a walk because he hadn’t been outside for five days and if your eyes felt like they were burning out of their sockets when you looked out the door, it meant you needed sunshine.
When he looked up from his shoes fifteen minutes later to find himself standing in front of Kairi’s house, Roxas wasn’t in the least bit surprised and he wasn’t sure if that was a good thing or a bad thing, but it didn’t stop him from walking up the steps one by one while his feet got heavier and his legs began to shake from the effort of staying standing. As his finger pushed the doorbell his stomach twisted and his mind was screaming run you idiot! RUN! But then Kairi opened the door and she had circles under her eyes and her hair was in tangles and Roxas felt his heart drop and his hands begin to shake and she looked up and her eyes brightened.
“Why?” He said, his voice shaking as much as he was and her eyes dimed and Roxas wanted to kick himself in the balls- which, really. Her hands ran through her hair, trying unsuccessfully to work out the tangles as she bit her lip so hard Roxas was afraid it would bleed.
“It wasn’t what it looked like, Roxas I swear! Just, just hear me out… please?” Roxas would have turned right around and headed home if it wasn’t for the look in her eyes as she stared up at him. So full of hope and desperation and something so close to tears that his stomach tightened even further and he found himself nodding, stepping around her as she closed the door and he sat on the couch. For a second Roxas just wanted to bolt and not look back. Not unlike the way he had in the parking lot even though he knew he should have stayed, should have stayed even just to hear her say why, why would she do this to him, why after all they- just, why.
“His name is David, he’s that exchange student that transferred last month,” Roxas felt his lips tighten and his eyes narrow and Kairi’s eyes widened in desperation as she sat down next to him on the couch. “He, he was being nice to me you know? We were lab partners and we got along and ended up talking and hanging out and we just sort of became friends.” She gulped in a breath and Roxas wondered why she was dragging this out if all she was going to do was tell him she liked David instead and succeed in breaking Roxas’ heart all over again.
“It was our four month anniversary you know?” Roxas did know. He’d picked that day to tell her that he loved her. “I needed a ride to the mall because I wanted to pick out a gift for you and I was going to ask my mom to drive me but David was just leaving and said he’d give me a ride no problem. So we walked over to his car and I was asking him if he had any CD’s to listen to when he kissed me and- and I was just stunned because he knows I am, w-was, dating you.” She turned miserable eyes on him and he felt his stomach roll and his eyes burn and his fists itched to punch David in his face until his arm ached and the guy was out cold.
“He knows that I l-love you because you’re all I ever talk about and I tried to get him off me but he wouldn’t let go and I couldn't breathe, and then he was gone and you were standing there and I knew what it looked like. I wanted to tell you what was going on but you ran and you didn’t answer your phone or the door when I ran after you after I kicked that stupid bastard in the balls.” Roxas never thought he’d been prouder of Kairi in his four months of dating her and he was on his way to telling her, of fixing this stupid mess he’d let them fall into, when his mind stuttered to a halt and his heart stopped and started again so fast he thought he was going to pass out.
“You love me?” He whispered. His voice was hoarse and strained and he sounded ridiculous but he didn’t care because Kairi said she loved him and the world sort of just shrunk and time stopped because apparently he was in a romance novel, but right now he would gladly stay if it meant what he thought it did.
“Maybe?” Kairi said, her cheeks flushed and her eyes were red rimmed form the tears he didn’t notice her cry and her hair was still tangled to all hell and her nose was red and blotchy and Roxas had never seen anything more beautiful in his life so help him God.
“Good, that’s- good.” And then he kissed her and the world melted away until it was just them and Kairi tasted like tea and Doritos and he kissed her that much harder because she was just perfect and he loved this girl so much that it hurt his chest until he couldn’t breathe and the world swam and he couldn’t ask for anything more perfect.
:::
The day he proposed to Kairi they were on Christmas break from their second year of college and were at their families Christmas Eve party. He proposed to her under the mistletoe at 11:58pm while A Christmas Story was on permanent rerun and they were grabbing another cup of eggnog. His palms were sweaty and his legs were trembling and as he looked up he knew this was exactly what he wanted in his life and that resolve was the only thing that helped him not stutter like the first day he asked her out when he’d fallen in her lap during first lunch.
When her mouth opened and her lips formed words she couldn’t speak she dropped her cup of eggnog and yanked him up, kissing him as the clock in the living room struck midnight and his family cheered and chuckled and Kairi tasted like cinnamon and it was exactly what he could have ever wished for on Christmas day.
:::
The day Kairi told him she was pregnant was a year after they graduated from college and gotten married in their hometown with practically everyone jam packed into the small church because everyone knew they were going to get married the first time they saw a young Roxas pull out a chair for a blushing Kairi.
Roxas was pretty sure he stopped breathing for a few long seconds before he was scooping his wife in his arms and twirling her around their small apartment living room and tripped on the leg of the coffee table so that they landed sprawled on the couch where Roxas kissed his pregnant wife until they were both light headed and seeing stars even after nine long perfect years.
:::
The day his daughter was born it was the worst storm the town had seen in years and Roxas was stuck in traffic while Kairi cussed him out from the passenger seat. By the time they had made it to the hospital Roxas had heard how Kairi was going to murder Roxas and how this was his fault and he better damn well make himself scarce the second that baby was out because she was going to strangle him.
When they wheeled Kairi into the delivery room Roxas was left to stress and panic while trying to handle paperwork and get suited up before they let him into the room. He may or may not have wanted to pass out the second he caught sight of Kairi, and her wails of pain and death threats were not helping him calm down one bit. It was a grueling, tiring and frightening seven hours before the doctor was holding a red and sticky blob in his arms and when the tell tale cry did not ring out through room Roxas felt his heart sink and his mouth go dry.
Kairi was panting and looking around for the doctor when there was a flurry of movement and the baby was set out on a table and the doctor was bending over her and all Roxas could think about was how his world was slowly splintering, and all he could see was the pink nursery they had at their new home and all the teddy bears and colorful baby clothes that filled up every surface and he was looking down into the terrified eyes of his wife and knew those thoughts were running through her head too. And their hands were clasped tightly and tears were running down her ragged face when a high pitched wail hit their ears and possibly ripped their eardrums.
It was the most beautiful sound in the entire world.
:::
Years from now, when they’re both old and sitting surrounded by their grandkids with their three children on Christmas day, they will tell them about the time Roxas tripped and fell into Kairi’s lap and blushed and stuttered his way into a date, a story that their own kids had heard so many times that they would just roll their eyes and smile an indulgent smile as their parents looked at each other and knew that there was no better story in the whole world.
Because if Axel hadn’t of pushed a scared Roxas into Kairi’s lap they might not have realized just how amazing their lives would be with the other in it, and if Axel were there he would have smirked and looked over at Roxas and told him to get off his old lazy ass and get him another beer.
End.