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I was SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO incredibly mad that I couldn't get this in by Halloween. >.<;;; My internet suddenly went BRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAP, and I was like, "DDDX" and it was like, ">DDD" and... There was nothing I could do. GOD, I was so pissed. You guys have no idea. But, whatever... Better late than never, right?

This is DIRECTLY inspired an incredible animation I saw on mah favorite site... DA, of course. (Link at the bottom - don't want to spoil it!) XDDD I tried my best to do lots of research to make all of the timeline stuff in this story line up as closely as possible, but... I kind of failed. So you notice anything that doesn't quite fit, history geeks, please be kind and keep it to yourself - I'll develop ulcers if I worry about this stupid thing for much longer! DDDX

Happy Halloween, ya'll - hope you got to nom on lots of candies! <333

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The Portrait​

It was a chilly, late-autumn day and a slight breeze sifted through the branches of the nearly-bare trees. A young boy – maybe about fourteen years of age, was trudging through a narrow, twisting trail, muttering to himself. “Curse this wind… Curse my little brother… Curse that infuriating kite with its ACCURSED string!†Thomas lamented to himself, brushing his hair out of his eyes. “Be the precious little child too far in his youth to walk not but TEN minutes into the forest to retrieve his OWN kite? Me thinks not! Mother is spoiling the boy – she never…â€

He stopped and gaped as he abruptly came to the edge of a small clearing in the forest – a clearing that most people in his village tended to avoid like the plague itself. In the center was a beautiful, yet mysteriously ominous house that was at least a century and a half old. Or, at least, by his calculations, it was. It’d been there for as long as even the oldest widow in the village could remember, but there were no records of it being in the original blueprints of the town.

He examined it closely. Sturdy cobblestone bricks boasted powerful, sturdy walls, and the roof was composed of heavy, red tiles that sloped beautifully. Not one shingle was out of place, it seemed – proof of its durability. The double doors for the main entrance were composed of a heavy, oak-like wood and were beautifully – artistically, even – carved in dozens of magnificent designs. Even mother nature had proved to be good to the old house – the walls were tenderly embraced by luscious, green vines that seemed to only enhance its beauty. And hanging above the doorway – blast it all – was the kite, perfectly speared on a spike jutting straight up from the center of the house. “Oh, splendid…†he sighed, running his fingers through his hair. “How on earth am I supposed to get it down? The cursed thing is at least three floors up…â€

He was thinking about climbing a nearby tree, and walking along the roof until he reached the kite, or even leaving it, when something caught his eye in one of the windows. For a second, he thought he saw the shadow of a person, but he shook his head and dismissed it as of the curtains fluttering in the breeze. But now, he had a simpler solution to his problem. Why not just go inside, climb out of windows in the attic, and get the kite that way? He insisted to himself that the reasoning behind it was because it would be much safer and easier than having to scale an entire tree, but inwardly, he knew that wasn’t the MAIN reason. The main reason was that he wanted to be THAT guy. The one who went into the old, abandoned house and came back with nothing but a shrug and a, “It wasn’t that big of a deal.â€

The adults thought it was just a rat-infested deathtrap of a house with rotted floor-boards and collapsing ceilings. Going inside of the old mansion was strictly forbidden since it was so old and probably in very bad shape. The children stayed away from it, anyway, though not for the exact reason the adults specified. Among the children, it was rumored that the old mansion was… haunted. Every year, it seemed, a new rumor would surface about some strange boy that no one had ever heard of wandering into the house, never to be seen again.

Thomas rolled his eyes. Children, he scoffed inwardly. I do not fear that house! I’m going to walk right in, get my maddening brother’s kite back, and tell everyone that those stories are a whole lot of nonsense! With a dignified nod, he raised his head regally, and began climbing the porch stairs. Hesitating at the heavy, oaken double doors, he turned the warm, brass knob, and slowly pushed one of the doors open.

Creeeeeeeeeeak…

The first thing he thought was, Heavens, it sure is balmy in here… And, indeed, it was – it seemed as if the crisp, autumn air had vanished completely. It was warm as blood inside of the abandoned mansion.

The second thing he thought was, This is quite possibly the most beautiful place I’ve ever set foot in! He’d been expecting to see a run-down sham of a house, but it seemed as new and fresh as the first day it stood.

The walls were painted grassy green with white patterns flitting through it. The floor was composed of red-oak heartwood and was adorned with a lush, red rug with golden trimmings. From the balcony above, two identical stair cases curved downward from the second floor, embracing the scenery in a tight hug. The underside of the balcony and staircases sparkled so, that he wondered if they were made of solid gold. Marble busts of several important-looking men and women were placed slightly before the staircases. Pale, dim light filtered in from the windows on the second floor. And there, in the center of it all and placed above an elaborate, granite mantle fireplace, was a giant portrait of a wealthy family of five.

Thomas looked around in wonder, slowly closing the door behind himself. “Amazing…†he breathed softly, his eyes taking in the ethereal scene. He could guess by just observing the outside that the place wasn’t as rotted-through as the adults speculated, but this was almost… unreal. He’d been expecting dust… cobwebs… Anything! But the entire place was spotless. Almost as if there was someone still living there.

Curious, the boy stepped up to the mantle to get a closer look at the magnificent painting above it, shedding the light jacket he’d taken with him on the trek outside. He wouldn’t need it in the house, as warm as it was. He examined the family in the picture closely, getting an ever-worsening case of the jitters every second he observed them.

There were two girls and three men. The two girls were towards the bottom of the painting, the older, more confined one and the younger, more bratty-looking one. The older had her hair in a bun, and was sitting with her hands folded daintily over her lap. A pearl necklace and her low-cut, maroon-colored dress highlighted her long, swan-like neck. Had it not been for the stern expression on her face, he might’ve even taken a fancy to her. The little girl was standing beside her with her long, black hair falling down her shoulders as she glared spitefully into the real world. She was wearing a fancy, white dress. That one… he decided, probably frightens me out the most…

Shivering, he decided to move to the upper half of the painting. In the upper left corner was a pudgy sort of man with a suit and a wrist watch. He looked quite elderly compared to the rest of the children he was standing with; what little hair he had left was snowy white. Next to him was slender, youthful boy with jet-black hair in a tuxedo. His lips were pulled back into a quiet, devious sort of smile. In a stark distinction from the raven-haired boy next to him, was a sorrowful looking blonde boy with spectacles. He seemed to be a lot more commonly dressed than the rest of the people in the lavish painting.

Thomas stared at it for a long time. It was beautifully done, but… cold and unflattering in every aspect of the word. Especially the eyes – they seemed… soulless. Ethereal. Even in the temperate climate of the strange, old house, he could feel a cold chill creeping up the back of his neck with every passing second that he gazed at it… The fool that painted this picture wouldn’t have gotten nary a cent from me if it was MY portrait painted as such an abomination…

It was then that he noticed a dim, flickering light and glanced down to see a lighted candle resting on the mantle before him. Without a thought, the boy scooped it up and shook his head. I have to stay focused here… I did not come here to criticize the finer points of art – I came to get my idiotic little brother’s kite back.

He began climbing the stairs, his preoccupied mind coming up with solutions as to how he could get the kite down safely, yet still be able to leave SOME sort of undeniable proof that it had INDEED been caught atop the top of the house. Upon reaching the top of the stairs, he was thinking of maybe detaching the tail and tying it in a bow atop the spire where the kite had originally been pierced, when he thought he saw a flickering shadow again a little ways down the hall. He turned to face… whatever it was, but it’d suddenly disappeared.

… Strange… Thomas shook his head. But probably nothing! he quickly assured himself, brow furrowing. To prove himself that it was INDEED nothing, the boy began approaching the room at the end of the hallway, where the “thing†had disappeared.

He blinked, pushing open a door that was already slightly ajar. This one was noticeably less ornamental than the front one, and probably made out of pine instead of oak, but it was just as lovely in a more practical sense. The room inside was a tad bit messier than what he’d seen of the rest of the house, but completely empty. There was a pendulum clock mounted on the wall – still ticking, Thomas observed with a touch of something that absolutely was NOT concern, because that would be foolish – a bookshelf in a corner with some of the books strewn around the floor, a working desk with a chair in front of it, a mirror—

Oh, hello, handsome! The attractive face in the mirror broke out into a pleased grin as Thomas strode inside and examined himself, gingerly stroking his chin. Sandy-brown hair, green, intelligent eyes, freckles that highlighted his high cheekbones, pretty good height and build for his age… He flicked a lock of his short hair out of his eyes and stood at a slightly different angle, taking all of his masculine beauty in. It was unfathomable why the girls weren’t falling all over him at school! He had it all – looks, brains, talent…

The candle flickered and illuminated something in the background, sparking his interest in seemingly the only thing that he would ever find more interesting than himself. He gasped and whirled around, seeing something yellow glint in the dim candle-light. C… Could those be…?! He gasped, approaching a rather large chest lying open on the ground. “… An entire case of… DOUBLOONS!†he gasped, mind reeling. He placed the candle on the ground and fell to his knees, running shaky hands through the priceless treasure. They were all smooth and cool to the touch. Carefully, he picked up one of the golden coins and nipped on the edge. It was real, alright. He’d ACTUALLY happened upon an entire chest of gold doubloons!

He was already considering what to spend it on, when his mind caught up to him. What?! No! He suddenly looked horrified. I can’t take this money! Stealing is a sin! Thy heavenly father forbids it!
Then again… he considered after a short pause. … Thy heavenly father would doubtlessly forgive thee for such a minuscule act…
No! I can’t take it! This is someone else’s money!
That “someone else†has been gone for over a hundred years now. If they aren’t surely dead by now, it is obvious they do not care enough to miss it… And if I don’t take it now, someone else might come in and take it, instead!

Besides… he reasoned. Mother could use the money… It’s been so hard on her lately…
You know full well that mother would never accept this, had she knowledge of whence it came!
She does not NEED to know…
But she is bound to ask questions!
Then I won’t tell her about it at all! I’ll spend it as I see fit! On things that I want! On things that I DESERVE! A maniacal grin split his face in two. It’ll just be this once! Just this one time and I’ll never do it again!

He scooped up a large handful, and shoved the valuable coins into his pocket greedily. He was scooping up his second handful when suddenly, a chilling gale whooshed into the room, extinguishing his candle. The door banged shut with a loud TH-WACK, leaving the boy in pitch-black darkness, trembling with fear. He hadn’t seen anything because he was looking the other way when the wind blew, but he’d heard, very faintly, a sound very much similar to a key turning in a lock. Soon, a tiny rustle sounded, as if the pages of the books were being disturbed, though he felt no wind.

There was someone else in the room. And he was locked inside WITH them. His breath hitched a bit in fear.

Tick… Tock… Tick… Tock… The clock continued steadfastly, filling the chilling silence.

“H…Hello…? He called in an uncharacteristically thin voice. “… Hello…?†Thinking quickly, he dumped everything that was in his pockets back into the open chest. “I… I’m sorry… I wasn’t thinking clearly – usually, I never would have CONSIDERED…†The boy shook his head. “J…Just please release me – I promise never to return. You can even keep the kite!â€

Tick… Tock… Tick… Tock…

The boy shook his head. I have to get out of here! Maybe it was just my imagination that I heard the door lock – it’s probably still open – it has to bethisisinsanetherehastobeawayouttherehastotherehasto!!!

Panic slowly enrapturing the boy, he began trying to feel his way back to the door shakily. He cried out as he tripped over something he was sure he didn’t see before when he’d come in. “Ow… Ow… My foot…†he hissed softly. He tried to pick himself up again, when his hand brushed across something. A hand. A cold, clammy, human hand. He immediately drew back with a sharp gasp.

Tick… Tock… Tick… Tock… Tick………… The clock abruptly stopped.

He jumped to his feet with a panicked yelp, and then a strangled, unconvincing, “Sh…Show yourself! I do not fear you! I am not afraid to fight!â€
It was then that he felt warm breath on the back of his neck. Petrified with fear, he turned around to face the perpetrator of his demise.

Suddenly, another huge gust of wind blew, literally knocking the door off its hinges. Light flooded the room, and Thomas suddenly found himself face to face with…

Himself?

Thomas choked back a gasp in utter horror. Stretching from the mirror was a gigantic, warped version of himself. His eyes were abnormally huge, taking up nearly a third of his face and completely soulless – almost exactly like the people in that painting. His grinning mouth stretched LITERALLY from ear to ear and was filled with large, wickedly sharp teeth – reminiscent to shark teeth and the corners of his mouth stretched nearly to his temples. His nose was missing entirely, as if his face had to make room for the ridiculous proportions of his mouth and eyes. His nails were as long and sharp as deadly talons from a bird of prey, and his arm was pulled back as if to strike at his face.

Before he had time to even register what his eyes were seeing, Thomas felt something clamp around his ankle, and yank him back – so hard that he fell to the ground. The warped image of his own reflection swiped at him with those talon-like claws, but apart from a tiny slash on his cheek, the boy escaped unharmed. Thomas gave a weak cry of disbelief, feeling the cut. It’s real! This is all real! I’m not imagining it- this is proof!!!

The thing holding his ankle jerked again, and the next thing he knew, he was zipping through the hallway foot-first, so terrified, he didn’t even know he was screaming. “HEAVENLY FATHER, FORGIVE ME!!!†he shrieked, thinking maybe that this was some sort of divine punishment for his previous sin. “CRUSH ME NOT BENEATHST THINE HEEL – DELIVER ME AND CLEANSE ME ANEW! I BEG of thee!â€

Terrified out of his wits, he began dragging his fingernails against the floorboards of the house, trying vainly to slow whatever was dragging him. The floor, which had before felt so dense and hard was now warm and as soft as human flesh. Within moments, the “floorboards†were torn to ribbons under his hands, and started oozing a dark, wet, sticky substance…

Blood! Thomas shrieked with terror and horror anew, tears springing to his eyes. The house shifted unnaturally and groaned as if in pain. “LORD, DELIVER ME!!!â€

By then, he had reached the stairs. He was expecting to go tumbling down to his doom, but to his surprise, he shot out straight ahead – floating completely in mid air! He was about to start screaming again, when he noticed something. He gasped, glancing in the direction he was headed. The door! He was headed for the exit! Yes! YES! I’m going to make it! Thank you, Lord!

But, alas, he hadn’t even made it halfway before the ornamental rug on the floor writhed and shot forward like a striking snake, catching him by his wrist. He gave a short utterance of pain at the sudden jerk that nearly dislocated his shoulder as he came to a complete standstill in midair, with both ends struggling against each other. He wriggled slightly, trying to free his hand from the sentient rug, but the thing held fast as if it were clamped on.

He was going to start trying to pry it off with his fingers, when a series of loud crackling sounds alerted him that something ELSE was going horribly, horribly wrong. He glanced down to see that there was a jagged crack starting at the double doors and running through the center of the floor. A second later, it’d opened into a large, gaping hole. He couldn’t see very far into it, but he could very faintly discern the shape of the pale, ghastly form of a skeleton, all flesh picked clean to the bone. Suddenly, the floor shoot up and snapped at Thomas like an enormous crocodile. He had no doubt that he would have been dead, if whatever was latched onto his leg so steadfastly hadn’t veered off to the left.

It was then that his bladder chose to relieve itself. He began tugging at the rug again with renewed vigor, whimpering like a helpless kitten. “O-Our F-Father, who art in h-heaven,†he began meekly, “hallowed b-be thy n-name…â€

Suddenly, the house began cracking and shifting all around him. Glancing up, he could see that the ceiling was starting to cave in. “Th-Thy Kingdom come… Th…Thy will be done…†The floor snapped up at him again. He swerved to the right this time, but with the ceiling being a fair amount lower than before, it was a much closer shave than before. “On earth as it is in heaven!â€

A shriek as the front doors burst open with a huge, maleficent gust of wind. Pretty soon, the gust turned into a powerful vacuum, sucking him towards the portrait. “Give us this day our daily bread!†he screamed above the howling wind.

His heart pounded wildly as the floor shot up at him again. He writhed in pain as he tried to jerk away his wrist from the possessed rug once more. It was turning blue-ish purple now from lack of oxygen, and if he had to give a wild guess, judging on how it felt at the moment he’d say his foot was, too. He felt as if he were being torn in half. “And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us!†The wind was slicing so hard now that he felt as if his flesh was being torn from his bones. With a start, he realized the wind was SAYING something. He couldn’t quite understand it – maybe this was some sort of demonic language unknown to humans? – but he was certain that he could hear something…

“And lead us not into temptation...â€

Another sickening groaning sound sounded from behind him. Frightened about what it could possibly that he’d be seeing next, Thomas craned his head back to look at the portrait. He blinked, and took another look. All of the images of the people on it were gone! But there was something very strange happening – out of the inky darkness of the empty canvas, there was a shape forming. As it gained more and more sustenance, he could make five separate, clawed fingers. “... AND DELIVER ME FROM EVIL!!!†he shouted frantically as he squirmed and struggled to get free, tears running down his face.

“FOR THINE IS THE KINGDOM—†a strangled gasp as the rough fabric of the ornamental rug sliced further into his wrist, “THE POWER—†a wince as the floor snapped at him again – so close, he could feel the wind whooshing past him, “AND THE GLORY!!!â€

The hand was now up to its elbow in length. It flexed all of its fingers slightly, then rushed forward towards the boy. Thomas howled with terror and twisted one last time.

“FOREVER AND EVER!†He squeezed his eyes shut. “AMEN!â€

He couldn’t tell what happened next. There was a short scuffling sound, and something that resembled a strangled cry, and suddenly he was rocketing through the air again – this time by the laws of physics rather than supernatural aid. Blindly spinning through the air, he slammed into a tree on the outskirts of the clearing, and slumped down with a weak moan.

In front of his disbelieving eyes, he could see the house contorting and twisting in on itself. A strange light shone from its open doors and windows as a horrid screeching sound from within got louder and louder.

Suddenly, there was a huge flash. Thomas shielded his eyes with a wince, and after a while, blinked and gazed out from under his arm. The entire scene was totally normal – the house was no longer writhing like a snake, the mysterious shrieking was gone, and there was no longer even the slightest breeze. All was still.

Gently – innocently, almost – the kite floated down from atop the center spire of the house, and came to rest just outside of the front porch. Without even sparing it a second glance, Thomas fled through the forest, sobbing hysterically.

Pride be damned – he wanted to get away from that demonic place as soon as possible! It wasn’t until he had reached the town square did he realize that his bladder wasn’t the ONLY thing that had relieved itself during the frightening encounter.

(To Be Continued...)

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The Original

IOSDJERIUOGJREO DESCRIPTION. SO MUCH OF IT. *dies* I actually left out some just because it was getting SO damn bulky, I couldn't stand it. Also, there were some things in the original animation that I changed, but they're SO small, I bet you won't even find them. :>

SO MANY SCREENSHOTS GRAAAHOIFBGRJENGVOR

Also. VIRTUALLY NO CURSE WORDS. *GLEE* SO PROUD OF MYSELF - YES I IS. 8D 8D 8D

Anyways. Yes. There will be a part two. Soon. Ish. Very soon. Ish. I'm SO obsessed with this story right now, gaiz, lol. There's a possibility that there might be a part three, but don't count on it. Just... Don't.

K, BAI.

First off. I don't want to scare anybody. It's NOT cancer, nor anything else even remotely life-threatening. Glad we got that cleared up. I can't believe that my first post on KHV in months is going to be something all srs like this, but... Yeah. Whatever. I kind of need some advice, and I'm kicking myself for not doing this earlier.

So, anyways. In a rather long and complicated series of unfortunate events, I ended up in a position on Wednesday where my mom was forced to take me to a therapist by the school, or else I couldn't come back. I was just expecting it to be a short meeting in which I could vent off my troubles and maybe get someone that my mom would actually LISTEN to that would tell her to lay OFF me already. Maybe have some family-therapy sessions and what-not... You know... Just patch up the disputed between us so that we could be a nice, loving family again. I was tired of going through the constant ups and downs with her, and would welcome anything that the doctor said that might make it better.

But the problem wasn't just mom. After a long question-and-answer session, I found out that I had GAD - generalized anxiety disorder. I have NO idea why that came as such a shock to me - as soon as she said it, I knew it made perfect sense. I have ALWAYS been tied up in a knot about something or another - ever sense I was a little girl. It was just a matter at how good I was at hiding it from the rest of the world. And if I'm not totally laid back, I'm stressed til the point where I can't think in complete sentences. I never thought of the fact that I'm so OCD about my (hand)writing til the point where, if I mess up on a single letter, I'll have to go back over it 6 or seven times, and then the rest of the word so that all of the letters match was anything but an oddity. I thought that the reason I was always so worried about things - ANYTHING going wrong was because "I wasn't in the right mindset" or because I was getting away from my religion, or... Something or another. But nothing like this. Maybe because I knew friends who'd actually gone through ACTUAL panic attacks. Even as bad as my meltdowns were, they were never anything that bad.

This is nothing like the time I was diagnosed with A.D.D. I'd ALWAYS known I had trouble concentrating. Plus, A.D.D. didn't mean much at the time - so I had trouble concentrating - so what? Doesn't make me any less smart or pretty or nice, or fun to be around. But this... it feels so different. Like something just blew in from the left field and slapped me in the face. I hardly know what to do with myself. It seemed like I dragged through school like something risen from the grave since I found out. Reflecting back on my life now, it seems that everything I ever done and everything I've ever felt is determined by this cursed disease. It's... An awful feeling, guys. Kind of what I'd guess it feels like to find out you have autism, or you're adopted, I guess. You know you're the same person you were before you found out... You just don't FEEL like you're you anymore. For all I know, I might not even HAVE A.D.D. - maybe my concentration problems are cause by my anxiety. It's almost too confusing to think about...

Don't get me wrong, guys - I'm glad I was diagnosed. Maybe now I can go through a process to maybe get whatever's not working right in my mind back in gear so that I won't have to live the rest of my life as miserable as I've been lately. But... It's different. Very... Very different. I've never really thought of myself as needing to be fixed. It's very odd and a little scary to think about. I just need support. Help, guys?

(BTW: If you want to know the full story of what happened, here ya go. CAUTION: long story is long.)

Spoiler

Note: I wrote this on Thursday.

It all started yesterday. Everything was peachy-keen for a while - as I told you guys. I was working hard in math, and getting that horrid grade up and everything. I had taken a test that day, and was sure I aced it. I went to writing club and was... just feeling good. But there was a pressing concern at the back of my mind. I had two projects to do that night - one I hadn't been expecting to do and was due the next day - and it was in math, too. The other one was bigger, harder to do, and in science, which I'm currently doing well in, but expect to get much tougher later on. So, right now, leverage is key. And it was due Thursday. I'd had the math one for a while, but my partner found out she wasn't going to be here today to present it with me, so yesterday, she comes up to me, and is all, "Hey, Leah - since you're going to be doing the presentation by yourself tomorrow, here - why don't you make the poster-board the way YOU want to?"

This kind of stunned me, because I don't really have anything at home besides colored pencils, and those don't tend to do well with poster-board, but I agreed, anyway. I figured it'd only be fair - she'd done most of the work, anyway, and was a great help, so I figured it'd be wrong for me to complain. My only issue was that she hadn't told me BEFORE then, so that I could be prepared. But, anyways, yeah - she gave me the information we needed, blah blah blah - we went home and I started going to work. Only one problem. I was missing the original statistic.

Bad. Bad, bad. Bad, bad, bad.

Okay, not that bad. But that was what my mind was thinking. To save myself from going nuts over it, I decided to save the math thing for later, and got on my science project. It was going well, albeit slowly, until I noticed that this one panel I'd spent at least 20 minutes on... Was on the wrong page of the storybook.

Initiat lockdown mode.

I had a COMPLETE meltdown at that point, and was sobbing and at the point where I couldn't think past the, "OMG OMG OMG I WASTED SO MUCH TIME LKSWNGFRUGR NOW I HAVE TO ERASE ALL OF MY HARD WORK AND START OVER AGAIN KJNGFVRKEJBGRKFN DAMN IT DAMN IT **** I'M STUPID GAAAAAH" going around in my head. Which, of course, wasn't helping anything. So, in a moment of insanity, I did what I should NEVER do, EVER.

I went to talk to mom about it.

So, as soon as I say the word, "project", she's already on my case about what I have and haven't done. I tell her - I'm completely honest, and completely sincere. She gives me some helpful advice, but goes a little nuts on the original statistic deal. She tells me to find it online, so I do a Google search. Couldn't find it. But by now, I'm looking over the rubric again, and find out that not having the original stat. will only knock me down 4 points - as long as we mention it in our hypothesis. Which we did. So it was fine. I calm down a little, finish up what I can (crudely - I literally had to TAPE everything because we didn't have any usable glue sticks, so it looked... Pretty bad. But there was no place on the rubric where it said it'd count off for it not looking attractive - as long as you had all the info). So I was satisfied, at least, and started going to bed. I was IN bed, on my way to falling asleep, when mom calls me (not unusual to do when we're too lazy to go across the house to go speak to each other.) And she asks me if I ever found that statistic. And, in another brief moment of insanity... I tell her the truth AGAIN, and say no, I didn't, but I'd hit Bailey up in the morning to try to find it in the morning before school started.

Cue batshit mom.

She MAKES me get up, thirty minutes before my bedtime and come to her room so that we could find that statistic. I try telling her, "Mom - it's alright - I looked at the rubric, and it only counts as four paints if you don't have it." But I might as well have been talking to a brick wall. It might of listened better. That makes me a bit pissed and more than a little passive aggressive. I say to her that this entire experience just proved my fears about talking to her, and that if I ever had a problem in school ever again, I'd talk to the janitors before I talked to her again. She threatens to take away my computer if i ever do, but I knew my comment worried her. She searches and searches and searches, too, and can't find it, either. I think that she's given up, at this point, and ask her again if I can go to bed. But she says no and that I'd have to do the ENTIRE project over again BY MYSELF, and if it meant staying up until 2 AM to do that, so be it.

....... w8 wut?

I want to believe that she's kidding, but mom never kids. I try to explain that I have SCHOOL in the morning and a WHOLE 'NOTHER ****ING PROJECT TO DO by Thursday, and that I couldn't do it if I was really tired. Once again. Talking to a brick wall would have gotten me further. She even goes as far as to chant at me, "YOU HAVE A 70 IN THAT CLASS! YOU CAN'T AFFORD TO MISS ANY MORE! You're FAILING!" She didn't even acknowledge how HARD it was for me to even GET that 70. (Which was actually a 71.) Just a week or two before, it was a 68. I got my grade up THREE POINTS in a week. Do any of you know how HARD that is? So I kind of lose my temper and scream something at her along the lines of, "YOU ONLY THINK OF ME AS A GRADE, AND I'M SICK OF IT!!!"

So she calls in Pops as a "third party". Yeah ****ing right. I KNEW I was on the chopping board from the first moment he came in. So she proceeds to tell HER side of the story, and I maybe got one or two sentences in, but Pops would always cut me off and be all, "Let her talk!" so I'd shut up and just kind of brood angrily. Then, without even asking for MY point of view, he proceeds to roast me just as I knew he would and talk about how I could "reach a milestone" and "do the ADULT thing" but killing myself over... Four points.

ADULT thing? Sounds more like a STUPID thing to me. And I said it. I also said, "I love it how you made all those judgments about me without even getting MY side of the story first." And he gets all offended, but it was entirely true - two sentences doesn't count as an entire viewpoint. So I'm all like, "I KNEW this would happen - you ALWAYS take her side on things!" and I can't remember how, but I started crying. Mom starts pointing exasperatedly at me like, "See? I told ya," and Pops rolls his eyes and is all, "Can we PLEASE stop the waterworks?" which only makes me cry harder, but Mom is all, "No, no - if you want her to express herself, let her express herself!"

Now, I don't know if you guys know it, but when I get REALLY emotional, I also get very.... inscrutable. I can't even remember what I said - I was probably babbling like an idiot, trying to tell them how much stress I was under, and what I was going through, but I bet it didn't sound like anything at all. I can almost even forgive Pops for what he said next. Almost. So he was like, "Leah, while one side of my male heart goes out to you for all of the drama that's been going on, the other part wants you to just suck it up, get on with life, and do the responsible thing here."

Right. Killing myself. Over 4 points. Responsible, all right.

I start thinking that maybe they're just narrow sighting on how terrible the poster itself was and not even paying attention to the actual information was - I mean, everything but the stat was there! So I try to explain that to them. Again. I told Pops that I guarantee that it was at least B-worthy. He said if it was, he'd give me ten bucks. (I'm totally going to hold him up to that, too.) I can't remember what I tried to say next, but I got a whole slew of, "YOU'RE ASSUMING ALL OF THAT IS GOING TO BE A PERFECT 100 - YOU CAN'T AFFORD TO LOSE ANY POINTS! THIS IS TERRIBLE!" and once again, Mom started bombarding me about the whole "YOU HAVE A 70 AVERAGE! A 70!!! WE'VE NEVER BEEN THAT LOW - THAT'S A D, DO YOU KNOW THAT?!" And I gave up. Totally. I checked out early, and kind off shrank back into a distant corner of my mind that is safe and plated with iron armor and impenetrable.

Finally, Pops decided that it WAS my choice to not do it over again, but was like, "But if you do badly on this project, you know who you're going to have to face?" And he forces me - physically to look at mom, who is glaring at me as if I were a poisonous snake. I actually looked away, but now I wish I hadn't. I should have glared her right back in her eyes. I wanted to literally punch her in the face at that moment, but I didn't.

So, finally, they let me go and I make a beeline to my room where I proceed to sob noisily and scream in my pillow and punch my bed. Didn't make me feel any better. So I went online, and contacted my guidance councilor, and wrote her a rather.... strange and insane-sounding letter\poem thingy telling her how I felt. But I wasn't exaggerating. At all. I DID want to run away, I DID want to hurt my parents (emotionally, mostly) like they were hurting me, and I was sick and ****ing TIRED of feeling powerless, opinionless, and WORTHLESS just because of one bad grade in the midst of several As, and one 89. I called my sister, too, but her phone is out, so I left her an equally confusing message telling her to call back, no matter at what time.

I was still pretty wound up after that, but suddenly a really weird calm came over me, and I just... stopped. And I went to sleep.

When I woke up, I wrote you guys the thing you saw this morning, because, mostly, I wanted my mom to know that it was NOT normal what I was feeling and that I WANTED to talk to a therapist IMMEDIATELY. Even if I had to hurt myself to do so. A cry for help? You betcha. Mine was a COMPLETE cry for help because I KNEW that I needed and I wasn't going to settle for brief peaces before long bouts of misery anymore.

Wow - this is getting long. I'll cut it off here for now. More later.

--EDIT--

So, yeah. Going to school now. On the bus, I give my friend Faith a quick rundown of what happened, since I can literally trust her ten times more than anyone else in my entire school. She agreed with me that it wasn't fair, and suggested that we go to my math teacher's class together - her, to make up a quiz, and me to ask her about my project and if there was anything I could do to spruce it up. I forgot all about the media center. My bad. I own up completely for that. But whatever - at least I did SOMETHING. My teacher told me that she'd gotten an email from Mrs. Batshit, and that it sounded as if I wasn't giving my partner enough credit, since she said she'd only seen Bailey working on it. Which, granted, was true. The one in-class day she had us working on it, Bailey was the one who went to the media center, got the statistic, and did the math. I helped with the surveying and was going to do the presentation and everything. But I was more than willing to acknowledge that poor Bailey did most of the grunt-work - I just wanted to make sure that we could BOTH get a good grade on this. The teacher SEEMED to understand (it's hard to know what she's thinking sometimes), and gave me a few helpful tips, so I cleaned it up a little and decorated the poster some more. The presentation was pretty much a breeze, and I'd have to say, other than the whole original statistic thing (which most people were missing, anyway), we actually included MORE information in our project. I think my teacher was impressed. I think. Like I said, hard to read her.

After math, I got a call from my guidance councilor, asking me to come up right away. I, knowing that it was about the dreaded letter, went to my SS teacher and got what I needed from him for the day, and headed over. She, of course, was very concerned and wanted to make sure I wasn't planning or thinking about hurting myself or anyone else. I kind of lied a little and said I wasn't, even though you guys knew I was, but she was still worried, and asked me if I felt ready to go back to class. I said no, but I'd be willing to work on homework outside of her office, so she let me. Later, she got another kid who came into her office, and I was feeling better, so I told the nice receptionist to tell her that I'd be going back to class when she was finished with the other kid, and she was all, "Okay!"

By that time, band was starting, so I went ahead and got warmed up. Today was a chair test day. It was just about my turn, when my guidance councilor came back. I waved to her, thinking she was coming for another student, but my teacher told me to go ahead and go first and then head to guidance again. So I did. I didn't feel too good about it, but he was actually really impressed, which made me feel really warm and fuzzy inside. ^^ So when I followed my guidance councilor out again, she told me that my mom had called and was on her way so that we could all talk and... stuff.

................................................... wut.

I'd given her permission to tell mom about the letter (though I did NOT want her to send a direct copy of it - that might be a little much), but I wasn't expecting that. Instantly, I felt sick, scared, and trapped all over again. I didn't think it'd help anything, and I... I just felt really unprepared. She caught wind of my nervousness and told me that it'd be alright, and that Mom was going to take me to a therapist TODAY, as I'd asked. I didn't see a problem with that, but my Mom was coming already, and it wasn't even lunch yet. I asked her if I HAD to go home right THEN, and she yes and that it'd be unsafe for me to come back until they found out for sure that I wasn't a danger to myself or others. I felt really stupid after that, but there was no changing it then. So I went back to working on my homework until they were ready for me to come back in. I was really nervous, though - I was pacing, fiddling, couldn't keep still, picked up pamphlets, flipped through them, and put them down again without looking at anything inside. (Maybe my anxiety caused that?)

My mom came in, and for a while, my councilor talked to her without me. I somehow managed not to listen in. And then I was called in. I couldn't look at my mo - I kept staring off the entire time. Kind of because of fury, but mostly because I'm scared to death of her now. Scared that, whenever I open up, she's going to trample all over my feelings again. My councilor gave me a short speech about how parents need to punish their kids some times - even if we didn't always like it (over four points? Really?). And then... a lot of things happened that I don't particularly remember. All I remembered was crying. Again. I really hate crying and wish sometimes there was a button we could press to just... stop. I don't like for my mom to see me like that anymore. It makes me feel vulnerable and subject to attack. But she didn't say anything, and my councilor allowed me to go out and take a walk and do a short little thing for science class while A lunch was going on. And also maybe give my poor weary mind a rest.

She talked for me for a short time about my mom and said that she'd actually come to the school yesterday. They even talked about how I was improving in school and doing well in math. I was floored. By the way she'd talked to me last night, I would have guessed she hadn't looked at my grade for... eons. I think she told me that to make be feel better about my mom, but all it did was make me feel worse about her and more convinced that she was the enemy. Eventually, my principal came in and talked to us and everything and we went to the.... therapist place. My mom actually stopped by her school and we kind of chilled there for a while.

I guess I easily forgive people, because in that short 2-hour period, I went from resenting my mom to... liking her again. But still kind of cautiously. But the nap I took in the car probably helped. And then I started wondering if she was mad at me and if this was all worth it and if I was just fooling myself about this all - I WAS just a teenager, after all - wasn't this normal? What WAS normal? Mom was kind of... coolly sweet to me for a while and took me to McDonalds since I hadn't eaten lunch. I didn't get to eat it all before the appointment, but I ate enough so that I still don't feel very hungry even now. She had to leave halfway through it for some sort of... school thingy. The therapist lady was very nice and I told her (mostly) the whole truth - anything that might keep me from going to school tomorrow for writing club I left out. But she seemed to understand mostly and... Stuff. At first, I thought she was going to tell me I was bipolar, but when she said anxiety, I was like, "... wut?" because I know a friend who has anxiety attacks and I've never had anything like that before. But, then it made perfect sense - I just might not be as bad off as my friend.

I don't know. I'm rambling now. Um... She thinks I should be on medication, and at first, that worried me (still does - I took Concerta for my ADD once... That's left me scared of medicine like that ever sense) but I decided that it'd do me better than to just... be how I am. I really want to change guys - ever sense I was little, I can remember obsessing over little things and having miniature panic attacks about things that seemed to not make sense. I do want to change - all this time, I thought it was my ADD causing the problems, but I can LIVE with that. It's the completely illogical STRESS that I CAN'T.

So, anyway... Mom picks me up, takes me back to her school thing (it still wasn't done) and left me in the car until it let out. I couldn't go in because it said that teens and kids weren't allowed inside, and neither of us knew until it was too late. But I didn't mind. I got to relax, wind down, watch the sunset, bird flocking to the south, and all sorts of things that just made me happy to be alive. On the road back, I kept asking my mom if she had expected me to have, of all things, anxiety disorder. She said yeah - it was very believable to her, since, like I said, I've kind of been doing little things like that all my life. And then she follows it up with a quick lecture about how I need to just adjust to it because in life, I won't be able to get out of things as easily and... all that crap. And I just kind of go, "... Thanks for the encouragement, Mom." That pretty much ended the conversation.

Don't get me wrong - I love my mom to death, and I appreciate her being real with me, but... Sometimes that isn't what I'm seeking. Most of the time, when I talk to mom, I'm hoping for encouragement or a pat on the back, or.... Something. Because I already KNOW what real. I already KNOW what I'm lacking or what I need to improve on - I KNOW. In fact, if I'm EVER driven to the point where I'll talk to her again about something like this, it's BECAUSE it's the only thing I hear. If that makes sense. But what I do NOT need is someone to just confirm all of the bad things I already am thinking about myself, because that just compounds the problem. That's my problem with Mom. I don't think she's capable of SEEING that, and I sure as hell don't know a way to tell her myself. I'm telling you guys - trying to talk to her now results in absolute, unadulterated terror. Because I keep on getting hurt by her. I don't know if I'll ever trust her again.

Okay - end rant.

Well, it's official now that we has teh rainbowed awesomeness! WEWT!

But to my dismay, I DO have to admit that it can sort of be an eyesore if you're looking at who is currently logged in or who's looking inside of a forum, or... what have you. XDDD

SO.

SOLUTION.

I HAS ONE.

Why not make a new skin (I know you said not to ask anymore, but I'm just re-emphasizing the point - no pressure - really!) that has primarily dark colors? That way, the rainbownezz stands out a lot more and everything is beautimous. <:3 Plus, the site would be a lot easier on the eyes in general.

Example. I has one.

PLEASE NOTE THAT I AM NOTNOTNOT BEING UNGRATEFUL, HERE, U WONDERFUL ADMINS. DDD8> I am EVER happy for my sparkly colors and everything else, and I know all of the hard work you guys do and stuff. This'd just be the icing on the cake. ^^ You don't even have to do it now - you could wait until, like, December for all I care. XDDD

CONSIDER, PLZKTHNX LOL

WARNING: This fanfic is rated PG13 and contains AkuRoku, teens getting drunk, and a MASSIVE cursing spree. If you no likey, the back button is right there, but I promise it will be worth your while if you manage to sit through it. :3

DKJGNBV RFDGTNBHTDE

I. TOLD. MYSELF. I WOULDN'T DO IT.

WTFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF?

AKUROKU?1 EW.

BUT I SUDDENLY GOT THIS INSPIRATION GAIZ - I SWEAR - I COULDN'T HEP IT! DDD8>

I cannot BELIEVE how ****ing long this stupid thing has gotten. Can't ****ing BELIEVE it. It was SUPPOSED to be done over the weekend.

IT ENDED UP TAKING 3 FUXING MONTHS. >.<;;;

And it's TWENTY-EIGHT ****ING PAGES IN WORD, TIMES NEW ROMAN 12 PT FONT WTFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF.

BUT IT WAS SO WORTH IT! ;w; I am SOOOO glad this ****ing thing is out of my head so that I can move on with my life! And it kinda works out, too, with AkuRoku Day around the corner and all. XDDD DEMMIT - LEAH IS GETTING HER FREAKING FANART IF IT MEANS WHORING OUT EVERY SINGLE BELIEF SHE HAS ABOUT TEH ORGANIZATION OOOORRRZZZ.

If you know me on DA, you're in luck! XDDD Congrats on getting to see it five whole days before it's officially updated on my gallery for AkuRoku day in its full glory! ALRIGHT - LET'S GET THIS ***** STARTED.

Oh, BTW, here's BG music for when you get to the lake part. (You'll know what I'm talking about.) XD "Moonlight Sonata" by Beethoven

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The Highwayman​

Loud, almost deafening music pulsed through the house, creating a wild, intoxicating atmosphere. The air reeked with alcohol, cigarettes and sweat, adding to the overall excitement. Bright lights blinked and flashed wildly to the beat of the song, every-so-often illuminating the teens that were on the dance floor, grinding their hearts out. In the darker corners, there were a few young couples swapping spit as if their lives depended on it.

I am SO done with this...

This very thought was constantly gnawing at Roxas's mind as he wearily glanced around. “Come to the party!” Hayner said. “You need to start getting out more!” Hayner said. “All of the cool kids will be there! You need to start getting a life! And, to top it all off, a girlfriend!” Hayner said, said, said. The blonde rolled his eyes. Puh-LEASE. If this is what they call having a life, I’d rather be DEAD. And, seriously – if being cool means getting wasted and degrading yourself in front of all these people like those idiots over there are, I'll PASS. Seriously – where do people get OFF telling me how to live MY life – as if I don't know what I want, or—

“Yo, ROX!”

Roxas immediately snapped out of his daily mental rant with a, “Huh? What – what's all the yelling about?!”
Hayner grinned at him, his cheeks a rosy-red color – probably due to the wine cooler in his hand. “Hey, man – I was callin' you for, like, ten minutes now!” He laughed, wrapping his free arm around his girlfriend Olette's waist. “Why aren't you on the dance floor, bud? You ain't gonna get no action skulking in the corner like that!”
Roxas's eyes flashed with annoyance as he glared at Hayner. “... I ain't SKULKIN'...” he muttered.
“Yeah, yeah... You gonna get movin', or what?” Hayner laughed.
Roxas sighed, shaking his head. “Ya know, Hayner... This just isn't... isn't me... Ya know? I'm going home now before my mom founds out I took her car.”
Hayner shrugged. “Kay, man. Your loss.”

He and the giggling Olette began inconspicuously climbing upstairs for more “private” time. Roxas rolled his eyes, knowing EXACTLY what the two were up to, and took off outside.

The cool, outdoor air washed over him like a wave, making him utter a sigh of relief. It's like walkin' out of a damned oven... He carefully picked out his mom's car out of all of the ones parked on the grass and such, checked over it to make sure that none of the idiots had maimed it, and carefully pulled off.

I hope to God that no police officers pull me over this time. I've already gotten my permit taken away – I really don't need this, too... To keep his mind from thinking about anything that alarming, he turned on the radio and turned it down to a low volume so that he wouldn't violate the peaceful night's air of the country side.

And then, it happened. The gas ran out.

The. F*cking. GAS ran out!

“F*ck... F*ck...! C'mon! I don't need this – I do NOT need this...! The nearest gas station is, like, 20 miles away – don't DO this to me!” Roxas cried, flooring the pedal again and again. The engine whirled, stuttered, coughed, and finally died. And no amount of cursing was going to bring it back.

Roxas was stranded on the side of the road in the middle of NOWHERE, at one in the morning. He slammed his head into the wheel at least four times. “Mom is going to KILL me when she finds out...!”

After a few more moments of bitter cursing he finally got all of his stuff, slammed the door, and stomped outside. Guess there's nothing else to f*cking do but f*cking HITCHHIKE my way back to the suburbs! Damnit, I am going to KILL Hayner for dragging me into this...! The boy leaned against the car, waiting for a car to come by so that he could put out his thumb.

He waited... and he waited... and waited...

AND WAITED.

By the time the first car came rolling by he'd practically jumped in the middle of the street waving his arms around like a maniac.

The sleek, cherry red Safari Arachnid gently rocked to a stop. The window on the passenger's side rolled down, revealing a grinning, attractive man with a black suit on. His tie was a deep crimson color, as rich and powerful as blood itself, and it was almost surprising to see that his spiky hair was nearly the same exact same color. “Car trouble?”
The relief on Roxas's face was painfully obvious. “Y...Yeah...”
“Need a lift?”
“That'd be AWESOME. Thanks...”
The redhead leaned forward, and popped open the door. To Roxas's surprise, it opened UP, not out. “C'mon in. It's chilly out.”

Roxas was happy to oblige, immediately scrambling into the passenger seat, and slamming the door (with some difficulties), rubbing off all the goose bumps on his arms. The car gently purred back to life and pulled away.

The first few minutes went by in complete silence, though Roxas could feel the stranger's intense, emerald eyes flickering to him every so often. Roxas was pointedly staring out of the window, hoping to prolong the inevitable. He's probably wondering what a kid my age was doing on the side of the road like that by myself... he thought bitterly.

“You're pretty young to be stranded out on the road at...” The redhead checked his watch. “... Two-thirty in the mornin'...”

Speak of the flippin' devil. Roxas sighed, rolling his eyes. “You sound like my mom,” was all he deemed fit to say.
The man let out a pleasant laugh that seemed to ring through the air. It made Roxas shiver slightly. “Well... That's certainly the first time I've heard THAT one.”
“Heh... Yeah – I guess...”
“But, seriously, kid... It just ain't safe standing out in the middle of nowhere at all hours of the night. You could've gotten hurt. Got it memorized?”
Roxas crossed his arms, glaring out of the window some more. “... It's not what you THINK, okay? You can save the lecture. If I'd had my way, I wouldn't even BE here now,” he seethed.
“Oh...?” The stranger glanced over at him again. “Then why don't you tell me the whole story from the beginning?”

The next part was quite unexpected, really. Roxas had already mentally prepared an entire quiver of excuses for his parents, just READY to be shot out of his mouth like arrows. There was a FORTITUDE of places where he could've been, and hundreds upon THOUSANDS of witnesses, hours, times, and claims. Any one of those he could have told this guy.

But... For some strange reason, he told the complete truth. Everything – from him never having a girlfriend – or really wanting one for that matter, how he couldn't STAND being with a huge group of people for more than five minutes at a time, and how his STUPID party-loving friend Hayner had DRAGGED him to this even stupider house-party, and how, when he'd had enough, he tried to go home, but his f*cking CAR broke down, and now his mom would KNOW that he'd been somewhere during the night!

“It's ALL of f*cking Hayner's fault!” the blonde ranted vehemently. “I didn't even want to GO to that f*cking party, and now I'm going to be up to my EYEBALLS in sh*t once I get back home! I could've been in bed, asleep by now, or playing ‘Struggle!’ on my X-Box!”

This seemed to spark the man's interest. “You play ‘Struggle!’?”
Roxas shrugged. “Yeah. I'm a beast at that game. What I love most about it is that it's not just a stupid fighting game – it's a strategy game, too. It's almost like playing chess. Only there's better graphics and you can chop people's heads off.”
The redhead let loose another of those laughs. Roxas felt himself blushing a bit, though he wasn't entirely sure why. “Wow, kid – you sure have a way of putting things... Hehheh...”
“Yeah... I-I get that a lot...”

The man let his gaze linger on Roxas for what seemed to be a long time, and finally asked, “What did you say your name was, again?”
“Roxas.”
“I'm Axel.” He grinned again, the moon flashing playfully on his pearly whites. “Pleased to meet ya, Roxas.”
“Er... Y...Yeah. Me, too.”

There was another long silence, though this time it was Roxas who kept glancing at the redhead, fidgeting and biting his lower lip slightly. Axel was staring straight into the distance, his expression calm and lax.

Roxas stared at him for an extremely long moment, and looked down at his hands. Oh, God... Oh, God... Er... Baseball. Hockey. Skateboarding. Struggle. Combat boots...

“Where did you say you lived?” Axel asked casually, effectively snapping Roxas out of his thoughts. “I just sort of assumed you lived near the city.”
“Hmmm? Oh – right... Um... 813 Twilight Street.”
“Where's that?”
“It's just down Firelight Road... Here – I'll show you, okay?”

After about fifteen more minutes of, “Turn here”s and “Stop there”s, Roxas had finally arrived home. “Thanks, Axel,” the boy sighed, slamming down the car door behind him. “My parents are going to KILL me when they find out, but at least I made it okay. At first, I thought I was going to have to walk all of the way here!”
“Don't mention it, kid,” the redhead chuckled.
Roxas nodded, and began to walk down the driveway.
“Hey... Wait...”
Roxas turned around, blinking. “Yeah?”
Axel shot him another of his grins. “You like ice cream?”
Roxas shrugged. “Yeah, I guess...”
“Come meet me by the parlor a few blocks away next Friday, okay? My treat.”
Roxas could feel his cheeks growing warm all over again. “Uh... S-Sure! What time?”
Axel thought for a bit. “I have to work during the day... So... How about somewhere arooound... 11?”
“Done.” The boy gave cheesy grin, and waved a little as he backed away from the car. His heart was thumping mercilessly at his chest.

Axel smiled and waved back, then pulled out from the driveway, the red Safari sports car roaring off into the night. “...” Roxas began searching for a way into the house, finally entering through the back door. Steak... Football... Beer... Hunting...

Luckily for Roxas, no one seemed to be awake. He quietly slinked through the dark house, tip-toed up the stairs, and slipped past his parent's bedroom. So far, so good... Maybe no one has noticed anything...? he thought as he slowly turned his doorknob to prevent any noise.

Wrong.

As soon as he had the door open, the lights flicked on, revealing two severely p*ssed off, blood-shot eyed, scowling parents. Roxas's twin brother Ven sat up, grinning wickedly. “Ooooh – you are IN for it now!”

Sh*t.

**************************************************​

Grounded for three months?

Yawn.

No driving – EVER – until he was in college?

Been there.

No TV, video-games, or computer, seeing friends out of school, OR allowances until he was FORTY?!

Seriously – was that all they could do?

Just like with Axel, Roxas found it natural to tell his parents the TRUTH for once, and, not surprisingly, they threw a fit. But Roxas wasn't too concerned. He'd play the good boy for as long as he could managed, and when that eventually got tiring, he'd just sneak out if he needed to. No biggy. But from now on, he'd be a lot more careful about Ven. B*stard had a mouth the size of Russia.

That Monday, Hayner was shooting him all sorts of guilty looks across from his first period class. Roxas ignored him coolly. I'll let him stew in his own juices for a while...

The second the bell rang for the next class, and in a split second, Roxas was out of the room without so much as a glance behind himself. He made sure to go slow enough so that Hayner could eventually catch up with him, but fast enough so that it'd be a struggle, all the while blissfully ignoring Hayner's desperate cries.

Three... Two... One.
“Roxas! Didn't you hear me calling you?!” Hayner cried, finally able to catch Roxas by his shoulder.
Roxas hardly spared him a glance. “Yeeeees...”
Hayner blinked. “And… You didn't turn around?”
“Nooooo...”

Hayner sighed. “Look, Rox, I know you're p*ssed at me – hell, I'm p*ssed at myself! You have EVERY right, okay? I would not mind if you hated me until the day I DIED.”
“Now, Hayner, why on earth would I want to do that?” Roxas asked in a deceptively kind voice with a tiny, evil gleam in his eye.
“Don't play stupid with me, okay? I KNOW what happened. Ven's been blabbing about it since Saturday morning. Squeaker and text messages are ablaze with what happened, and... Well, I know it's all my fault – after all, you didn't even want to go, and now... Well... I heard you got grounded for life.”
“Nah. Just until I'm forty. And with any luck, they'll forget all about it and let me move out when I'm 35,” Roxas laughed.
Hayner blinked. “So… Wait. You're NOT gonna slap me on the back of the neck and call me a moron?”
“Hmmm... Maybe not this time,” Roxas laughed, stopping at his locker. “Besides – it wasn't all bad. In fact, without your help, I wouldn't have met my, uh... 'possible someone'.”

“Roxas...” Hayner's eyes bugged. “No... WAY, man! You got yourself a GIRLFRIEND?!”
“I didn't say that...!~” he chuckled.
“Well, don't be a stranger, man! Details – details! What does she look like?! Is she hot?”
“Weeeeell...” Roxas drawled. “They're... older than I am... Really red hair... Dark green eyes... Sexiest body I've ever seen...” He shot Hayner a grin. “Rich, too.”
“Dude – that is AWESOME! You sly DOG! How come you never told me about this?”
“Well, they were the one who gave me the ride home when mom's car broke down. Iunno, though – it seems that they don't even really want a boyfriend – just a little brother. But I don't care.”

He blushed a bit as he slammed the locker door shut. “We're supposed to meet again this Friday night. By the way, if you tell ANYONE about this, I'll be forced to kick your *ss for real.”
“I won't! DUDE. That's awesome! Look – I can give you some tips I used to get Olette if ya want! Though I'm not sure they'll work the same on older women... How old did you say she was, again?”
“I... I don't know, exactly! Everything about them is so mysterious... But I don't think you have to worry about the advice – I think that we... really share a special connection.”
“God, Rox – this is GREAT! Keep me posted, okay, man? Good luck meetin' her on Friday! Oh – and I don't really think I need to remind you about this, Mr. Responsibility, but no glove, no love, alright?”

That earned Hayner a HUGE slap on the back of the neck.

**************************************************​

The days passed in a complete blur. For some reason, all throughout the week, Roxas found his mind wandering back over to the meeting he and Axel had agreed on. … I bet he's not even going to show up… the boy thought idly, sipping on lemonade the afternoon before their date. … Is it even worth going through the trouble of sneaking out again, and risking even MORE trouble…?

To leave or not to leave… THAT was the question. But it really wasn't much of a contest. Roxas needed to at least SEE… He needed to show up, and hang out for an hour or two in case Axel was late… And if he didn't show… Well… He didn't want to even think about that.

Compared to how the rest of the week had gone, those last few hours crawled by like years. The poor blonde was a ball of nervous energy, franticly glancing at the clock every two seconds. “Mom, I have a headache! I'm goin' to bed early!” he declared when the clock struck eight.
“Okay, hun – I hope you feel better,” she sighed from her room.

He waited in his room for hours with his lights turned off and his blankets covering his eyes so that no one would notice the eCapsule ear buds cranking loud, energetic music inside of his ears so that he wouldn't fall asleep.

Time ticked by. He was bored beyond all reason, but not sleepy in the least. After he'd seen the last light go out, he checked his watch. Only 10:12! This is gonna be easy! He waited 45 minutes or so to allow some time for them to drift away to sleep, and then began stealthily climbing out of the window. Wasn't too hard for him, considering he'd done it many times.

He wasn't going to risk taking the car again, so he decided to jog the whole way to the restaurant, glancing at his watch every few minutes. Crap! I'm going to be late! I hope he doesn't get there first!

To his surprise, and slight embarrassment, when he'd arrived, Axel HAD arrived first, and was messing around on his Strawberry phone inside of the parlor. He seemed to be dressed in the same exact outfit as before. Roxas blushed slightly and stepped inside, wincing at the loud ting the door made as it opened.
Axel looked up at him and smiled. “Hey, Roxas! For a second, I didn't think you would show!”
Roxas blushed a bit a more. “S...Sorry. I had to wait until everyone was asleep. My parents grounded me.”
“Ah, sorry about that...” Axel smiled a bit. “Well, while we're here, how about I buy you that ice cream? This is the only shop that stays open at night, too.”
“Oh... Wow! That's really nice of you, Axel,” Roxas laughed.
“Eh – it's no problem.”

Roxas went up to the counter, his stomach rumbling. He hadn't had dinner, after all. Ummm... Let's see... Vanilla...? Hmm… Too plain. Strawberry? No, no... Chocolate... Meh... OOH! “Is sea-salt ice cream any good?” he asked the cashier.
The woman shrugged. “Try it and find out.”
“Okay – one please! Unless...” Roxas turned to the redhead, blinking. “Axel, did you want some?”
“Nah – I ate before you came. Is that all, Roxas?”
Roxas nodded a bit, blushing a little more. He avoided Axel's eyes, afraid that he'd get sucked into those dark, intelligent irises once more.

The girl handed Axel the ice cream bar, smiling. “That'll be 2 munny, sir!”
Axel handed her a lump of cashed, waving his hand nonchalantly. “Keep the change.”
The girl stared at the wad of cash, blinking. “Um... sir, you gave me 50 munny!”
“I know.”
The duo strolled out.

“Wow, Axel – are you ALWAYS so generous?” Roxas laughed, licking his ice cream contently. It tasted a lot better than he'd expected.
“Only when I want to be,” Axel yawned, unlocking his Safari casually. The two climbed in, and before long, they were out on the road again, driving to… Well, who cared? The first few minutes of the ride went by in blissful silence. Then, bored, Axel decided to turn on the stereo. Suddenly, the room was lit up with joyful, upbeat music.

Roxas happily slurped on his ice cream bar, bobbing his head slightly to the beat of the song. “Whoa – I love this song! Where'd you find such an awesome remix?”
Axel shrugged. “Internet. You'd be surprised all of the stuff you can dig up in that thing.”
“No kiddin'.”
“Wait a sec.” Axel glanced at Roxas again, grinning. “You like techno?”
“Well... Not really, but if you have more songs like THIS, I could be convinced otherwise,” the blonde laughed.
Axel rolled his eyes. “To be honest, I've never really cared for it, either. I’m not really picky about things, but my love lies with classical music.”
Roxas gasped. “Th…That's SO weird! Me, too! My friends think I’m crazy, but I just LOVE it! Especially Ludwig van Beethoven… His entire story is just SO inspiring!”

The boy sighed. “I couldn’t IMAGINE losing something as important as my hearing – especially as a composer, where music would be literally my life… But his compositions just kept getting better and better, despite all of that!” He smiled, gazing out at the starry skies. “… That takes a lot of courage… To continue your life’s dream no matter what stands in your way…”
Axel glanced over at Roxas. “Since when did you get so sentimental?”
“Oh, shut up.” Roxas blushed slightly, and began licking his ice cream once more.
The redhead just laughed in that purely blissful way that was his alone.

“So, uh… Axel. Tell me about yourself!”
“Axel blinked. “Tell you about myself? Well… What is there to tell?”
“Don’t you play coy with me!” Roxas laughed. “There’s a TON about you that I wanna know! Like, first off, how’d you become so RICH?!”
Axel rolled his eyes. “How’d I know that would be the first thing you’d asked?” He sighed. “Well, I had a pretty great start. I was born into a pretty well-off family to begin with. When I was eighteen, I became a young entrepreneur, which also landed me a huge amount of cash…” He paused, seeming to consider something for a moment. “Of course, the huge amount of cash my parents left to me in their will made things a lot easier, too. Being an only child has its benefits…”
Roxas gasped. “Y…Your parents died…?”
Axel nodded.
“Oh… I… I’m sorry I asked…”
“It’s alright. It happened a while ago. I’ve had plenty of years to move on past my grief.”

Roxas cracked a tiny smile. “Y…Yeah. Right… Well, sorry if this next thing offends you, but… I HAVE to ask. Just how old are you, anyway?”
Axel barked out a laugh. “OLD. Let’s just leave it at that, okay?”
“You can’t be any older than 25!” the blonde responded cheekily.
Axel laughed again. “Yeah – give or take a few centuries!”

They both laughed at this, but were immediately cut off as Roxas’s ice cream began dripping. Axel gasped. “HEY, HEY! Watch the leather seats, buddy! I gotta keep this chick-magnet pristine!”
The boy rolled his eyes. “Yeah, yeah, MOM.”

Suddenly, Roxas got an idea. He coated the ice cream bar thickly with saliva, and offered it to Axel. “Here – want some?” he asked softly. If Axel licks it, then, technically, it means that we’ve Frenched! Damn – it’s messed up, but I have to try it! Just once… For bragging rights!
Axel blinked, glancing down. “Eh… Nah – I already told you that I ate before, Roxas – it’s fine.”
“B…But, c’mon! I wouldn’t feel right – you bought it for me and everything… Here – just take a lick.”
Axel sighed, and rolled his eyes. “Fine, fine…”

He took the ice cream bar, licked it a few times as Roxas watched intently, and handed it back. “There ya go, buddy.”
Roxas blushed, and took his first lick. Well… I guess this’ll have to do until I actually drum up the courage to actually try to kiss him for real…

After he gave the ice cream a second coating of saliva, he handed it back to Axel. “Here you go.”
Axel rolled his eyes and took it. “Aren’t you afraid of getting my germs or something?” he asked.
“D-Don’t be silly!” Roxas chuckled nervously. You’re so perfect, I bet you don’t even HAVE germs.
Axel gave a few tentative licks once more, and handed it back.

Roxas was trying to offer it for a third time, when the car suddenly veered off of the road. The blonde yelped, holding on tightly to his seat and ice cream bar. “Axel, what are you—?!” He screamed again as the redhead slammed on the brakes, nearly bashing out the poor blonde’s brains on the dashboard. He shook his head, feeling as if he’d be stuck with a permanent case of whiplash. Or at least one that lasted until he was 39.

He rubbed his neck a bit, glaring up at Axel. “Hey, you ****** – what’s the big id—?!”
“You don’t need to do that, you know…” Axel murmured, his dark, emerald eyes gazing intently into Roxas’s.
“Wh…What? Axel what are you—MMMMFFFF!”

The boy gasped sharply as the man suddenly seized him by the shoulders, and yanked him close, pressing a searing – forceful, even – kiss to the young blonde’s lips. Roxas froze, his eyes bugging. Was this really happening?! Or had he REALLY banged his head on the dashboard and was now having some kind of weird, concussion-induced dream?!

Meanwhile, Axel continued his assault, his warm, moist tongue soon invading the younger boy’s mouth. Roxas was completely at his mercy, his cool, ice cream-flavored breath giving slight, strangled gasps of pleasure as Axel reached under his shirt and scratched ever-so-gently at the boy’s smooth, flawless back. His blood began boiling with anxiety as the older man allowed his mouth to drift down and began lining tiny kisses down his face to his neck, stopping to suckle gently just below the boy’s pulse point. Roxas groaned softly, tilting his neck back to give the man ample room to work his magic. “Oh, gods, Ax…” he breathed at the feeling of the slick tongue gliding over his skin.

Suddenly, the boy gave an uncontrollable yelp as the redhead gave the slightest of nibbles on the boy’s tender neck, and Roxas felt his hips jerk forward spastically in response. Then, as quickly as the man had started the assault, it ended. Axel pulled away, wiping away the saliva, and smirked at the younger boy. “Next time you want a kiss, just ask – got it memorized?” he purred with a tiny wink.
Roxas, still completely dumbfounded, could only gasp out, “O…Okay… I… I will…” His face was as red as Axel’s hair by now.
The redhead smirked again, pulled back into a driving lane, and began driving again as if everything was completely normal. Roxas, still stunned by the sudden attack, continued licking his rapidly melting ice cream bar. But he couldn’t help feeling as if he wouldn’t need it anymore.

The blonde shifted uncomfortably, and crossed his legs so that the tent pole sticking up from between his legs would seem just a bit less obvious.
Axel politely pretended not to notice.

**************************************************​

Thankfully, Roxas arrived that morning without a hitch. No one had apparently noticed his absence, and thought nothing of him sleeping so late – it WAS the weekend, after all. He could hardly WAIT for their next meeting coming the following week!

When he woke up and glanced in the mirror, he noted with delight that Axel’s tiny nip had left an even tinier scab. Love bite… the boy thought gleefully, rubbing his thumb tentatively across it. It sent a minuscule shock of pleasure through his body, making him shudder and grin. Just wait until I tell Hayner! He is going to FLIP! He thought as he wrapped a light scarf around his neck. Couldn’t let the family see it, after all, could he?

The following Monday, Hayner could tell right away that Roxas was hiding a dirty secret. That sly DOG! I hope he has a good story to go along with that smirk of his!

He caught up with the smiling blonde after class, grinning eagerly. “SO?!”
“So, what?” Roxas asked with his signature smirk on his face.
“Don’t bullsh*t me, man – give me the low-down on what happened! Wait…” Hayner raised an eyebrow. “You… You didn’t get LAID did you?”
“Nah, I didn’t… But I DID get this!” Roxas chuckled pulling down one of the sides of his turtle neck.

Hayner peered for a second, and gasped. “No WAY! A love bite?! Feisty lady, huh?” He clapped Roxas on the back, his grin only getting wider. “I KNEW there was a reason you were wearing a turtle neck in freakin’ early fall! Not even YOU’RE that emo!”

Roxas gave him THE eye.
“… I’m gonna get necked, ain’t I?”
“Oh, big time, moron,” Roxas replied, fwapping him across the back of his neck.

**************************************************​

For some reason, Roxas felt like an ENTIRELY different person when he was with Axel. It was as if, during his entire life, there was no one who ever really UNDERSTOOD him. He was either a nerd or a trouble maker – a big mouth or anti-social. Even Hayner, his best friend, found it hard to understand him, though the poor guy gave it his all. But he and Axel were on the same wavelength. Everything between them just… Clicked. And the making-out was fun, too. He worshipped the way the godlike redhead was there whenever Roxas needed him, but wasn’t too intrusive. The blonde even jokingly nicknamed Axel his Highwayman (mostly because that was where they’d first met), and was delighted when Axel indicated that he knew what the boy was referring to.

In his entire life, Roxas had never felt anything like this. Like someone UNDERSTOOD. So he continued their meetings, weekend… after weekend… after weekend. Then, he decided to extend their visits to twice a week – Friday AND Saturday night. Eventually, he was visiting Axel every night of the week, no matter what the consequences were.

And there WERE consequences.

The first few weeks or so his secret meetings went without notice, but once he started trying to meet Axel during the weekdays, it became increasingly apparent that something was wrong. Roxas suddenly became almost nocturnal, and was always tardy at school, IF he bothered to show up at all. His grades, which were usually all A’s plummeted immediately and his teachers called constantly about him being rude and disrespectful in class, assuming he even woke up. He even let most of his friendships go to waste. The only one who was still sticking with him by the end of the year was Hayner. And Hayner did it mostly because he was concerned – not because it was “fun”.

His parents tried in vain to punish the boy, but his life completely belonged to Axel now. He was totally nonresponsive to even the harshest sentences like completely taking his computer away and disabling texting for his phone. Even when they discovered where the boy was meeting Axel, and called the manager to inform the parlor not to let the two in at any cost, the two simply began meeting elsewhere. Roxas was spinning out control – out of reach, and they felt helpless to do anything but watch.

Roxas could feel that things were growing a little intense as well, but he liked it. As far as Axel was concerned, he would battle the world just for another moment with him. They were MEANT to be together, no matter what anyone else said. Axel probably noticed that something was amiss in his personal life, but if he ever asked him what was going on or if something was wrong at home, Roxas would usually say something vague like, “Oh, everything’s fine,” or just flat-out lie. He could tell that Axel rarely believed him, but the redhead wouldn’t ask him anything else about it for at least a few weeks or so. Roxas liked that about Axel, too. He showed concern, but knew when he should just BACK OFF. Roxas wished his parents would learn how to do the same, too. He wasn’t a child, nor an imbecile. He KNEW what he was doing, and they needed to respect that.

One day – just a little over the eight month anniversary of Roxas and Axel’s first meeting, Roxas dragged himself into class over 15 minutes late, slammed his head on the desk without even acknowledging the teacher, and immediately drifted off to sleep. It was finals week, and the teacher shook his head, wondering why he’d figured that Roxas might actually give the smallest hint of effort, even now. He’d given up on trying to actually prod the blonde into doing work a long time ago, so he handed the boy’s test over, not caring if Roxas actually picked it up or not. Hayner shot the boy a worried glance from across the room, but of course Roxas wasn’t awake to catch it. With a disgruntled sigh, Hayner shook his head, and began filling out answers.

Roxas was the last person to leave when the bell had rang, and got up, leaving his drooled-on, but otherwise blank test behind for the teacher to pick up. He was surprised to see Hayner outside waiting for him, a disgruntled frown on his face. “Roxas, we have to talk…” he hissed, grabbing the boy’s arm.
“What about?” the blonde yawned. He was smiling distantly. I wonder if Axel’s going to take me to another cheesy romantic movie again today…
“This… girl, or woman, or whatever. Look, man, she’s totally bad news. You need to dump her and get your life back under control, or else—”

Roxas gave a tiny sigh, rolling his eyes. “Well, jee, Hayner. You are NOT the one I’d figure to be giving me a lecture about this out of all people. Especially sense, ya know, if it weren’t for YOU, I wouldn’t even know Red.”
“Roxas, QUIT treating this like it’s a game because it’s not. I’m SERIOUS, okay?” Hayner retorted sharply. Roxas rolled his eyes again, and began speeding off, and Hayner followed to the best of his ability. “You… You’ve changed since you’ve started going out with this chick! It’s like being friends with a freakin’ hippie! I just want you to live a good life, okay? And it looks like it’s not going to happen if you keep this relationship going! It’s all give and no take! How come YOU have to kill yourself staying up to all hours of the night just so that you can meet her?! How come she’s never offered to meet you during some NORMAL time, huh?! Oh, wait. Don’t tell me – she’s got ‘work’ to take care of.”

Roxas began turning his locker dial. “C’mon, Haynes – you’re making Red sound like a total monster. You don’t even know them – they treat me like a total prince! So what if I have to miss school a few times a week?” he chuckled, placing his books inside. “Love is love, man. Sides – I’m taken care of even if this DOES get in the way of school! Red is LOADED, remember?”
“‘So what if I have to miss school a few times a week’?! Roxas, would you LISTEN to yourself? YOU’RE supposed to the responsible one! This whole deal has turned everything topsy-turvy!”
Roxas sighed heavily, slamming the locker door closed, and tried storming off again. He could feel his temper starting to flare again, and he most certainly did NOT like where this conversation was going. “Just leave me alone, would ya?” he grumbled.

Hayner sighed and began following persistently. “Roxas, STOP trying to run away from me. You have to face this! This is CRAZY – do you even really KNOW anything about this woman? Sure – you know she’s older than you, but that’s basically it! Damnit, man – do you even KNOW what her real name is?! ‘Red’?! Yeah right – that’s a TOTALLY fake name!”

The blonde was beginning to grind his teeth together irritably as he stepped outside into the school courtyard so that they could talk without anyone staring at them. “Damnit, Hayner, just shut up. Shut up right NOW before I say something we BOTH really regret…”
“No, you know what?! I won’t. I’ve been quiet for TOO long if you ask me! It’s as if she’s ****ing BRAINWASHED you, Roxas! What’s next?! Drinking? Smoking CRACK?! Or doing heroin?! Or f*cking our English teacher Miss Aerith?! Why not make it a threesome while we’re at it?! And why not get your *ss tattooed while—”
“DAMNIT, Hayner!” Roxas exploded. “You don’t know ANYTHING about Axel, so you can just SHUT THE F*CK UP! He’s been NOTHING but a good influence to me! What I do with him is MY business!”

Hayner looked as taken aback as Roxas looked satisfied.

There was a long, awkward silence before Hayner’s hesitant voice asked, “D…Did you say… ‘he’ just now…?”
“………” Roxas did a frantic mental recount of what he’d just said, and cursed inwardly. Finally, he sighed. “Y…Yeah. Yeah, I did. ‘Red’ is actually a guy… A guy named Axel. I didn’t think it’d be a big deal so I never really mentioned it—”
“You’re… gay?” Hayner said it as if it were a curse word.
Roxas shrugged with a tiny, embarrassed grin. “It was a shocker for me, too… But, hey – I’m still the same Roxas you know and love, right?”
“……………”
The smile grew weaker as the boy tried to pat his friend’s shoulder. “Ri—ight…?”
Roxas fell silent as Hayner ducked away from his outstretched hand as if his had some sort of ghastly, contagious disease. “… No… You’re not.”
“… Hayner…!” The blonde’s face fell.
Hayner continued backing away, looking at Roxas as if he were a stranger, and finally shook his head, jogging back inside of the school.

Roxas stood there, frozen, until the bell rang. Then, his hands balled into fists and his jaw clenched tightly, he strode out of the school over four hours before it was scheduled to end. Tears streaked down his face as he began the long walk home. Out of everyone, Hayner was the one I figured would always be with me, no matter what… He gave a short scoff that was more of a dry, broken sob than anything else. How stupid of me. Axel is the only one I can trust. The rest are dead to me.

**************************************************​

As soon as Roxas was back home, he collapsed on his bed, and tried to go back to sleep. Since he’d gone home so early, and both his mom and stepdad worked in the day, no one was home when he came, so everything was calm and peaceful. Until, of course, Ven came home in a few hours, and tattled on him as soon as he found that Roxas has skipped just about the whole day. Cretin. Until then, the ideal thing would be to sleep so that he’d be wide awake for the meeting that night.

But… He found he couldn’t sleep. Something that Hayner said DID sort of worry him. Of course, he couldn’t help his sexuality. Nothing could change that. But what exactly DID he know about Axel? He’d never really asked anything about his personal life – he felt it wouldn’t be right to after dodging all of the personal questions himself, but all he basically had was tiny snippets of information – most of which he’d pieced together himself.

What had Roxas told him about himself? Well, he shared that he was 15 – well, 16, now since he’d just had a birthday, liked classical music and videogames – especially ‘Struggle!’, that his full name was Roxas Alexander Fair, that his mom was remarried, and Axel knew where his house was and everything – the only thing that the redhead didn’t know about him was how badly he was getting along with his folks and how he was doing at school with his grades. He didn’t know any of that stuff about Axel. He didn’t know what his last name was, or the type of business he ran, or where he lived, and, now that he thought about it, how come he couldn’t – even once – cancel one of his appointments at work so that Roxas wouldn’t have to stay up so long all of the time? Just once! He’d already sacrificed so much for Axel – wasn’t it enough for him?

The more he thought about it, the more doubtful he grew. “Red” was a name he’d made up to appease Hayner for a time, but how could he be sure that “Axel” was his real name? Okay – that’s a little silly, but it can’t hurt to ask him a FEW more things about him… I’ve been going out with him for nearly eight months, and all I know is what type of music and videogames he likes! I guess it’s kinda MY fault, because I never asked, though. Hopefully this will bring us closer together… was his last thought as he drifted off to sleep.

**************************************************​

The house was oddly quiet when Roxas’s eyes finally fluttered open once more. I must’ve woken up before anyone’s gotten home yet… he thought hazily as he rubbed his head. He glanced at the clock hanging on his wall opposite from his bed – the only thing besides a tiny lamp on his desk that his parents had deemed as harmless and boring enough for him to keep in his room. All of his posters, pictures, and even things like his skateboard, TV and all of his games and game systems had been removed from his room. It was probably as bleak as Antarctica and twice as depressing.

“… 6:27?!” the boy gasped, staring at the clock. “What the HELL…?!” Both of his parents were guaranteed to be back from work. Usually, if they’d found Roxas sleeping in his bed, they’d go call the school and, as soon as they found out he’d skipped over half of the day… Well, it’d be appropriate to guess that he’d be waking up to a total screaming spree. Even if his parents weren’t home, Ven usually woke him up as soon as he’d gotten home from school. Mostly just to tell him that he was home and try – TRY to talk him going to school the entire day next time, and… all that goody-goody-two-shoes crap. Ugh.

But, seriously – what was going on?!

Suddenly, there was gentle knocking at his door. Roxas sat up as the door swung open and revealed the red-eyed face of his mom. “Hey, Sweety…” she sniffled with a weak smile. “Are you awake?”
Roxas sighed and shrugged. “Yeah – I guess. My eyes are open, aren’t they?”
“Yes, well, may I… May I have a word with you, Roxas? I think that it is very important that I talk to you again.”
The boy groaned and rolled his eyes. “Well, alright. Do what makes you happy – after all, who am I to keep you from wasting your time?”

The woman sighed, and sat on the end of his bed, seeming deeply troubled. There was silence for a long time. “I… We called your school today when Ven found out you weren’t on the bus today…”
Roxas rolled his eyes again. “C’mon, Mom – I CAME, didn’t I? So what if I skipped the last few hours? I actually came BEFORE 10-ish. Isn’t that enough for you guys?!”
His mother shook her head. “R…Roxas, you were already failing your classes… I’ve already e-mailed your teachers, and all of them say that you never really finished your tests… Most say you didn’t even begin! Your Grade Point Average is in the toilet – you’re going to have to take summer school or else you’ll repeat the 11th grade!”
“Summer school?!” Roxas scoffed. “Yeah RIGHT! You can forget that.”

He expected a snappy retort from his mother, but instead she just shook her head and buried her face in her hands. Her whole body began shaking with tiny sobs.
“… M…Mom, come on…” Roxas sighed, looking away. “Cut it out… S…Stop…”

“R…R…Roxas, I just don’t know what to do about you!” the middle-aged woman wailed, wiping at her eyes. “W…We’ve been trying so hard to reach you, but you won’t listen!” She shook her head. “You’re ruining what you’ve worked so hard to accomplish since the 5th grade! I just want what’s best for you – you’re my baby… My little boy… I’ve always wanted what’s best for you…”

Roxas shook his head. “Mom, you don’t understand. Meeting my one true love IS what’s best for me! Don’t you want me to be happy?!”
“Of course I do, Sweety! I’ve always wanted you to be happy – since I first held you in my arms as a newborn! But… Please understand, Roxas – this… relationship, or whatever it is, is simply getting too unhealthy! Just because you love someone, it doesn’t mean you have to throw away everything else that’s important to you!”
“Axel IS the only thing that’s important to me!” The blonde snapped.

His mother jerked back as if slapped in the face, and shook her head, placing her face in her palms once more, this time sobbing a lot more openly. Roxas sighed a bit, and looked away, shaking his head. After a moment, he began patting his mother’s back slightly. “C… C’mon, Ma – you know I didn’t mean it like that…”
“No, Roxas…” the woman sniffled. “You’re wrong… I think that’s EXACTLY what you meant…”
“…” The boy looked away, feeling completely ashamed of himself. What if… she’s right…? What if I’ve taken this too far? I’m sure that Axel would have no problem only meeting me on the weekends again… The real question is, can I wait that long? He’s like a drug to me now – I HAVE to see him! He turned his attention back to his sobbing mother. But… I can’t let my family suffer like this… Especially Ma… Oh, man! What a mess!

His mother wiped away at her eyes once more, and laid her hand over Roxas’s. “Please, son… I’m not asking you anymore… I’m begging you. PLEASE, son, STOP this nonsense while there’s still time to turn your life around! We’ve long given up on making you stop seeing this… ‘Axel’, but for God’s sake, PLEASE think of your family! We’re all so concerned! I miss you… Zack has literally developed ulcers worrying, and Ven especially misses you!”
Roxas wrinkled his nose. “Ven? REALLY? Yeah, right.”
The woman gave a tired smile. “You’d be surprised. I knew you two tend to squabble a lot nowadays, but you would never believe how worried he was when he called me after he came back from school today.”
Roxas rolled his eyes up to the ceiling with a grin. “Yeah, yeah…”
A sigh. “Really, Roxas… Just think – would your father like for you to waste your life like this?”

Roxas’s gaze suddenly turned steely and cold. His muscles tensed and his mother gasped a bit, knowing immediately that she’d made a dire mistake.

Roxas rose suddenly to his feet, fists clenched. “Don’t you DARE bring him up!” he hissed.
“R…Roxas, I—”
“I can’t believe you’d try to use him against me! That’s low – even for YOU!”
“Honey, please, calm down – I-I didn’t mean to!” his mother cried.
“NO! I’ve had enough compromising with you! You just want to keep me away from him! Well, here’s news – I wouldn’t give him up for the world! And there’s nothing you can do to stop me!”

His mother began to scowl. “Roxas, enough of this! I know you’re hurting – we all are! But you need to come out and accept your feelings instead of keeping it bottled inside of you! It’s not healthy!”
“Mom, you can shut up and get out of my room now. I’m not interested in ANYTHING you have to say.”
“You used to be such a good boy before the accident, Roxas – where did my little boy go?” the woman reminisced. “Ven turned out to be an absolute angel – always helping me in my time of need, but you just became so introverted and bitter…”
A feral growl. “Oh, and you’re comparing me to Ven now?!” Roxas spat. “Typical! Are you done yet?! I’ve got a visit with Axel tonight and I don’t want you to make me late!”

His mother stood with a regal sort of grace and poise. “Not quite, Roxas. We were hoping it wouldn’t have to come to this, but you leave us no choice. It’s about time we started getting the law on our side.”

Roxas blinked. “The… Law…?”
The woman nodded. “Yes, Roxas. You remember the nice policeman down the street from us? Mister Lexaeus Stone? We’ve gotten in touch with him and contacted him with our concerns. Tonight, he has made a few minor changes in his schedules, and… Well, just know that he’ll be on the look-out for you, alright? It’d be best for everyone if you just stopped this yourself.”
Roxas stared at her as if she’d suddenly sprouted a second head. “… You… WHAT?!”
“I’m sorry, honey… But it was our last resort. This. Ends. NOW.”
“………………”

Roxas stared at her for a particularly long and unsettling time, his jaw clenched so tight, he feared his teeth might break. “… Get out of my room. Get out of my room NOW!!!”

In a fit of rage, he picked up his lamp and flung it at the wall, screaming, “DAMN IT, YOU CAN’T KEEP ME AWAY FROM HIM!!! I HATE YOU ALL!!!”
His mother shrieked as it smashed across the wall beside her and made a speedy exit, tears brimming in her eyes. Please, Roxas – make the right decision… We all love you, but we need the REAL Roxas back. This has gone on long enough.

Roxas began punching his pillow time and time again with tears brimming his eyes. With each punch, he envisioned a person who had hurt him during a time he needed it most. Ven, Hayner, Mom, my family, my friends… A glassy tear rolled down his cheek. Traitors… Traitors ALL of them! They don’t want to see me happy! They don’t understand ANYTHING about me! They don’t understand anything about HIM! How DARE they judge our love?!

He paused. … They’ve all betrayed me… Why am I even still hanging out in this dump? There’s nothing left for me here. Nothing but traitors and baboons who hardly know anything more than how to scratch their butts! I… His mind whirled. I… should… Run away with Axel! It’d be perfect! I’d be able to stay with him all of the time! We could even elope! Oh, it’d be so romantic… And so easy! I probably wouldn’t even have to pack – Axel’s so well off and generous, he would just buy me anything I need! Perfect!

He flopped on his bed, eyes burning with determination. Well, that settles it… I know I was having doubts about our trust before, thanks to Hayner, but he’ll open up eventually. He has to. I’ve made up my mind – I’ve grown sick and tired living with people who don’t appreciate me for who I am. It’s time for my Highwayman to come riding to my rescue once and for all…

**************************************************​

Roxas began getting showered and dressed at about eight that night to get ready for Axel and his meeting. He brushed his teeth, spiffed up his hair, put on cologne – EVERYTHING that he needed for it all to be just PERFECT. He slipped a pack of gum in his pocket just in case a breath emergency popped up at the worst of times. Then, he sat on the bed, and waited silently, in the dark, until the other lights in the house all went out.

A few hours later, he was slinking through the darkened house like an expert, his feet hardly making a sound on the otherwise creaky floor. During the day, he clomped around on purpose – mostly so that anyone within the house could tell when he was out of the room and get the hell out of his way, but also so that no one would know how quiet he could be when he wanted to be. Usually, however, he would just climb out of his window instead of risking alerting his parents by going through the old, creaky house. But this time he needed to pay a very… special visit.

The boy slipped into the kitchen, thankful that the room had nice, solid tile instead of rickety old wood. Very quietly and slowly, he slid the silverware drawer open, took a long, deep breath as he prepared himself for what he was about to do, and carefully slid out a long, glittering butcher knife.

He gazed at it sadly as the blade glinted in the moonlight. I didn’t want it to come to this, but… I don’t think I have a choice anymore. I HAVE to see Axel, no matter what. His hand shook as he trailed his finger over the sharp tip, his eyes growing dark and fierce. But it’s okay. Axel’s got my back, lots of brains, AND he’s got munny. I know that even if I get in trouble, my highwayman will come rescue me. He has to… The boy closed his eyes, as if by willing hard enough, it’d be destined to come true. He… He HAS to!

After a moment of trying to figure out a way to conceal the knife in his pants in a way that wouldn’t cause him any harm, but would be quick and easy to get out in a pinch, the boy snuck out of the front door, and disappeared from the house he had been lovingly raised in for the last five years.

It was the last time he’d ever step foot in that place again.

**************************************************​

The wind was a torrent of darkness among the gusty trees…

Roxas tugged his loose-fitting jacket over his body, gazing off into the distance, his expression calm and serene. A slight breeze sifted through his hair as he waited. He was standing beside an old, abandoned parking lot standing beside a crumbling warehouse downtown. This had been his and Axel’s meeting place ever since the parlor closed its doors to them.

The moon was a ghostly galleon tossed upon cloudy seas.

The darkness of the night was washed away as the moon, full and bursting with light seeped out from behind a veil of indigo clouds. Roxas turned his face up to the pale light, his azure eyes flashing a bright frost-color, then turned his attention back to the battered road before the lot.

The road was a ribbon of moonlight, over the purple moor. And the highwayman came riding… Riding. Riding!

The blonde grinned as he caught a glimpse of something along the horizon. My highwayman came riding! Up to the old inn door.

Over the cobbles he clattered and clashed in the dark inn-yard, and he tapped with his whip on the shutters, but all was locked and barred! He whistled a tune to the window, and who should be waiting there, but the landlord’s blue-eyed daughter. Bess, the landlord’s daughter. Plaiting a dark red love-knot into her long, blonde hair.

Roxas, who was tugging gingerly at one of his blonde spikes, blushed as Axel’s sleek, red, Safari Arachnid purred to a stop beside him. The redhead flashed one of his signature smiles, and opened the passenger door with a, “Get in.” Roxas nodded and jumped in, happy to oblige.

He’d a French cocked-hat on his forehead, a bunch of lace at his chin, a coat of the claret velvet, and breeches of brown doe-skin. They fitted with never a wrinkle: his boots were up to the thigh! And he rode with a jeweled twinkle. His pistol butts a-twinkle. His rapier hilt a-twinkle. His rapier hilt a-twinkle, under the jeweled sky!

Roxas gazed appraisingly at Axel as he buckled up. He loved how the redhead’s suit was always ironed to perfection and how his tie was always straight and tight – no matter how late it was or what had gone on through the day. Expensive, well-polished Italian leather shoes rested on his feet and his fingers were studded with diamonds and rubies that glinted with light with the slightest movement.

“One kiss, my bonny sweetheart. I’m after a prize tonight! But I shall be back with the yellow gold, before the morning light.”

“Hey, babe – how about a kiss for your main man, huh?” Axel chuckled, brushing his lips against the younger blonde’s.
Roxas grinned and deepened the kiss, pressing as urgently as he dared. This made Axel smirk slightly, but, feeling a strange urge to get back on the road as quickly as possible, he ended the kiss early, and immediately began speeding off into the countryside.

“Yet…”

As Roxas watched him silently, his eyes shining quite blatantly with naïve adoration, he silently recited the last few lines he always thought of every time he met with Axel. “If they press me sharply, and harry me through the day, then watch for me by moonlight… Watch for me by moonlight… I’ll come to thee by moonlight! Though hell shall bar the way!”

**************************************************​

“You’re sure looking sharp this fine evening, Roxxy…”
Roxas blinked, and chuckled with a slight blush staining his cheeks. He twirled a strand of hair daintily around his index finger, looking away from the attractive redhead. Indeed, the boy WAS wearing his best clothes today – he figured that if he was going to run away with nothing but the clothes on his back, he might as well wear the best things he had hanging in his closet.

He was wearing his favorite graphic T-shirt sporting a giant orange heart in the midst of grey, shadowy figures lurking in the background. The heart had a keyhole in the middle, and pure white wings bursting from either side. Two ornate keys were crossed over from behind the giant heart, and on the bottom corners were two grey skulls which were noticeably darker than the rest of the shirt. Beneath them were balls of flame – the same color orange as the huge heart in the middle. It fit snugly, showing every dip and curve on his young, agile body.

Over his shirt, he wore a simple, green-and-white checkered hoody with short sleeves. The hood was casually thrown over his mess of blonde hair, and the zipper was up only about halfway up. He also had on tight-fitting denim jeans that were as inky blue as the midnight sky on a starless night. There was a hole in one of the knees and Roxas had looped a belt with the design of an eagle on the buckle around his waist. Green-and-white checkered Confer shoes rested on his feet – lovingly and painstakingly cleaned just for the occasion. He also had on a dog-tag necklace holding a locket with his mom, annoying twin brother, and idiotic stepfather giving bright, cheesy grins to the camera man, and a Mickey Mouse keychain. He loved that keychain, and wouldn’t give it up for the world. Disney World had been the last place his family – or, at least, what he considered his family – had visited before…

He glanced over to the redhead. Axel, as always, was dressed in his signature suit and tie. Boring. But at least he looked DAMN hot in it.

As always.

“Did you have more trouble with your folks today?” Axel asked idly.
Roxas’s eyes flashed for a split second. “Mmm… Yeah. A little. But it’s fine – **** like that happens all the time.”
“…” A sigh. “Well, alright… If you say so…”

Roxas sighed at Axel’s uneasy tone. Oh, jeez… How am I supposed to tell him about all of this crap? Damn it – Axel is such a nice guy – I don’t want to have to dump all of this on him… But… Will he mind? We’re destined to be together, right? Like he always tells me…

He shook his head. It was luck – pure, dumb luck – that I managed to escape my house today without running into that police guy. But can I do it tomorrow? And the next day? And the day after that? No – this isn’t going to work. I can’t keep doing this. I’ve either gotta ask Axel if he’ll be willing to spend his life with me TONIGHT, or never see him again. He pouted slightly, the fear of rejection stronger now than it had ever been before. Be strong, Roxas… You can do it…

Axel glanced over at him. “Hey, man… You’re making all sorts of weird faces over there. You sure you’re okay?”
“Yeah! Yeah… Just fine.” Roxas blinked, looking around. He sure didn’t remember this scenery! “Hey, Ax, where’re ya takin’ me? I don’t remember this place at all!”
The redhead gave a quiet, soothing chuckle that melted the young boy’s heart. “Let’s just say that I’ve got a surprise for you today, my sweet little angel.”
Roxas tried his best to play it cool and not let Axel know just how much that last comment had him swooning on the inside.

But Axel was a pretty good guesser, anyway.

Roxas turned on the CD player, and lost himself in a recording of “Moonlight Sonata” by his favorite composer. The two listened silently as the trees and hills rolled by.

The song was halfway through repeating the third way through when Axel finally pulled off the main road to a dirt trail leading into a dark cavern of trees. Roxas blinked, looking on curiously. He shot Axel a puzzled glance that read, “Uh… You mind telling me where we’re headed NOW?” but Axel blatantly ignored it. Wow – this forest is so thick! I can barely see my hand waving in front of my face! I hope that stupid redhead knows what he’s doing dragging me out here like this…

He was about to make his complaints known to Axel, when suddenly he was blinded by the sudden flood of moonlight washing over him as they pulled into a clearing.
“Here we are, Blondie,” Axel drawled, shifting the gear into PARK and turning off the engine.
Roxas gasped, his eyes widening in a way that almost made Axel start chuckling again. “Th…This is…”
Roxas drew another breathless gasp. “Oh, Axel – it’s so BEAUTIFUL…!” he whispered faintly.

The cherry red Safari was at the crest of a gentle slope leading out to a beautiful lake, seemingly untouched by the malicious grip of humankind. The beautiful, pale moon reflected perfectly off of the tranquil waters as fireflies danced around like tiny fairies. A plethora of large, white flowers were blooming all around the lake, turning their eager faces to the sky. Their strikingly beautiful, yet simple and fragile forms made them seem entirely ethereal in the silver moonlight. The tall, wild grass swayed gently in the light breeze, their stalks ever dancing with the slightest gust. Roxas could feel his heart flutter at the very sight of this beautiful, untamed place, and swore he could even feel tears stinging his eyes.

Axel was nodding, staring out at the vast expanse of land stretching before them as well. “I had a feeling you’d say that… Found this place a few years back during one of my first trips down this area. I was feeling a bit adventurous, so when I saw the trail, I thought, ‘Why not?’ and the next thing I knew… Here I was…” He gave a gentle sigh, his dark eyes gazing out onto the faintly rippling waters. “I’ve never shown anyone else this, you know… I’m sure that it was probably some sort of camp site for all sorts of hard-core hikers or whatever looong before I happened upon it, but… I don’t know. Every time I used to come here, I just couldn’t help but think of it as MY own, private thinking space. But now…” His gaze flickered over to Roxas once more. “It seems that I can’t stop thinking about you, whenever I visit…”

“Of… Me…?” Roxas squeaked, cursing inwardly at how stupid he must have sounded. His heart was pounding wildly by now, and his face was cherry red with both embarrassment and pride, if it were possible to share such contradicting emotions. Oh, GOD, he was eating this **** up. It’s so cheesy… But I love it!

“Yes…” Axel murmured softly, those deep, soulful eyes enrapturing him once more. “It’s just like you, if think about it… Wild, free, untamable… Yet gentle and nurturing in the oddest of ways.” He stroked the boy’s face gently. “You’re tough and strong willed, but at the same time, so fragile…”
Roxas couldn’t help but stare silently at the gorgeous redhead, a huge, goofy smile plastered over his reddening face.
Axel chuckled. “Cute…” he murmured, kissing Roxas gently on the lips.
Roxas moaned slightly, leaning into the kiss. “Y…You know, Axel… I…” He paused for a moment, trying to hold back the emotion swelling into his voice. “I… I… Gods, Axel, I love you more than anything else in the world – you know that?”
Axel blinked and quirked an eyebrow. “Huh? Rox, where did that come from?”

Roxas, feeling that Axel wasn’t taking him seriously, huffed and persisted, “But I AM, okay? I’ve never been so sure of ANYTHING! Ever! I… I-I’d do ANYTHING for you! I already have!” Bright blue, desperate eyes were starting to shine with tears. “My parents, Axel! My family! My friends! I ran away! I left them ALL!” He grasped the redhead’s hand urgently. “They didn’t believe in us, Axel! They wanted to rip us apart, but I wouldn’t let them! I’d rather DIE than never see you again!”

Axel’s mouth was hanging open. “R…Roxas… If you were having problems at home, you could have told me! I… I didn’t know it was this bad – I-I could have rescheduled—”
Roxas shook his head silently with a sad smile. “No, Axel. I… I’d rather give all of them up for all of eternity than go one more moment without you in my life.” He wiped away the tears that were now streaming down his face and smiled slightly. “I… I want to be with you… Always. Axel, I… I hate to be a bother, but… Could I stay with you? Please, Axel – I have nowhere else to stay, and if I go back home tonight, I… I might not ever SEE you again!”

There was a long, awkward silence.

Axel continued staring at Roxas, an unreadable expression on his face. With each passing second, Roxas’s expression grew more and more disconcerted. “… Please, Axel…” he begged softly, the tears beginning to spill once more. “I… I NEED you…! You’re all I have left…” He closed his eyes, praying silently to some god he’d never believed in the first place. Please, God… Please, please, PLEASE, God…!

Axel gave a long, suffering sigh.

“Well, damn – who can say ‘no’ to a face like that?”
Wait – wut? Roxas looked up in disbelief, his eyelashes still twinkling with unshed tears.
Axel chuckled softly, and tapped the boy on the forehead gently. “I KNOW you’re not deaf, Blondie Bess.”

Roxas swore he could feel – FEEL – his heart explode with joy. “Oh, AXEL!!!” he cried, throwing his arms around the older man in a loving embrace. “Oh, God – you’ve made me the happiest guy in the WORLD!”
Axel chuckled a bit. “Don’t mention it, kid – really. It should be a piece of cake payin’ for your expenses, and… Well, I’ve always wanted a little company—”
“Shut up and kiss me, you bonehead!” Roxas laughed, blinking away his tears.

Axel rolled his eyes and leaned forward, brushing his lips across the younger blonde’s. Roxas gave a tiny, sensual coo, wrapping his slender arms around the redhead. He felt so warm and safe… He knew without a doubt now, that everything was going to end perfectly. His own little happy ending. Axel’s going to take care of everything… he thought as their tongues did battle. He’s going to pay for me to stay and we’ll always be together and nothing would ever separate us, ever. Ever! He gave a tiny, satisfied smirk as Axel once again began suckling at the favorite spot of his neck – right below the pulse point. Ha. Take THAT, everyone who didn’t believe in us! I guess I’m going to be riding into the sunset with my Highwayman after all! Which only leaves…

The boy smirked and tilted Axel’s waiting ear next to his mouth, and murmured in as low and sultry of a voice as he could manage, “You know I’m not wearing any underwear, right…?” He followed it up with a tiny nibble on the outer shell juuuuust like in the gay cowboy porn novels he most certainly did NOT read.

Axel immediately turned as red as his hair. He jerked away from Roxas. “Wh…What…?!” he gasped incredulously.
Roxas giggled slightly, gave the thigh of his pants a little pinch, and released the rough fabric. It snapped back with an audible POP! “Mostly buhcuz there wudn’t any room, but… Ya know what I’m gettin’ at, right?” he drawled in a horrid imitation of a country accent.
Axel groaned. “Oh, no, Roxas – not this AGAIN!”

Roxas huffed angrily. Damn it, this was getting frustrating now. Yes, the making out was great. Hell – it was MORE than great. But as great as it was, he was starting to get the feeling that he needed something MORE than that now. At first, Axel’s reluctance to dive into anything too physical was refreshing. NOW, it was simply annoying.

He needed to get LAID. Plain and simple. To HELL with virginity.

“Axel, what are you going on about now?” Roxas asked, his voice come dangerously close to a whine. “I’m AT consenting age now. We’re going to be freaking LIVING together, and obviously this isn’t some heat-of the moment-type-deal! I freaking CAME without underwear! How much more obvious do I have to make this for you?! I. Want. It. NOW.”

Axel was quite honestly reeling from how straightforward the tiny blonde was being. “But—”
“But NOTHIN’!” Roxas squealed, his dependable temper flaring once more – for the first time aimed at Axel. “You knew this day had to come sooner or later! If you REALLY only wanted me for casual kissing sessions, then that’d mean you were leading me ON! Don’t play with me, Axel!” Damn it – if only he’d brought condoms to let Axel know he was REALLY serious. Hopefully, though, Axel had him covered… He hoped.
“Hey, heeey…!~” Axel drawled, resting his hands on the blonde’s narrow shoulders. He shot Roxas a 200,000 watt version of his signature, disarming grin, and cooed, “Relax… Let your Highwayman take care of ya, ‘kay, Blondie Bess?”
Roxas, having been reduced to a blushing, dithering mess, could only stutter, “Uh… U-U-Ummm… K…Kay…” Smooth, Roxas. Smoooth.

Axel began running his fingers up and down Roxas’s silky arms. “Wow, Roxas… Your skin is so… Soft. Like a baby’s bottom…” he whispered, dipping down for yet another kiss. “Warm, too…”
Roxas wrinkled his nose and gave a soft, whiney sort of sound. “You only like saying **** like that just to get a reaction out of me, don’t you?” he muttered past the redhead’s lips. It’d worked. Thank GOD for baby oil and deep, penetrating body lotion!
Axel offered no answer besides another chuckle.

Roxas honestly had no recollection of what happened after that. For a guy who took well over half a year before even considering paying a visit to second base, Axel sure as hell worked FAST! In a five-minute blur of kisses, gasps, whirling noises, and ties being franticly yanked off, and ****ing HEAPS of saliva being exchanged, Roxas found himself shirtless, sprawled across his leveled passenger seat with his legs spread and his tight pants getting increasingly uncomfortable, with Axel on top of him – fully clothed disregarding his missing tie and jacket, but Roxas expected that to be solved soon enough.

Axel was sucking blissfully at the blonde’s neck and giving tiny moans of pleasure, his hands exploring the boy’s bare chest. Roxas was literally shaking with anticipation. I’m ****ing 16 getting ****ing sucked off by a ****ing hot as HELL redhead – who happens to be a ****ing millionaire – inside of his ****ING Safari. A tiny, blissful sigh. This is it. I’m officially livin’ the dream.

Seconds… ticked by… like………

Eons……………

… Okay, I KNOW this f*cker can go faster than that after tearing off that jacket like he was f*cking Superman, Roxas grumbled in his mind. Axel was STILL nipping gently at his neck. Amusing, but could they PLEASE hurry it up?

Trying to drop a hint while still being seductively subtle, the boy eased Axel’s hips closer to his. Nothing. With a tiny, discontented grunt, the boy tried again – this time a pressing their hips together a lot HARDER. Axel gave a tiny grin and a faint chuckle, but STILL didn’t make a move.

Roxas was LIVID. Damn it, Axel! Are you going to f*cking make me BEG or something?! F*cking cruel b*stard…

He was just about to do so, when suddenly Axel bit down again. HARD. Roxas squealed with pain, and slapped Axel away, clutching his now bleeding neck. “OW! You f*cker! What the hell’s the matter with—”

SLAM!

Roxas instantly fell silent as Axel shoved him against the back of his seat. His bright, blue eyes were wide and filled with shock… And fear. He stared up at Axel, who was smirking down at him in a particularly disconcerting manner, pinning Roxas’s hands above his head. “You… REALLY shouldn’t have done that…” he murmured in a low, silky tone that seemed to be hiding a faint hiss. His dark eyes glittered with a sadistic sort of evil.
Roxas could feel his heart skip a beat. What was going on?! “A…Axel…?”

Axel smirked slightly, giving the growing pool of blood on the blonde’s neck a tiny lick. “Mmmm… Oh f*ck – that’s some good sh*t there…” he rasped. A chuckle and another lick. “Sorry, kid, but I just can’t hold back any longer. The smell of you is driving me nuts. It’s time I end this little charade.”
“A…Axel, what the hell are you TALKING about…?!” Roxas grunted, trying to jerk free. “G…Get OFF of me, you freak!”
Axel continued holding the boy down in a viselike grip. “I told you that I had a surprise in store for you, didn’t I…?” The redhead slowly lifted his head away from the blonde’s neck, and grinned toothily. “Surprise.”

Roxas stared. He blinked. He stared some more. He blinked again. Hard. If he’d had any use of his arms, he would have rubbed his eyes. Am I REALLY seeing this?

Fangs. Two long, slender fangs, seemingly filed to a point. The boy couldn’t seem to believe it. But… That’s…

“Impossible?” Axel snorted, as if hearing his thoughts. Obviously he’d gone through this many times before. “Oh, but falling in love with a rich, attractive redhead you know nothing about and riding off into the sunset with him IS?” he asked in a demeaning, mocking tone of voice. Laughter. “Stupid, worthless, PATHETIC humans… You lot do make such easy prey. There are no such things as fairy tales.”

“I… D…Don’t understand…” Roxas stammered quietly with an odd type of calmness that surprised even him. “You… You never had any feelings for me? N…None at all?”
Axel burst out into wild laughter. “So single-minded! You REALLY still think I have some sort of FEELINGS for you, human? But, no – I suppose you DO with your blood smelling so good.” He snorted. “Typical. You poor, idiotic thing, you.” Contempt OOZED from every single word the redhead uttered.

“It was a f*cking set up from the beginning!” he continued gleefully. “When I picked you up from the road the night we met, I had NO intentions of letting you walk away without being sucked dry first. You were never anything more than a snack to me – got it memorized? Food. A free meal. Cattle for the slaughter. And you FELL for it, you little shithead!”

He laughed, drinking in the pained expression of Roxas’s face. “It made me laugh to think that you found yourself SO high and mighty over the rest of this pathetic race, thinking yourself so smart and so clever not to find yourself trapped in the ridiculous, wild-goose chase your kind call love, yet at the same time, you have the NERVE to give up everything you know and love for a f*cking stranger! You never even NOTICED the somewhat obvious threats right in front of your nose, you idiot! And all for a few recited lines from a poem I grew up with!” Another snort. “I’ve never cared for you on a sentimental level. Breaking your arm would be like breaking a glass for me. Here; I’ll even demonstrate.”

Roxas gasped as one of his hands was wrenched down and bent sharply at an utterly unnatural angle. Damn, he was strong – how come Roxas had never realized that before? “Take a deep breath, Blondie – this is gonna hurt a lot!” Axel cried gleefully.

There was a loud POP and several sickening crunches. Roxas threw his head back and howled in agony, the tears finally springing to his eyes.
Axel cackled, his eyes glowing a bright red color as the scent of blood filled his senses. His clawed fingers dug into the boy’s creamy white skin sadistically. “So now you finally understand the f*cking pile of sh*t you’re landed yourself in, huh, Qu**r Boy? But, lucky for me, there isn’t anyone for MILES out here. You’re. F*cking. MINE.”

“You f*cking b*stard!” Roxas choked out past his tears. “DEMON! Why didn’t you just f*cking do this when we first met and save me the misery?!”
Axel gave a very low chuckle. Roxas found that the sound that used to makes his very soul turn summersaults was now starting to make his STOMACH do the same. “It’s been a bit of the urban myth amongst vampires that nothing is richer than blood flowing from a broken heart. I’ve decided to put that up to the test.” A grin. “I was actually supposed to wait a little over a year instead of eight months. But, alas, eagerness got the better of me.”

A tiny sigh. “I’ll be honest – when I first met you on the side of the road, my first intent was to drive you somewhere dark and deserted and suck you dry then and there. What a waste that would have been. But, luckily, I wasn’t hungry – I’d just eaten before coming across you – and it wasn’t long before I could smell your attraction to me. So I decided to ride the train and see where it took me. Made sure I ate every night I woke up so that I wouldn’t be too tempted before you were ready.” He licked his lips. “Forgot today. Oopsie.” A chuckle. “If you ever decided you just plain didn’t like me, or got put in a situation where you couldn’t meet me because of your folks, I’d just break in your house and kidnap you or something. I DID know where you lived, after all…” Another booming, sickening laugh. “Such. A. ****ing. TWAT.”

“It… It was all… It was all a… a… sick game for you, wasn’t it…?” Roxas sobbed tearfully.
“Course it was!” Axel laughed. “I’m ****ing 239 years old! I’ve gotta find SOME way to occupy myself, ya know. Why not, when I have money to waste, time to kill, and sweet blood to gain? Speaking of which…” His bright, red eyes flashed once more as he let his mouth hover over the blonde’s tantalizing neck. “No more stalling, okay? As fun as it is to play with my food, your sobbing is REALLY starting to grate on my nerves.”

“No… No, no, no…!” The blonde boy whimpered as a fresh barrage of tears flowed down his face. “This can’t be real… It CAN’T be! It’s all a dream – a horrible nightmare!” He screwed his eyes shut, trying to ignore the screaming pain shooting up and down his broken arm, whispering urgently as if by saying it aloud, it’d come true. “I don’t believe in vampires… I don’t…!”
The corners of Axel’s mouth quirked into a tiny smile. “… Yeah… You believe whatever the hell you want to believe, kid. Whatever the hell you want.” And then, his sharp fangs sank inside of the boy’s neck, sending blood immediately bubbling to the surface.

Again, Roxas screamed.

It was different than he’d ever expected or read in the novels. Painful still, but different. Axel didn’t suck at his neck, or at least not forcibly. It seemed, rather that he would let the blood well to the surface and lap it up with his tongue, or slurp it up noisily. It was a noisy and thoroughly sickening experience, and he almost felt nauseous just thinking about what was going on. Axel was slurping blissfully, giving tiny hisses of pleasure or low guttural moans, as if this was the best thing that’d ever happened to him. Roxas could only imagine what it tasted like to…

Ugh… he thought with a tiny shudder. On second thought, I don’t really WANT to…

It was pretty obvious that Axel was slipping into his own little world with each gulp. The tenseness in his body was loosening up – his shoulders slowly going slack, his thirsty, eager gulps slowly turning into long, methodical draws, and Roxas could even feel his iron grip loosening until the point that Axel’s hand had dropped away from his wrist. Roxas’s thoughts were hazy and a bit muddled from the lack of blood, but something immediately flashed through his mind.

The knife. Do I still have it…? He weakly shook his right leg, and drew a sharp breath at the feeling of something flat and hard across his ankle. YES! He uttered a short prayer of thanks to that one god he STILL wasn’t so sure he believed in, but gasped, realizing that he’d have no way to get to it. With a tiny grunt, he tried to sit up and move his leg closer, but it was no use. Axel always pushed him back down, and he was in no position to struggle. Damn it…! His one ounce of hope already crushed so soon. His entire body felt sluggish and strangely numb. He felt like surrendering to deep sleep, but, no. Not while this f*cker was still on him. He’d fight to the end, just to spite him!

Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, Axel stopped. He licked his bloody chops with a sigh of satisfaction, and blinked in surprise. “You’re still conscious?”
Roxas glared icily at Axel through a veil of unshed tears. I hate you SO much…
“Huh. That’s a surprise.” Axel laughed again. “I like your spunk, kid. Now, the transformation will be taking place soon. First, you’re gonna feel a bit light-head, then a little dizzy, then nauseous, and then you’ll black out. You’ll go through a series of epileptic seizures while you’re out as your weak, human body will try to fight the changes taking over, and when you wake up… You’ll be one of us. Trust me – you’ll thank me. Once you’re stripped of these weakling human emotions, things become so much clearer.”

Roxas let out a tiny cry of pain as Axel suddenly flung open the passenger door, and shoved him onto the ground. He’d landed on his bad arm. “Good luck, Bessie!” the redhead laughed, revving the engine. “By the way, it’d be a great idea if you found shelter before dawn… We lose most of our newbies that way. Oh, and if you’re still alive tomorrow night, meet me up in the usual place, m’kay? We can finish where we left off.”

A laugh. The Safari engine roared out a loud good-bye, and the tires squealed, sending dirt and rocks spraying all over the boy, and the next thing Roxas knew, the laughing redhead was just a distant memory. A far off hum in the distance.

Everything was quite for a long, long time, and then a tiny sob cut through the lonesome night’s air. “Damn it…” was the only thing Roxas could think to say. “Damn it, damn it, DAMN it!” USED! he thought venomously. I was being played a fool the entire time! That ******* never gave a damn about me! The sobs grew and grew, fueled by his hatred and regret, until his entire body was shaking with sobs. “I… I can’t believe I was so stupid…” Axel was right. He should have noticed something right away. The way he was always was nipping at his neck, the fact that Roxas had never – not ONCE – seen Axel eat, besides that one time he kept offering his ice cream, and, of course, the fact he would never agree to see Roxas unless it was in the dead of night…

A wave of dizziness hit him. That was the first sign, wasn’t it? Or was it the second?

His bleary eyes scanned the beautiful scenery sprawled about him. Damn you… Damn you for being so beautiful… Don’t you care that my one f*cking true love was a f*cking heartless, sadistic *******? Doesn’t anyone give a ****? He gave a quiet snort. Like anyone WOULD… I’ve been such a f*cking d*ck to everyone who cared about me… Damn it… I should have listened… He shook his head. Not that any of that matters any more… I’m not going to see them ever again… I gave up a perfectly good life for a happy ending, riding in the sunset with my one true love – my Highwayman. Sobbing. It hurts so much… It DOES… To think he literally meant everything to me… And I meat jack SH*T to him…

Another tiny sob, followed by a tiny moan. Suddenly, he was starting to feel queasy…

Oh no… Panic immediately shot through his body. NO! I won’t! I’ll NEVER be another Axel! He struggled a bit, straining to reach the bottom hem of his pants. He rolled up the edge of his pants, and curled his slender fingers around the handle of his blade. He’d worn two pairs of socks today and had slipped the knife between the folds so that he wouldn’t accidentally cut himself while walking and doing things like that.

As the blade glinted in the moonlight, the tears began flowing from his eyes as he recalled what his original intent for the use of this knife had been… And what he was about to do with it now.

He closed his eyes with a final, sad smile. “I’m sorry…” he whispered to the fleeting memories of his loving family.

“And goodbye…”

The next day, police officials found the corpse of a dead blonde boy abandoned next to the lake, a fatal stab wound in his chest.

(The End...?)​

Marluxia riding Lexaeus like a pony! 8DDD

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Rule Number 23​

It’s good to be home for the week, I thought with a satisfied smile. I strode down the halls of the empty hallway, enjoying the small period of rest between my ever-frequent mission duties. Being one of the best fighters had its ups and its downs, after all. In my hands, I held a pen, and a little tiny note-book like cluster of pages with various Sudoku challenges, crossword puzzles, and word searches in it. I wasn’t really in the mood for sculpting today, and Demyx would be away with his friends VIII and XIII today for quite some time, so this was the best alternative way I could think of to keep myself occupied.

Suddenly, I heard a shrill whoop from above. Thinking it was just one of Xigbar’s usual shenanigans, I ignored it, only to have something drop right on top of me! My pen and notepad filled with puzzles clattered to the ground as two slender legs wound around my neck from behind and two hands grasped huge fistfuls of my hair. The first reaction was to throw whoever – or whatever – this was to the ground and give them one punishing blow with my tomahawk, but I immediately stopped as I heard an, “High ho Silver… AND AWAY!!!â€

I froze, and looked up, completely disbelieving. Sure enough, Marluxia was grinning back down at me. A few, agonizing seconds ticked by in silence. I don’t believe this! This is a direct violation of number 23! Marluxia was snarling in a feral manner by now, and he dug his heels into my side. “I said, AWAY, damnit!â€

I sighed, figuring that the poor Nobody was starting to come off his medicine, and instead of dragging him to Xemnas’s lair, I decided to simply oblige, and took off running in whichever direction was most convenient. Marluxia gave a thrilled shriek and threw his hands up in the air as if he was riding a roller-coaster. “FASTER, FASTER!!!â€

I sighed. Not really the way to spend my day off I had in mind, but… At least it was something to do, right? For the sake of my sanity, I convinced myself that this was, indeed, correct.

Henry, you can stick the remote up your butt all day for all I care, but if I hear your door being slammed, it'll REALLY be ur @$$, u hear?! DDD<

I had to. X'DDD

Word vomit. Therapy. My sanity leaking out of my ears as I'm typing this very message. All of the above?

I honestly don't know anymore. This is something I literally whipped up in, like, the last few hours. There are probably a million mistakes. I don't care. I just needed something to vent on, some way.

Leah needs hugs, ya'll... She needs them bad... <='C

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Dischord​

He knew.

Somehow, he'd known the entire time, but he didn't say a thing. Looking back, I sensed that something was off, too. But I'm just a stupid, cowardly Waterboi. What could I have known?

All of that time... he spent reassuring me... “Don't worry, Demyx... It's just a week-long mission at our new post in Castle Oblivion to see how well its powers work... It should be easy...” All of that time... He knew something was going to happen... He knew.

Gone.

The words rang through the boy's head as he stared at the blood-red Proof of Existence. “Lexaeus. The Silent Hero.”

Gone.

His movements stiff and jerky, the boy unsteady stumbled back into a portal leading to his room. Why do I insist on doing this to myself? he asked in his mind as he toppled into the messy, unmade bed. I know he's gone... I've visited that same damned place every day for two weeks now... It's not like he's going to come back... Again...

His usually neat and tidy room had turned into an absolute pigsty over the course of just those fourteen days. Trash and dirty clothes were strewn about the room, and there was a certain, distinctive oder hovering around the room that smelled like sweat, moldy cheese, and something dead.

Demyx himself was looking rather unkempt. His usually tidy hair was greasy and matted over from neglect, his bright curious eyes were dull and listless with dark circles under his eyes, and there were stains all over his wrinkled, unwashed Organization cloak.

Gone...

The worst part wasn't even the fact that he was dead. The worst part was what happened after his death. All of their deaths. No acknowledgement to the fallen. No funeral. No kind words telling what brave, hardworking people they were. Even the traitors – Marluxia, Vexen, and Larxene weren't discussed after Axel told his story, and it was apparent that they were dead. All they did was... move on. All Xemnas did was redistribute missions so that they could make up for all of the hearts that they'd normally get with the full amount of members.

Except for Demyx, of course. Demyx quickly found himself restricted to the castle after he bombed his first two missions after Axel's return. He was usually pretty bad at missions anyway, but the added shock of His best friend and father-figure disappearing from his life forever... His service was more of a hindrance than helpful. So, while everyone was out gathering hearts around the clock, who was left to sit in rot in the castle, wasting away in solitude?

Demyx closed his eyes, and listened. Silent... he decided. … The castle was never silent before... It used to be always bursting with life and excitement... There was never a time when it was... dead... He looked up at the big, heart-shaped moon shining outside of his window. Why... When they died... did the whole castle have to die with them...? Why... When Kingdom Hearts looks so much fuller... Does my soul feel so empty...?

He could feel his inner demons start to resurface. Come on Demyx... He can never come back... You have to join him... It's the only way...
He covered his ears. No... No – go away... I'm not listening to you... I'll never listen to you...!
It's the only way... Do you WANT to go through life like this?
Shut UP!

It was the quiet... The quiet! It was maddening! He couldn't stand it! I can't live like this... The blonde thought, sighing as he drew his sitar. “I'll go crazy... I have to play something... Anything to fill the silence...!”

With his fingers stiff and an uneven tempo, Demyx tried to begin playing one of his earlier compositions – he hadn't been able to compose something new in days. The light, plunky song was supposed to sound like soft raindrops plunking down to the earth below, but instead, it just sounded uneven and... false... Something was missing.

No, no, no...!

Demyx found himself playing the same part again and again and again and again... No, no, NO! That's not right! I didn't write it that way! Something's wrong!

He forced himself to slow down, take a deep breath, and concentrate. Okay... Forget about that... Don't play what you know... Play... what you feel.

For a second, he was silent, trying to channel those small, ghosts of emotions flowing through his mind. And then he began playing. Slowly, at first... His hands steady, all of the notes deep, gratey and inharmonious. He began playing faster... and faster... and faster still, sweat pouring from his brow as he pushed himself harder and faster than he ever had before. His fingers, slippery with sweat, began to cramp and ache, but he would not stop. If anything, he just went faster.

He bared his teeth as chaotic notes flew about at astounding speeds. Anarchy! Pandemonium! Chaos! DISCHORD! Without thinking he began banging out the same, inharmonious chord again and again, each time harder, louder, FASTER--!

TWANG!

Demyx stopped suddenly. He stared at his sitar quietly, noting the single, rebellious string, that had been unable to withstand his frantic playing and snapped under the stress.

And he felt part of his sanity snap with it.

“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAUUUUGHHHHHHHHH!!!”

With a wild, furious scream, the boy jumped to his feet, and heaved the poor sitar across the room. As soon as it touched the wall, it dissolved into a few watery bubbles and disappeared. But he was hardly getting started. The boy continued, pushing over his dresser, kicking his TV off of the stand and successfully breaking it, picking up his mattress and tossing it across the room, pushing off all of the books on his shelf, ripping up compositions, tearing off his blue, cheery wallpaper – anything he could get his hands on, he destroyed until there was literally nothing left but a pile of mess lying in the middle of his room.

Giving a few weak sobs, the boy finally collapsed, not feeling one tiny bit better – just even more empty. In his deliria, he curled up in a tiny ball inside of his closet – the only place safe from his destructive fit of anger. There was nothing but his soft, wheezy sobs, and tiny gasps of breath... Behind those few, superficial sounds... silence... The dreaded silence again.

What am I doing here...? he finally asked himself. I'm claustrophobic... I hate anything that has to do with closets... Why am I in one...?
He could almost feel his sanity chipping away, piece by piece. It wasn't long before his inner demons came surfacing up again. Damnit – look at you... You're a monster...You're turning into a monster...
You worthless piece of ****... You don't deserve to live...
He's waiting for you... All you have to do is go down to the kitchen and grab a few sleeping pills... It'll be so easy... So painless...
No... He thought, tears streaming down his face as he covered his ears, trying to block out the horrible voices. I won't listen...! You can't make me! I'd rather go deaf than listen to you!
It's the only way... Do it...
No...
DO IT!

“Make it stop – PLEASE!”
“Demyx?”
The boy gasped as a voice called his name from outside.
“Demyx, you in here? What was that? You alright?” They tried to open the door, only to find its path barred by a toppled dresser. “What the hell HAPPENED in here?! It looks like a ****ing tornado erupted in here! No – I take that back – it looks worse. I'd KNOW what an unleashed tornado would look like, and this is definitely worse.”

The boy sighed bitterly. Great... Just what I needed... He thought as Xaldin continued to push his way in. A big bully to pick on me and make me cry even more... He was too exhausted to protest, though, and let the bigger man do what he wanted.

After a while of struggling. Xaldin finally managed to slip inside of the doorway with a sigh. He looked around. “Demyx...? Where are you?”
“Go away...” came a muffled response.
Xaldin raised an eyebrow, and poked his head into the closet. “... Demyx...?”
The boy avoided eye contact.
Xaldin wrinkled his brow. “Demyx, what's going on? Why is your room such a mess? Why are you hiding in a closet? And what was that scream I heard before? At first, I thought a Heartless sneaked in here and had attacked you without us knowing! You're lucky I got today off.”
“..................” Demyx continued to avoid his eyes, his lower lip trembling ever-so-slightly. Within seconds, he was sniffling, and his eyes were flowing with tears. Again.

Damnit... You're pathetic – just like they all say... Pathetic, sniveling loser... Stop crying, you moron... you're just giving him something new to pick on you about...

But he couldn't stop. The tears kept flowing despite his best efforts to stifle them. All he could do was wait bitterly until Xaldin laughed at him or called him a pathetic wimp, or...

Hug... him...?

Demyx blinked, staring at the man as he kneeled down to Demyx's height, wrapped his strong arms arms around him, and gave a tight, yet gentle squeeze. Demyx stared at the side of his head. …Who are you, and what have you done with Xaldin?
“You were... thinking about him, weren't you...?” Xaldin asked softly.
Demyx blinked again. “... Who...?” he asked, though he was sure he already knew.
“Him. Lexaeus. I know you two were pretty close friends... And it's not like anyone else who's gone would make you cry like that... Though I'm sure you miss them all...”
“..............” Demyx felt himself choking up again. “It's so hard... to think that he's gone... Dead... He was always there for me... My very first friend... My guardian angel... Angels aren't supposed to die, Xaldin...”

Xaldin sighed. “I'm going to level with you, kid – I haven't believed in angels for a looong, long time now. But even I know that angels have to go back to heaven...”
“But... But it hurts...” the boy sobbed. “It hurts... I feel like I've lost my heart all over again... Why, if I'm not able to feel... Why does it hurt so much...? Why am I like this...?”
Xaldin sighed again. “Well, even if we don't have hearts anymore, we still have minds... Minds are capable of feeling loss when something they've grown accustomed to is gone. Minds can self-destruct. Minds can be illogical... Almost as illogical as hearts are.”

There was silence for a while.

“He was a great guy, you know...” Xaldin sighed. “I'd know... I've been working with him long enough... I wish that we could've said more in his honor – in all of their honor – but there just wasn't any time... Not with the Keyblade master going AWOL and all of our plans topsy-turvy because of that damned Marluxia... And I'm pretty damned sure Axel had some role in it, too. If we don't kick it into high gear now, we might never get our hearts back. We've GOT to do it... For everyone who died trying to see our dream come true...”

Demyx nodded silently, tears still brimming in his eyes. Xaldin wanted to stab himself in eye if it meant never having to look at such a gosh-darned pitiful sight again. “C'mon, Demyx – you're making this hard for me... C'mon – just smile, okay?”
Demyx gave a pathetic excuse for a smile.
“Demyx, you of all people should know how to smile right. Now c'mon. Don't make me have to bribe you with cake.”
The little smile grew a bit more sincere. “... Cake...?”
“Knew I'd get you with that one. Yeah. Cake.”
Demyx laughed a bit, and wiped his eyes. “Well... I guess a little treat couldn't hurt...”
“There we go...”

Xaldin helped him up, smiling a bit. “After we're done eating, I'll even help you clean your room up. I've got nothing better to do – I was just going to spend the day in the library, anyway. C'mon...”

As Demyx was led through the corridor of darkness, he couldn't help but think about how curiously the events had turned. I might've lost a dear, dear friend... But at least I know I won't ever be alone again...

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Eeee-yup. I dunno. Can I have a hug yet?

BTW, if someone comes up quoting something that happens in 358\2 Days that basically makes this whole fanfic impossible, I will not hesitate to him or her a big, virtual boot in the face. And then I will binge on sleeping pills and kill myself like Demyx was going to do. And it'll be all your fault. =\ So, yeah. First of all, don't be a jerk and let me vent the way I wanna vent. Second of all, no spoilers. Please. I actually want to be SURPRISED by what happens when I get the game. Didn't happen for KH I and II... The spoilers were too tempting...

Lord or the Wings,
~Leah.

Okay. I know I have no right to suggest ANYTHING to this site when I took such an epic hiatus away from it. But coming back, I realized that, yeah, I do care bout this place and would love to help it avoid any future conflicts that I can.

Now, when I came back, yeah, there was the whole big stink with Rosey going around... She was mad that three of her good friends were so suddenly taken from such a high post and demoted to... well... Normal members. I'm not a mind reader, but I'm guessing that part of the reason she was so upset was because it was like we were saying that they never really contributed anything - like we were forgetting them or something. That would make anyone who's so attached to her friends upset.

So I was thinking, maybe we could recognize all of the former staff members with... IDK... another beautimous color? X'DDD Maybe orange, since that one's not being used right now? They don't have to have any sort of special powers or anything - it'd just be a nice thing to do... ;w; They'd be almost like a second prem group.

I got this idea from DeviantArt who does something simular with their staffies. I thought it'd be nice to try it out over here, too.

GAAAAH FKNJBB FV

I can't EVER win this stinkin' game. =C Does ANYONE know how to get freakin' Madagascar before everyone starts closing their borders? *can't play anymore due to OMFG I'M KILLING PEOPLE FOR NO REASON OMFG I'M A BAD PERSON syndrome starting to kick in*

Also, I'm sowwy if this is in the wrong section. It's been a while since I've ever had anything worthwhile to say here. =.=;;;

--EDIT--

OMFG. Did I REALLY just forget to post the link? X'DDD

*fails*

Here you guys go - have fun killing the world. <3

CAUTION: the music is REDICULOUSLY loud. >.<;;;

WARNING: AkuRoku, teens getting drunk and a MASSIVE cursing spree. If you no likey, the back button is right there, but I promise it wil be worth your while if you manage to sit through it. :3

DKJGNBV RFDGTNBHTDE

I. TOLD. MYSELF. I WOULDN'T DO IT.

WTFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF?

AKUROKU?1 EW.

BUT I SUDDENLY GOT THIS INSPIRATION GAIZ - I SWEAR - I COULDN'T HEP IT! DDD8>

I needed to get this stupid story out of my system before it had me laying awake at night.... Which it still does because i haven't FINISHED IT YET! DDD<

But I will. No worries.

It'll be a short one - I promise, guys (maybe TOO short?), but broken in different pieces because... Well, inspiration is a b*tch to hold onto. =C

LET IT BEGIN.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The Highwayman​

Loud, almost deafening music pulsed through the house, creating a wild, intoxicating atmosphere. The air reeked with alcohol, cigarettes and sweat, adding to the overall excitement. Bright lights blinked and flashed wildly to the beat of the song, every-so-often illuminating the teens on the dance floor, grinding their hearts out even more. In the darker corners, there were a few young couples swapping spit as if their lives depended on it.

I am SO done with this...

That thought was constantly gnawing at Roxas's mind as his weary eyes glanced around. “Come to the party!†Hayner said. “You need to start getting out more!†Hayner said. “All of the cool kids will be there! You need to start getting a life! And, to top it all off, a girlfriend!†Hayner said, said, said. The blonde rolled his eyes. Puh-LEASE. If this is what they call having a life, they can have ALL of the life they want without ME. And, seriously – if getting wasted means degrading yourself in front of all these people like those idiots over there are, I'll PASS. Seriously – where do people get OFF telling me how to live MY life – as if I don't know what I want, or—

“Yo, ROX!â€

Roxas immediately snapped out of his daily mental rant with a, “Huh...? What – what's all the yelling about?!â€
Hayner grinned at him, his cheeks a rosy-red color – probably due to the wine cooler in his hand. “Hey, man – I was callin' you for, like, ten minutes now!†He laughed, wrapping his free arm around his girlfriend Olette's waist. “Why aren't you on the dance floor, bud? You ain't gonna get no action skulking in the corner like that!â€
Roxas's eyes flashed with annoyance as he glared at Hayner. “... I ain't SKULKIN'...†he muttered.
“Yeah, yeah... You gonna get movin', or what?†Hayner laughed.
Roxas sighed, shaking his head. “Ya know, Hayner... This just isn't... isn't me... Ya know? I'm going home now before my mom founds out I took her car.â€
Hayner shrugged. “Kay, man. Your loss.â€

He and the giggling Olette began inconspicuously climbing upstairs for more “private†time. Roxas rolled his eyes, knowing EXACTLY what the two were up to, and took off outside.

The cool, outdoor air washed over him like a wave, making him utter a sigh of relief. It's like walkin' out of a damned oven... He carefully picked out his mom's car out of all of the ones parked on the grass and such, checked over it to make sure that none of the idiots had maimed it, and carefully pulled off.

I hope to God that no police officers pull me over this time... I've already gotten my permit taken away – I really don't need this, too... To keep his mind from thinking about anything that alarming, he turned on the radio and turned it down to a low volume so that he wouldn't violate the peaceful night's air of the country side.

And then, it happened. The gas ran out.

The. F*cking. GAS ran out!

“F*ck... F*ck...! C'mon! I don't need this – I do NOT need this...! Don't DO this to me!†Roxas cried, flooring the pedal again and again. The engine whirled, stuttered, coughed, and finally died. And no amount of cursing was going to bring it back.

Roxas was stranded on the side of the road in the middle of NOWHERE, at one in the morning. He slammed his head into the wheel at least four times. “Mom is going to KILL me when she finds out...!â€

After a few more moments of bitter cursing he finally got all of his stuff, slammed the door, and stomped outside. Guess there's nothing else to f*cking do but f*cking HITCHHIKE my way back to the suburbs... Damnit, I am going to KILL Hayner for dragging me into this... The boy lent against the car, waiting for a car to come by so that he could put out his thumb.

He waited... and he waited... and waited...

AND WAITED.

By the time the first car came rolling by he'd practically jumped in the middle of the street waving his arms around like a maniac.

The sleek sports car gently rocked to a stop. The window on the passenger's side rolled down, revealing a grinning, attractive man with a black suit on. His tie was a deep crimson color, as rich and powerful as blood itself, and it was almost surprising to see that his spiky hair was nearly the same exact same color. “Car trouble?â€
The relief on Roxas's face was painfully obvious. “Y...Yeah...â€
“Need a lift?â€
“That'd be AWESOME. Thanks...â€
The redhead leaned forward, and popped open the door. To Roxas's surprise, it opened UP, not out. “C'mon in. It's chilly out...â€

Roxas was happy to oblige, immediately scrambling into the passenger seat, and slamming the door (with some difficulties), rubbing off all the goosebumps on his arms. The car gently purred back to life and pulled away.

The first few minutes went by in complete silence, though Roxas could feel the stranger's intense, emerald eyes flickering to him every so often. Roxas was pointedly staring out of the window, hoping to prolong the inevitable. He's probably wondering what a kid my age was doing on the side of the rode like that by myself... he thought bitterly.

“You're pretty young to be stranded out on the road at...†The redhead checked his watch. “... Two-thirty in the mornin'...â€

Speak of the flippin' devil... Roxas sighed, rolling his eyes. “You sound like my mom...†was all he deemed fit to say.
The man let out a pleasant laugh that seemed to ring through the air. It made Roxas shiver slightly. “Well... That's certainly the first time I've heard THAT one...â€
“Heh... Yeah – I guess...â€
“But, seriously, kid... You could have gotten hurt... It just ain't safe standing out in the middle of nowhere at all hours of the night. You could've gotten hurt... Got it memorized?â€
Roxas crossed his arms, glaring out of the window some more. “... It's not what you THINK, okay? If I'd had my way, I wouldn't even BE here now...†he seethed.
“Oh...?†The stranger glanced over at him again. “Then why don't you tell me the whole story from the beginning?â€

The next part was quite unexpected, really. Roxas had already mentally prepared an entire quiver of excuses for his parents, just READY to be shot out of his mouth like arrows. There was a FORTITUDE of places where he could've been, and hundreds upon THOUSANDS of witnesses, hours, times, and claims. Any one of those he could have told this guy.

But... For some strange reason, he told the complete truth. Everything – from him never having a girlfriend – or really wanting one for that matter, how he couldn't STAND being with a huge group of people for more than five minutes at a time, and how his STUPID party-loving friend Hayner had DRAGGED him to this even stupider house-party, and how, when he'd had enough, he tried to go home, but his f*cking CAR broke down, and now his mom would KNOW that he'd been somewhere during the night!

“It's ALL of f*cking Hayner's fault!†the blonde ranted vehemently. “I didn't even want to GO to that f*cking party, and now I'm going to be up to my EYEBALLS in sh*t once I get back home! I could've been in bed, asleep by now, or playing 'Struggle!' on my X-Box!â€

This seemed to spark the man's interest. “You play 'Struggle!'?â€
Roxas shrugged. “Yeah. I'm a beast at that game. What I love most about it is that it's not just a stupid fighting game – it's a strategy game, too. It's like playing chess, almost... Only there's better graphics and you can chop people's heads off.â€
The redhead let loose another of those laughs. Roxas felt himself blushing a bit, though he wasn't entirely sure why. “Wow, kid – you sure have a way of putting things... Hehheh...â€
“Yeah... I-I get that a lot...â€

The man let his gaze linger on Roxas for what seemed to be a long time, and finally asked, “What did you say your name was, again?â€
“Roxas...â€
“I'm Axel.†He grinned again, the moon flashing playfully on his pearly whites. “Pleased to meet ya, Roxas.â€
“Er... Y...Yeah. Me, too.â€

There was another long silence, though this time it was Roxas who kept glancing at the redhead, fidgeting and biting his lower lip slightly. Axel was staring straight into the distance, his expression calm and lax.

Roxas stared at him for an extremely long moment, and looked down at his hands. Oh, God... Oh, God... Er... Baseball. Hockey. Skateboarding. Struggle. Halo...

“Where did you say you lived?†Axel asked casually, effectively snapping Roxas out of his thoughts. “I just sort of assumed you lived near the city...â€
“Hmmm? Oh – right... Um... 813 Twilight Street...â€
“Where's that?â€
“It's just down Firelight Road... Here – I'll show you, okay...?â€

After about fifteen more minutes of, “Turn hereâ€s and “Stop thereâ€s, Roxas had finally arrived home. “Thanks, Axel...†the boy sighed, slamming down the car door behind him. “My parents are going to KILL me when they find out, but at least I made it okay... At first, I thought I was going to have to walk all of the way here!â€
“Don't mention it, kid,†the redhead chuckled.
Roxas nodded, and began to walk down the driveway.
“Hey... Wait...â€
Roxas turned around, blinking. “Yeah?â€
Axel shot him another of his grins. “You like ice cream?â€
Roxas shrugged. “Yeah, I guess...â€
“Come meet me by the parlor a few blocks away next Friday, okay? My treat.â€
Roxas could feel his cheeks growing warm all over again. “Uh... S-Sure! What time?â€
Axel thought for a bit. “I have to work during the day... So... How about somewhere arooound... 11?â€
“Done.†The boy gave cheesy grin, and waved a little as he backed away from the car. His heart was thumping mercilessly at his chest.

Axel smiled and waved back, then pulled out from the driveway, the red Ferrari roaring off into the night. “...†Roxas began searching for a way into the house, finally entering through the back door. Steak... Football... Beer... Hunting...

Luckily for Roxas, no one seemed to be awake. He quietly slinked through the dark house, tip-toed up the stairs, and slipped past his parent's bedroom. So far, so good... Maybe no one has noticed anything...? he thought as he slowly turned his doorknob to prevent any noise.

Wrong.

As soon as he had the door open, the lights flicked on, revealing two severely pissed off, blood-shot eyed, scowling parents. Roxas's twin brother Ven sat up, grinning wickedly. “Ooooh – you are IN for it now!â€

Sh*t.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Mmmm.... Steak.

That's all for now. Yeah. I know. Cliffy. Cry me a river, ya'll. This was a bit rushed for my taste, but over all, I think I did a great job on it. I'm pretty proud of Roxas - it's SO hard to get a Roxas that I like. DX But this one seems perfect. XD Not exactly a good boy - a rebel in his own respect, but he's a thinker, too. Probably comes from the Squeenix-end of the spectrum, too, with such a potty mouth. Then again, if you were in his situation, I'm sure you'd let a few ones fly, too.

Das ist alles - TCHUESS!

I dunno why I decided to put this up on KHV of all places. X'DDD It'll probably make me look like a n00b. Eh. I don't really care.

Anyways, this is a short, original series that I'll basically be doing in short bursts, as fast as I possible can. WITHOUT SPELL CHECK. Why? Simply because I think I've been having too much brain-fluffing fanfictions that has left my original-ideas seriously lacking. So this is... Um.... Help?

Anyways, I go for as long as I can on a school-afternoon, and by the time I reach bed-time (or a good-enough stopping point - whichever comes first), I stop and, with luck, put it online. I don't have a title for this yet... But It'll probably sprout into a full story later on. Keep your fingers crossed.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A low rumble of thunder rumbled a little ways off from the tiny city omninously.

The girl inconspicuously drew the cloak a bit tighter around her body, striding through the crumbling, drab streets, eyes darting around every-so-often for any signs of trouble. Trouble was something one found very, VERY often in this hell pit of a city.

A passing stranger examined her curriously, eyeing her odd choice for clothing - a leather trench coat that came to the middle of her calves, a widely brimmed hat that cast her whole face in a shadow, and dark, wrap-around sunglasses. The sunglasses wouldn't have looked so odd if it wasn't for the fact that it was in the middle of the night.

The redhead glared at him for a moment, and then, remembering that she was wearing shades and the man couldn't see her facial expression, allowed her hand to casually slide inside of the folds of the cloak. The stranger quickly got the message and rushed off, with a short muttered, "Excuse me..." The girl watched him until he'd disappeared, and then traveled down a dark alley, making sure to make her path as twisted and contorted as possible.

Finally, she found herself at an old warehouse, most likely forgotten by anyone who had time to care. Her slate-colored eyes scanned the place for a few seconds until they rested on a man leaning on the nearby dumpster, smoking a cigarette casually. He was drssed simularly to her. She grinned, jogging up to him immediantly. "Korn..." she sighed, a grin pulling at her lips. "Thank God... For a second, I was afraid you wouldn't show again..."

The man flicked the cigarette away casually. "Almost didn't - some guy recognized me from those damned bounty posters they have up everywhere, and got either really really bold or really greedy. He wasn't too tough to take out, but when the Chimeras showed up... Well, that was a different story. I almost thought I was done for." He grinned. "So, you got the document for me...? C'mon - even if you didn't manage to, there's always next time, kid..."

"I have a name, ya know..." the girl huffed, pretending to be upset. "And I'm NOT a ****ing kid anymore. I'm 26, ya know."
He rolled his eyes. "A kid. Now c'mon - did you get the document or NOT, Rosie?!"
"Calm down - don't get your panties in a twist, grandma - I've got it right--"

She was suddenly shushed by the blonde-haired man. "....What?"
"...Did you hear that?" Korn asked softly, his dark, brown eyes darting around.
"Hear what?"
"......." He subtly drew his gun, snarling. "We've got company," he whispered so that the intruder wouldn't be able to catch on until the last minute. He nodded to the side ever-so-slightly, informing the girl of the intruder's position.

Without another word being wasted between the two, Rosie drew her gun as well, and the two began firing rapidly at the corner over to the side. An agonized yelp sounded, followed by the sound of a body crumpling to the ground. The duo immediantly rushed to scene, Korn towering threateningly over the wounded intruder and cocking his gun once more.

"You picked the wrooooooong night to get fresh, punk," he snarled.
"Wait - DON'T SHOO--"

BLAM!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Sooo shooort. DX It burns.

Ah well - cheers to a good start, at least. ^^;

Lord of the Wings,
~Leah

I think I might go to hell for this one. That is all.

Dedicated to my good friend Rosey\Princess Ariel.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Photo Shoot​

Zexion chuckled evilly to himself. This was going to be too easy. He'd timed it just right so that there was virtually no way his plan could fail. Everything – from the full moon shining outside of the castle to the absence of all of the other members on their idiotic beetle hunt (he didn't dare to even ask) was just so... perfect!

He rapped on Saïx's door three times, carefully concealing the pocket watch in his robe. He won't see it coming... The full moon always brings him unmeasurable power, but at the same time it severely impairs his mental capability. Exactly what I need on both ends.

The door swung open. The man growled as his sharp yellow eyes narrowed on the smaller male's form. “What do YOU want?!” he demanded.
“I just wanted to say hello...” Zexion chuckled, reaching into his robe inconspicuously. “Is that such a crime, dear Saïx?”
“'Dear' Saïx?” The man sniffed suspiciously. “You're up to something – I just know it.”
“Now what could make you say that?”
“Never mind – just get OUT before I get my BEATING STI—!”

Zexion whirled around, holding up a golden watch attached to a chain. He swung it back and forth slowly and murmured in a quiet, hypnotic voice, “Huuuuushhhhhh, my chiiiiild...” He grinned as Saïx instantly relaxed and stared at the clock, expression blank. “Yoooooou are geeeeetting veeeery sleeeeeeeeepyyyyyyyyy...”

“I am... getting... very... sleepy...” Saïx replied.

“Yeeeeessssssss... Feeeeel your eyeliiiiiiids getting heavyyyyyyy...” On impulse, he did a little funky dance – just because he could, making sure to keep the clock waving in front of Saïx's face. “Look into mah eeeyez and what do ya see? Nahnahnahnahnaaaaaahnahnahnuh!”

Silence. Saïx continued staring blankly at the boy.

Zexion rolled his eyes. “What? No applause?”
Saïx began clapping mechanically.
“That's more like it. Now, when I snap my fingers, you'll go into a deep trance and will become anything I tell you to be – got it?”
Saïx nodded dumbly.

Zexion grinned evilly.

Let the games begin...

“Now, listen closely... I want you to become...”

*********************************​

Xemnas sipped some tea in his study, reading some important-looking documents, suspecting absolutely nothing.

Suddenly, music began blasting around him. He jumped, looking around with wide eyes. “What the...?!”

“To be be, or not to be... NOT!”
The music grew louder.
“Hold up!” The music stopped. “Bring the beat back!”
The music began again, and then shut off once more. “Stop! I ain't ready yet!”
More music.... off. “Wait... Let me fix my hair...!~ Yes!”
The door burst open and someone with their hood pulled up strutted into the room. “I think I'm ready...” they purred.
Xemnas could only blink.

Saïx danced around the room, his hood still drawn and stopped at the open window, posing as if he were a super-model. "Soon as you saw me... Turned on by how the dress was fitting right!~ Short and backless... See my silhouette in the moonlight!~"
Xemnas blinked. “N... Number VII...?” he called out weakly. “I-Is that yo—?”

“Such an attraction...!~” Saïx continued, grinning as he stroked Xemnas's chin in a particularly unacceptable manner. “Keep telling me how my outfit's so nice!~ Little did he know... Heh... You're gonna take it off tonight!~”
Xemnas blinked again – his expression slowly evolving into one of horror. “I-I'm going to WHAT now?!”
Saïx ignored him once more as the music sped up, and he began unzipping his cloak. "(Oh...~) Cause when he acts up... (Oh...~) That's when you put it on... (Oh...~) Been on him up tight...! (Oh...!~) This is your song! (Oh...!~) Hold out your back! (Oh...!~) Time to impress! (OH!~) Pull out your frea-kum DRESS!~"

With that, he flung the two halves of the robe apart, grinning. Xemnas visibly flinched, rolling the large swively-chair back to the wall, feeling as if he was going to throw up. The "Freakum Dress" was little more than fish-net, leather, spikes and belts which was, yes, very revealing, but at the same time, pretty tasteful... for a stripper, that is. Saïx, obviously taking the reaction was a good one, jumped up on the desk, and began swinging his robe above his head, singing joyfully.

"OOOO-OOO-OOOH!~ Put your freakum dress on!~ OOOO-OOO-OOOH!~ Put your frea-kum! Dress! On!~ OOOO-OOO-OOOH!~ Put your freakum dress on! OOOO-OOO-OOOH!~ Put your frea-kum! Dress! On!" He dropped to his knees, flung all of the papers off of the desk, and began swinging his hair around to the beat. "OOOO-OOO-OOOH!~ Every woman got one!~ OOOO-OOO-OOOH!~ Shut it down when the time's come! OOOO-OOO-OOOH!~ Pull out the big gun! OOOO-OOO-OOOH!~ And put your frea-kum dress on!"

Xemnas jumped to his feet, his face an alarming shade of scarlet, teeth bared with anger. “Number VII!” he roared. “What has gotten into you – you cut that out THIS minute!”

Saïx smirked up at him, deftly slid off of the table and pushed him back into the chair. He quickly removed one of his belts (thankfully not the ones covering his you-know-whats) and sat on Xemnas's lap forcefully, grinning as he began to strap Xemnas down, against all of his protests and shouting. When he was certain the Superior was held adequately, he gagged him as well.

By now, the music was growing with intensity once more. Saïx began singing again, this time putting some soul into it. By the looks of it, he was giving Xemnas a rather-impressive lap-dance. Xemnas was still infuriated and confused beyond all measure. "All the laaaadieeees, (Oh!~) you wiiiith thiiiis (oh!) and you're dreeeessed up (oh!) in your dreeeeesseeees (oh!), and you're BEEEEST-eeeeest (oh!) with no REEEA-SON? Get REEEEEEEA-DY to FREA-KUM-DRESS-UM!"

He jumped up again and began dancing energetically. "When you put it on it's an invitation!~ When they play your the song get on up and shake it!~"
No comment on what he did at this verse.
"Work it on your man – you don't have to waste it!~ Spin it all around then take it to the ground!"
Again, no comment.

He repeated the dance moves again, singing the exact same verse, and ended up on top of Xemnas grinning slyly. Beyonce's voice rang out behind him as his eyes stared into Xemnas's.

"Ladies look here, when you been with your man for a long time... (oh!~) Every now and then you gotta go back in the closet and pull out that freakum dress... (oh!~)"

Saïx chuckled a bit, trailing a daring finger down Xemnas's chest.
Oh, god... If he even ATTEMPTS to do what I think he is, I swear – I'm neutering ALL of the Neophytes...! Xemnas thought, cautiously eying it.
“I got mah frea-kum dress on...” Saïx cooed idly. “I got mah frea-kum dress on.... (Oh!~)” He then began leaning forward for what seemed to be a kiss. "I got mah frea-kum dress on... (Oh!~) I got mah frea-kum dress on...!~ (Oh...~)"

FLASH!

Oh, thank Kingdom Hearts... Xemnas thought. I've gone blind...!

Unfortunately, Xemnas had not gone blind – the sudden white flash had not come from the disintegration of his eyes but from the flash of... a camera...?

Oh no...

Cackling filled the quiet study as Zexion placed the boom-box delicately on the nearest filing cabinet, and walked over to the two pseudo-lovers, grinning wickedly. “I have to say, Xemnas – that's quite a look for you!” he taunted, pearly whites flashing in the moonlight.
If looks could kill, Zexion would be six-feet under every time Xemnas blinked. Saïx had frozen, a blank expression on his face – probably a part of Zexion's subliminal commands.
“If you're wondering why I did this, well... Hmmm...” Zexion struck a thoughtful pose. “I... Don't really have a reason. I guess I just like having an extra blackmail in file juuust in case the need arises, and I'm running a bit low in your pile...” He shrugged, grinning again. “I guess I might as well stock up wile I'm over here! C'mon, Saïx-Baby – show your Sugar-Daddy some LUV!~”

Saïx sprang back to action again, shoving Xemnas's head to his chest and posing for the camera, a huge grin plastered on his face.

Zexion snapped pictures of the various poses, cackling gleefully as he mentally went over all of the riches he'd most likely score off of this heist. Xemnas could do no more than glare angrily at the camera.

Finally, once Zexion was done exhausting the camera, he yawned and stretched. “Ahhh... Man! It's getting' late!” He grinned once more. “Okay, Xemnas – I'll let you off easily, this time! You! Slave!” he snapped.
Saïx stood up to attention. Xemnas tried his best not to stare at the man's butt (pretty difficult considering that the man was standing RIGHT IN FRONT OF HIM with virtually NO pants on!).
“Act out all of the songs you hear on this CD until the batteries run out, and then you may awake from your slumber,” Zexion ordered calmly as he switched the Beyonce CD with one that was marked "Meaningles Internet Songs". He put it on “repeat: ALL”.

He pressed play, and waved to Xemnas daintily. “Byyyyyye, Superior...!~” he cooed, shutting the door behind himself.

Silence for a while.

Suddenly, the radio crackled to life, with a horrid, “TROG-DOOOOOOOOOOOR!!!”

Saïx began head-banging and strumming an air-guitar as he screamed along with the song, his light-blue hair whooshing all over the place.

Xemnas groaned. It was going to be a loooong night.

The End!~

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Um..... I can explain.

Remeber "THAT Time of Month Again?" Remeber the picture mentioned in the first part...? .... Yeah. This be the picture, I guess. XD

This is basically an excuse to give all of my XemSaï watchers a bit o' fanservice... Lolz - IDK.

Songs I used: "Freakum Dress (Saïx starts singing on the second verse.)
"Trogdor (The Burninator)"

That's all. X'DDD

Lord of the Wings,
~Leah.

Not that many of you guys care, but I'm planning to get my Christmas Special up again ASAP. I couldn't get it done by Christmas this year because of major family problems, and needed something to cheer me up before I tried to work on it again. What was the solution? One-shot Crack stories, of course! X'DDD BTW, some of the formatting might be a little different than usual because I'm usuing a different computer AND a different program than I usually do for my stories. Sorry. XD

Enjoy.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"THAT" Time of Month Again...​

Larxene stormed though the halls of the castle, fists clenched so hard she could feel her nails digging into her palms. Her eyes were ablaze as she glanced into rooms and down corridors, anxiously searching for that one person she need to talk to SO badly, she could just...

There goes the little prick!

Zexion was sitting inside of his room, reading something that happened to NOT be a dirty magazine for once. She clicked her teeth together with annoyance, and clomped into his dark, depressing room without even knocking. “Zexion...†she hissed. “I—â€
The young man snapped shut his gigantic book shut with a sigh. “No, wait... Let me guess...†He took a deep breath, and winced. “That time of month again?â€
“Sure as hell is! So what the heck are you guys gonna do about it?!†she snapped.
Zexion sighed and rose to his feet. “I'll get the Superior...â€
“Ah-ah-ah!~â€

Zexion winced slightly as Larxene clapped her hand roughly on his shoulder and squeezed so hard that he could feel her sharp fingernails digging into his pale skin. He hissed slightly.

Larxene shot him a small, dangerous grin. “We'll go tell the Superior.â€

*********************************​

Xemnas sighed deeply. “I see... that time of month again...?â€
Zexion nodded. “Which raises the question, exactly WHOSE turn is it this time to take care of it THIS time?â€
Larxene scoffed. “Well, I can sure tell ya right now – I ain't doin' it! I had to do it the last three times! It's ZEXION'S turn!â€
Xemnas pretended he was surprised. “Oh...? Is that right...? I must have gotten off track...†He gulped slightly. “Well, then... I guess we have no choice but to...â€
“Eh-heh-heeeeeem...†Zexion cleared his throat loudly, and inched a turned-over picture over to Xemnas.

Xemnas blinked, flipped the corner up so that he could peek at the picture, and then slammed his head on the desk with a sigh. Oh, you've GOT to be...
“WELL, Xemnas?!†Larxene snapped. “Get on with it!â€
Xemnas sighed, propping his head up with one arm, looking away from Zexion's razor-sharp eyes. “Well, the I guess we have no choice but to let Number IX take care of it...†he muttered.
Larxene snorted. “As long as it ain't me again,†she muttered, not really caring that Zexion had once again side-stepped his fair share of manual labor. She portalled off.

Zexion grinned a bit, slipping the photo back into his robe. “I'll get him. It should be an... interesting sight to watch. Very amusing.â€
Xemnas grunted, pretending he was busy with something important. “Do what you will,†he muttered, feeling embarrassed that he'd been made a fool of by his young subordinate once more.
Zexion smirked, nodding and walked off with his head held high.

It felt good to be in control.

*********************************​

Demyx spun around gleefully in his room, hopping around like a ballerina on steroids and singing to his impressive collection of stuffed animals all over the room. He plucked one of of a nearby shelf, and spun around with it, giggling.

“Rainbow monkeys!~ Rainbow monkeys!~ Oh so very rooooooound and su-per chun-keeeey...!~†He squeezed it, grinning. “Spreadin' LOVE wherever they go!~ Everybody's made of a big rain-BOOOOOW...!~â€

He danced around the room, picking up various colors as he sang. “OOOOOOOOOH, red and orange!~ And pink and blue!~ Rainbow Monkeys, Rainbow Monkeys, Dem loves YOOOOOU!~â€

Suddenly, someone kicked the door in. Demyx dropped all of his stuffed animals and shielded himself with his hands, letting loose a shrill, girly shriek. He peeked through his arms and grinned, straightening up. “Oh! Hey, Zexion! What's cookin', good lookin'?â€

Zexion stared at him for a second, his expression blank. “Call me that again, and I'll cut you.†His voice gave no indication of jest.
Demyx gulped, staring back into Zexion's blank, frightening eyes. “Uh... w-well, anyways, what brings you here?â€
“It's THAT time of month again.â€
The color drained out of Demyx's face. “O...Oh no... D...don't t-tell me that I...!â€
Zexion nodded.

Demyx screamed, clutching his head and falling to the ground. “NO!!! Why ME?! WHY?!?!â€
“Get yourself together, IX!†Zexion snapped. “You are THE best suited member for this task and you are GOIN' to do it whether you like it or not! It's YOUR turn!â€
Demyx sniffed, looking up at Zexion. “Hey... H-how come I never see YOU doing this job, anyway...?â€

Zexion stared at the boy with the same amount of potency as he did before. “Are you going to get marching or will I have to MAKE you?†he asked at last.

Demyx sighed, and dragged himself out of the room. Zexion waited until he was he was completely out of sight before giving a relieved sigh. At first, I thought the idiot was onto me.

*********************************​

Faint knocking on the door.

“C'min.â€

Demyx peeked into the room, giving the redhead a shy smile. “Uh... Hey, Axel – it's me... Demyx... Again. Heh...â€
“Oh...†Axel grinned a bit. “Dem – it's just you! Hey, man! Grab a seat!â€
“Thanks...â€

Demyx smiled nervously, nodded a quick thanks, and sat on the bed, squirming uncomfortably.
“... Somethin' on your mind?â€

Demyx let loose a peal of nervous laughter, twitching slightly. “Who – me?! Havin' somethin' on my mind?! Never – never – never – NEVER! AH HAHAHAHAHA! Haha... Yeah.†The boy went back to staring at his hands as if they were the most interesting things in all of the worlds. “Um... except this one thing.... Axel, do you know what day it is...?†he asked softly.
“Uh... Tuesday?â€
Demyx shook his head. “Not just any Tuesday, Axel... It's the Tuesday following after the waxing crescent moon in Halloween Town right before the Oogie Boogie does the Hokey Pokey and turns himself around!â€
“That's what it's all about?!†Axel cried.
Demyx clapped twice sadly.

“No way!†Axel cried. “Th-that day is TODAY?!â€
Demyx nodded. “Yep... I'm sorry to telly you this, Axel, but... It's THAT time of month again...â€
Axel gulped. “Y...You mean...â€
“That's right...†Demyx sighed. “It's... bath night.â€

Axel felt his blood run cold.

“B...But it c-can't be...†he murmured past numb lips. “I....It can't!â€
Demyx shrugged and nodded. “Apparently, it can. Axel, you stink!â€
“No, I DON'T! I took a bath just yesterday!â€
Demyx sighed. “Washing with gasoline, alcohol, or oil doesn't really count, Axel.â€
“B-But what about—â€
“Neither does lighting yourself on fire on the roof. Really, Axel – it's gotten so bad that Zexion's been getting nosebleeds every time he walks past your room! We can smell you all the way to Hollow bastion. On a clear night, we might even get the Olympus Colosseum!â€
“............â€

Demyx stood up with a sigh.â€Now, c'mon, Axel. We can do this the easy way or the hard way! Or... the medium way. Or the semi-medium-easy hard-way. OR the sorta-hard-with-a-touch-of-awkward-easy-difficult-challenging way.â€

Silence. Axel only looked up at Demyx like a cornered, scared rabbit might look at a hungry wolf.

Demyx narrowed his eyes. “So that's the way ya wanna play it, huh...?†He grabbed Axel's hand and tried to pull him out of his his seat. “You're gonna... HAVE to... get into... that TUB, Axel! Now—â€
“DON'T TOUCH ME!â€

Demyx screamed as Axel singed his hand and jerked it back. He gasped, rubbing his hand as the redhead jumped to his feet, his face twisted in an expression of pure rage and fear. “Y-You're just like THEM! Get AWAY from me, you PSYCHO!!!†he screamed, dashing into a corridor of darkness.

Demyx groaned, following him through the portal. “Here we go...†he sighed.

*********************************​

“Axel! Axel, where are you?! Come back!†Demyx cried, running through the dirty streets of Agrahbah with his sitar in hand. “Axel, c'mon! The sooner we do this, the sooner it'll be over with!â€

Axel peeked around a corner at him.
“I SAW THAT!â€
He cursed, and ducked back around, narrowly dodging a well-aimed ball of water and scampered off.
“AXEL! Get back here!†Demyx cried, dashing after him. “DON'T MAKE ME USE THIS THING! By golly, I WILL USE IT IF YOU DON'T STOP RIGHT NOW!!!â€
“YOU'LL NEVER TAKE ME ALIVE!!!â€

Wow – Demyx never knew how FAST Axel could run! The redhead sped through the dusty streets like the Roadrunner on those old cartoons he watched with Lexaeus every Saturday morning. Demyx, quite literally, was left in the dust, hacking and coughing the fine film of dirt trapped in his lungs and waving his hand around to clear the air. The dust was actually so thick, the ball of water in his hand turned into a ball of jiggly mud. He dropped it to the ground, seeing that it was now useless. He was trying to CLEAN Axel – not make him even dirtier!

When he could finally see again, all that was left was a portal faaaaaar on the other end of the street.

... Oh... Snap...

The boy broke into a frantic sprint toward the corridor of darkness, as if the devil himself were after him. A thin bead of sweat trickled down his face. Please don't close before I get there, please don't close before I get there, PLEASE don't close before I get there...!

The portal was either not a very good listener, or not able to read minds. It began to close anyway.

Oh, CRAP!

With a shrill whoop, the boy dove into the portal before it could close and pace-planted into a thick stalk of bamboo. With a groan, he sat up, rubbing his head, blinked, and whined. Land of the Dragons?! Is he planning to take me on a road-trip or something?

Just then, he saw a flash of red in the bamboo forest. Quick as a whip, he spun around, and sent a surge of water in that direction. Axel screamed like a little girl and began scaling the nearest stalk like a monkey. Unfortunately, he wasn't a very GOOD monkey; the bamboo snapped halfway up, and he tumbled to the ground with a WHUMPF!

“DANCE, WATER, DANCE!!!â€
“AUGHHH-WHAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!â€

Axel rolled out of the way, and then under went a rather complex series of jumps, back-flips, cartwheels, and whatever else he needed to do to dodge and water-missiles from Demyx. When he felt he couldn't keep it up any longer, he fired his own blast of fire at the boy.

Demyx shrieked and ducked. When he dared to look up again, Axel was already sprinting down to the camp. Demyx gave a haggard sigh, and dragged himself to his feet.

Here we go again...

*********************************​

Demyx felt as if he had followed Axel to the the ends of the Earth and back. They'd started the chase at ten in the morning, but now it was at LEAST six in the evening, and the redhead STILL was showing no sign of slowing down! Defeated and disappointed, Demyx headed back home to rest. To his surprise, he found someone else in his room!

“... Huh? Lexxy? What're you doing here, silly pants?†the sweaty boy laughed, stumbling forward for a hug.
Lexaeus laughed , hugging back. “Hello, Demyx... Today's movie night – Xigbar sent me to find you...†The man sniffed. “... Demyx, I don't mean to be rude, but you smell awful...â€
Demyx sighed. “It's that time of month again...†he grumbled.
“Ahhh...â€

“Yeah – I know! And I can't CATCH him! He's, like, as fast as.. as... PSHOOM! I just, like, BLINK, and all of a sudden, he's, like, GONE! And I'm like 'WHOA!' and he's like, 'YOU SHALL NOT EVER CATCH ME ALIVE NOOB – LOLOLOLOL!' and I'm all like, 'AWWWWWW!' and I—I-It's like...†He flailed his arms around aimlessly. “NYAAAAUGGGGGHHHH!!! Ya know?!â€

Lex smiled gently, just barely holding back his laughter. “Yes, Demyx, I know exactly what you mean... I've been down that same road many times before.†He sat on the bed, patting the space next to him. Demyx obediently followed, pouting.

Lex chuckled slightly and gently gave the boy a small hug. “Let me give you a hint as to a technique I happened upon last time that might work this time as well...†He motioned the boy closer with his index finger.

Demyx blinked and leaned over, listening as Lexaeus whispered his plan into his ear. Suddenly, he gasped, eyes twinkling.

“LEXXY!†he exclaimed, jumping to his feet. “You're a GENIUS! Thanks so much!!!â€

With a last, short hug, the boy scampered off into a portal. Lex chuckled again, shaking his head.

*********************************​

Axel jogged down the street of Twilight Town, panting lightly. Can't get wet, can't wet, can't get we—OOOOOH!!!

He screeched to a stop suddenly, grinning as his eyes caught sight of an ice cream stand across the street. A young man with a large, shady hat and dark blue denim overalls was grinning and handing a double-scoop of strawberry and chocolate to a little girl and waving her off. Upon closer inspection, he could see that the stand also sold sea-salt ice cream.

Axel's mouth began watering almost instantly. He jogged in place for a bit, looking around, to see if any water assassins were lurking, but luckily, the coast was clear. He grinned and jogged over. It can't hurt to have ONE little snack, right? I've been running from Demyx all day!

Once he got to the front of the line, he ordered, “One sea-salt ice cream bar, please!â€
The man nodded silently, the shadow of his hat shading his face, and handed over Axel's request.
Axel licked his lips hungrily, and reached for it, but just when his fingers were brushing the Popsicle stick...

“HA! Gotcha!â€

Clink!

Axel gasped as the man grabbed his writs and promptly handcuffed their hands together. “Let's try to see you run away NOW!†the stranger cried triumphantly.
Axel gasped as the man tilted the hat up, revealing his face. “DEMYX?!†With a howl of rage, he yanked his hand back. “LET ME GO! NO, NO! I WON'T GO!!!â€
Demyx held onto his wrist with two hands, baring his teeth. “Yes... You... WILL! Now come on!â€

He tugged the yowling redhead away through a portal to his bathroom. The bath was already full and ready. The sight of the water made the redhead turn white as a sheet. The screams got more frequent and high-pitched as Demyx grabbed a mesh of steel wool and began yanking off Axel's boots and socks.

“No! NO! Demyx, DON'T! I-I thought we were FRIENDS!!!â€
“We ARE friends, Axel, but you have to take a bath every month! You signed a CONTRACT! And it's my job to make sure you go through with it!†came Demyx's muffled reply as he began tearing off Axel's shirt with his teeth.
“JOB?! A-Are they paying you?! I can pay you! BIG munny! Please, Demyx – just let me go!†he sobbed. “I can't go OUT like this!â€
“Axel, just shut up and get in the tub! Don't make me force you!â€
“NEVER!!!â€

There was slight grunting, signaling a start of yet another battle, and then a definite hissing sound as Demyx forced Axel into the water – followed by a high-pitched shriek and frantic splashing.

“YOU'RE NAZIS, MAN! YOU'RE ****IN' NAZIS!!!â€
“Axel, be still – you're gonna make me fa—AUUGHHH!! NOW you've done it! Look at me – I've gotten my god overalls all WET!â€
More sobbing. “I'm melting! I'm melting...! Why won't anybody SAVE me from this psychopath?!â€

From outside the door, a cloaked figure was listening with his hand over his mouth, giggling slightly.

“Well...†Zexion chuckled after he'd composed himself once more. “Maybe some good has come out of this AFTER all... Demyx DID break the record – I mean, wow! It only took him ten hours!â€

~The End~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Ah, Zexion, you loveable *******. X'DDD We love you muchly. <3

Yes, people. More "LOVE LEXAEUS, DEMMIT! :yelling:" propaganda. Originally, that spot was going to be filled with Xigbar, but I've given the dude enough screentime before. XD Lexaeus is in DESPERATE need of fans! Don't make a grown man cry! Convert into Lexxy-ism today! 8DDD (Only for ten easy payments of 49.99! X'DDD)

*brick't*

Ummm.... Yeah. I feel like the funniest part of this whole fic was the beginning... BEFORE I started getting tired and started half-arsing so that I could hurry up with this and get back with the Christmas Special. ^^; It was starting to get a bit long for a one-shot, so I decided to cut out a lot of ideas in the middle.

... BABBLING!Demyx = LUB. X'DDD

“Yeah – I know! And I can't CATCH him! He's, like, as fast as.. as... PSHOOM! I just, like, BLINK, and all of a sudden, he's, like, GONE! And I'm like 'WHOA!' and he's like, 'YOU SHALL NOT EVER CATCH ME ALIVE NOOB – LOLOLOLOL!' and I'm all like, 'AWWWWWW!' and I—I-It's like...†He flailed his arms around aimlessly. “NYAAAAUGGGGGHHHH!!! Ya know?!â€

Probably one of the funniest quotes I've ever given that little guy. X'DDD Plus, who else can TOTALLY see him singing the Rainbow Monkey song - no matter HOW disturbing it may be? Be honest. X'DDD

And yes. I'm well aware of how wrong the last part sounds. Get over it. X'DDD As funny as it is, there is absolutely NO way you can portray one grown man giving another grown man a bath as RIGHT. I know. >.>;;; I've tried.

P.S., Have you ever found yourself hot and exhausted on a steaming summer day? Are you too lazy to go out and buy a treat for yourself when the icecream truck comes to town? Or are you just curious as to what semen tastes like? Then come on over to Twilight Town and get your own Sea-Salt icecream cart TODAY! =DDD It comes pre-stocked with sea-salt icecream along with 10 other delicious flavors! A 100-munny value, absolutely FREE! All you have to do to get your Pre-stocked sea-salt icecream cart is run down to your nearest Funny Bunny Inc. store or call 1-234-567-890 and make ten easy payments of 599.99! (Plus shipping and handling.) So call now! 8DDD

"Gentle Giant"​

Lexaeus swiped his brow, giving a small, satisfied sigh. Almost done… he thought with a smile. Finally. After all this time, my hard work is paying off…

The door swung open revealing a boy with dirty-blonde hair and sea-foam green eyes. “L…Lexy…?”
“Ah… Demyx. Come on in – take a seat.”
The boy smiled a bit, and scuttled in, making sure to close the door behind him.

The large, brawny man regarded him with cool, astute eyes. “What brings you here, little one…?” he asked softly. “It’s not like you to stay up so late…”
“Oh… hehheh… I, um… I just had a bad dream… is all.”
“Is that so?” Lex replied with a small smile. “Well then, you can tell me about it as I finish up my latest project.”
“Okay…”

Demyx began talking slowly, stammering and stumbling over his words as he told a completely bizarre story about lions and witches and wardrobes – probably something made up on the spot. Lexaeus only an understanding smile and listened intently as he continued sculpting the tiny clay statue of the beautiful angel that he was working on. After a while, Demyx simply ran out of ideas, and ended with a lame, “And that’s what happened.”

Lexaeus didn’t respond – he only kept working in that slow, purposeful fashion. The boy watched him silently, taking in the strange scene. Lex had always been a mystery to him; anyone who’d see him walking down the street probably would immediately judge him by his size and get the impression that he was cruel, spontaneous, and even stupid.

Man, were looks deceiving! Despite Lex’s size, his movements were carefully calculated – graceful even. Even now, his hands – massive ones that could single-handedly engulf a whole basket ball each, were gracefully skimming over the surface of the magnificent sculpture with such tenderness, you had to wonder if the blade was really touching at all. As the boy gazed at his face – scrunched up in such deep concentration, he realized that Lex was probably the wisest, kindest, and most mild-mannered person he knew.

After a long time – half an hour at the very least, the large man finally asked, “So why did you REALLY come to me, Demyx? Tell the truth.”
Demyx stammered for a bit, anxiously trying to form a makeshift excuse, and then sighed. “Okay, Lexy – you win… The reason I really came was because the… the new guy… What’s his name?”
“Hmmm… Marluxia? The one Xigbar recruited?”
“Yeah – that’s it. He tried to eat me just now! Again!” the boy whimpered. “I got scared, so I came to you…”

Lex gave a tired sigh as he stepped into the chamber of his room that held the huge, super-heated furnace Xemnas allowed to him to install. Something tells me that one will be quite a problem in the future…. What Xigbar had going through his head when he initiated the man, I’ll never know… he thought grimly.

Once the tiny statue was safely cooking inside the gigantic oven, Lex reappeared, wiping his hands on the dark blue apron again. He turned to the younger boy. “Tell you what I’ll do. Tomorrow, I don’t have any scheduled missions. I’ll be sure to inform Vexen about your trials. But tonight, why don’t we bake some cookies, and I’ll read to you from that story book you like so much…?”
Demyx jumped to his feet, completely ecstatic with joy. “REALLY?! Lexy, ya mean it?!?!”
“But of course,” Lexaeus replied with a friendly smile.
“I’d LOVE it!”
“Very well, then. Just let me wash up a bit and I’ll be glad to.”

Demyx grinned and sat down on the bed as Lex disappeared into his bathroom for a well-deserved shower.

*******************************************​

“Ah… Comfy?”
“Yup!”
Lexaeus patted the boy’s head fondly. “Good.”

The two were now nestled in front of a huge, roaring fire in Zexion’s private library. The plate of cookies, piping hot and fresh from the oven, were cooling on a small table next to them with two identical glasses of ice-cold milk right beside the cookies. Lex was seated in an extremely large, plush sofa with Demyx curled up comfortably in his lap, gnawing hungrily on his first vict—I mean... Cookie.

“Okay – let’s see here…” Lex’s azure eyes scanned over the title of the short story he’d be reading that night. “‘The Blind Little Lillybelle’… Once upon a time, there was a blind flower by the name of Lillybelle… She was very beautiful, but…”

Demyx had always found Lexaeus’s powerful voice absolutely magical – especially during story-time. He never seemed to spoke in a loud voice, more like a calm, soothing one that seemed to rise and fall gently with every sentence. It carried him on a cloud in his own mind, took him on a magical, unexplainable journey and then carefully lowered him into the safe, warm confines of sleep.

Indeed, as the cookies and milk rations ran low, it wasn’t long before the boy was sound asleep in Lex’s arms, still clutching one last cookie in his hands.

Lex smiled gently and ruffled his hair fondly as the fire crackled and popped warmly before them. He’d never really understood the boy’s history and why he’d been chosen to join the Organization as young and… unsuitable for warfare as he was. But perhaps there was a hidden power sleeping somewhere deep inside him. Xemnas had always been exceptional at seeing potential…

Shaking his head with a little sigh, the man softly closed his book and rested his head against the back of the huge, plush chair. Left alone with only his thoughts to accompany him, Lexaeus found that after some time that he, too, had fallen asleep.

*******************************************​

Clink…

With a start, Demyx woke up. He blinked, sat up, yawned, stretched out a bit, cracked his back, and scratched his head wearily… before realizing he had no idea where he was.

At first, there was a tiny stab of panic, but with another quick glance-around, he realized he was still in the library. The roaring fire from the night before was now reduced to just a pile of smoldering ashes, but there was now a warm, fuzzy blanket around his shoulders that hadn’t been there when he’d gone to sleep. Lex was gone, but there was a steaming tray of blueberry oatmeal – his favorite – as well as toast and orange juice on the table where the cookies had been. There was also a note. With a puzzled look on his face, the boy opened it up. It read:
“Sorry, Demyx. Something came up. I couldn’t stay until you woke up. Xemnas’s orders. I hope breakfast will make up for my absence.
Enjoy the rest of your day,
~Lexaeus.

P.S., I talked to Vexen before I left. He’s going to perform an extensive psychoanalysis on the new member and maybe give him something that will tame him. You have nothing to worry about.”

Demyx smiled a bit, sipping some of his orange juice and pulling the cozy blanket around him a little more. “Aw… That Lexy! Always lookin’ out for me…” He munched thoughtfully on his toast. “Still… I kinda wish I coulda at least have said goodbye…”

After he was done eating, he got up and stretched. “Ahhhhh… Oh well, maybe next time… I wonder if Axel wants to play today…” he wondered aloud. Before he walked out of the library, he paused, ran back to carefully slip the note into his pocket, and scampered back off.

~End~​

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I got tired of writing huge, complex fanfictions that hurt my brain. X.x;;; I have NO brain-power left in my mind for huge plot-bunnies full of twists and turns and ANGST and over-the-top COMEDY...

So...!~ I decided to write something simple. And cute. So sickeningly cute, it'd make you want to gouge your eyes out. For me, there's not really any thing else that hits the "adorable" strings in my heart more than gushy father\son drabbles.

Srsly.

Besides - I eeded an excuse to get Lexaeus more publicity. He NEEDS publicity, demmit! >8C LOVE HIM! LOVE HIM NAAAAOOO! *eats your soul*

Ahem - sorry about that. Haven't taken my happy pills today. X'DDD

Anyways, I truly think tat Lex would be the only member in the Organization that would be suitable for parenthood. Everyone else is too selfish\violent\uncaring\immature, etc... I also think that he WAS father in his past life to... (Dun-dun-duuuun...!~) Hayner. >.>;;; *smiteded*

YOU ALL KNOW IT'S TRUE! don't make me sick Larxene on you! DDD<

Moving on now. Demyx, in my mind, always happens to be the "baby" of the Organization (even if he's not technically the youngest) which, in many ways, does him more harm than good. Good thing there are people like Lexaeus out there that'd be willing to stick up for him. Who wants to argue with 300 pounds of solid muscle?

And the thing about Marluxia... Inside joke, rly. x'DDD In case you folks haven't been keepin' up with me on dA, one of my newer assertions is that Marluxia is, indeed, an insane, cannibalistic nut-job (lolz - get it? nut? XD) who is obsessed with eating Demyx because... well... Plants "eat" water. It got so bad, that Vexen had to be forced to make him a medicine to subdue him which gives you the ghey, over-the-top Marly in 90% of my fanfictions. Aaaand when it starts to wear off, you get the evil, scheming ******* in CoM. ... So... yeah. he will throw a freakin' fit if you try to make him eat one of his plants, but eating one of his comrades is perfectly acceptable.

I honestly dunno, guys. Mayb one of you should just put me out of my misery. X'DDD

wow - this got a lot longer than I would've liked. >3>;;; Oh well - it was nice talkin' to ya'll again. XD Have a nice day and such! <3

Lord of the Wings,
~Leah.

By signing this agreement, I agree to NEVER – under all circumstances – say or do anything in this passage ever again, so help me, Kingdom Hearts. Failing to abide by the rules will be met with a firm slap on the wrist and 10 minutes in time-out.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

1. Axel is NOT Irish.
2. No, I may NOT call him “Lucky†or ask him about his pot of gold.
3. Or say I find men at the end of rainbows extremely attractive.
4. Vexen is NOT “fabulousâ€.
5. No matter what I say, “extrapolate†and “masturbate†are DIFFERENT.
6. I may not ever wear a tutu no matter how pretty it makes me feel.
7. No – not even to bed.
8. I may not refer to my wang-danger as “My Prince of Venusâ€.
9. Or, for short, “My Prenus.â€
10. I am not, under any circumstances, allowed to bring up my Prenus in front of Demyx.
11. Or Zexion.
12. I am not allowed to perform lap-dances in uniform.
13. If I strip it off DURING the performance, that counts as well.
14. I am not allowed to summon giant, man-eating plants to devour Xigbar under any circumstances, no matter how tempting.
15. I am not allowed to dye Xaldin’s hair purple while he’s asleep.
16. Even if it is TOTALLY his color.
17. Roxas’s name is not “Lukeâ€, and I am not his father.
18. Lexaeus is not to be used as a jungle-gym.
19. Nor is his hair able to raise flowers like a garden.
20. I am not allowed to sell drugs to Saix.
21. I am not allowed to raid the kitchen for everything vegetable-oriented at night.
22. Yes – we all know it’s “cold-blooded murderâ€.
23. Lexaeus is not a horse, and, therefore, should not be ridden like one.
24. Watching bees pollinate flowers is not to be referred to as “the hottest thing on my green earthâ€.
25. They don’t care how hard that bee was sucking on the sternum.
26. I am not to prance around the halls singing songs from “The Sound of Musicâ€, the Spice Girls, or Prince.
27. It doesn’t matter if Demyx was joining in.
28. Pointing out that Xaldin’s legs need to be waxed one more time may lead to massive internal bleeding. Same goes for the rest of his body.
29. Demyx’s official title is NOT “Lord of the Sea, and King of the Seamen.â€
30. We are aware that he brought it upon himself.
31. I am not allowed to refer to any of my Superiors as “****.â€
32. Nor “Cigarettesâ€.
33. Yes – that includes Demyx.
34. I am not to call Axel “a bulimic whoreâ€.
35. Yes – we are all aware of what his night job is.
36. “Broke-Back Mountain†will not be recreated with the Organization XIII as the actors no matter how much I ask.
37. I can’t kick Xaldin in the jaw for referring to my hair as “two pink Christmas-trees.â€
38. Just because it’s “Fangirl Seasonâ€, it doesn’t mean we get to shoot them all. It would upset “the balanceâ€.
39. I do not wish I were a sailor.
40. I can’t randomly maul Luxord because “he owes me munnyâ€. He never owes ANYONE munny.
41. No matter what I say, it’s spelt M-U-N-N-Y.
42. “Got it memorized?†is Axel’s catchphrase and HIS catchphrase only.
43. Same for “Commit it to memory.â€
44. Xigbar WILL shoot me if I say “As ifâ€, without any hesitation.
45. “Because I wanted to,†is not an excuse.
46. Lexaeus’s name is not “Da Rockâ€.
47. No – we cannot smell what he’s cooking.
48. Walking around the castle in the nude is NOT acceptable.
49. Xemnas’s tan is not fake.
50. The following replies are NOT appropriate answers: “Because.â€
51. “I’m drunk.â€
52. “Yo’ Momma.â€
53. “Your hair looks FABULOUS today – who did it?â€
54. “That’s what she said.â€
55. “Gheypeepulsaiwut?â€
56. “Jeez – gotten laid recently? I’m guessing NOT!â€
57. “Talk to the hand because your face is too much for the eyes to take.â€
58. “Well, ex-CUUUUUUUUUSE me! *snapsnapsnap*â€
59. “Two words: Mouthwash.â€
60. “Oh – that’s one word? Okay – then I’ll say it twice! MOUTHWASH, MOUTHWASH!â€
61. Or anything starting with, “Well, what had HAPPENED was…â€
62. Demyx is NOT on the menu. Period.
63. I HAVE to eat my vegetables once every two months. Failure to comply will result in death.
64. I do not have “the lookâ€.
65. Humping things at random does not count as daily exercise.
66. EXTREME hopscotch does not count as one, either.
67. Vexen is not “Jack-Frost’s old geezer of a cousin.â€
68. “Master debater†= two words, and shall be pronounced as such.
69. I am not allowed to butter ANY of my fellow member’s muffins unless it has something to do with actual food.
70. Xemnas does NOT have wet dreams about Kingdom Hearts.
71. Lex is not on steroids.
72. No – I may not sell any steroids to him to fix that.
73. Spandex is a privilege, not a right.
74. If I ask someone to shake their money-maker, they’d BETTER have a piggy-bank in their hands.
75. If I ask someone to shake their tail-feathers, they’d BETTER have a feather-duster in their hands.
76. Saix is not a puppy.
77. Roxas is not a step-ladder, a foot-stool NOR for sale. Even if it's the easiest 20 bucks I'll ever make.
78. If we are dining in a fine restaurant I may NOT stand up and loudly declare I have to go to the bathroom.
79. Nor may I come back and explain in EXCRUCIATING detail exactly what I was doing while I was away even LOUDER.
80. Burping my ABC’s is NOT a remarkable talent and should not be preformed as such.
81. Zexion’s room is off-limits at night.
82. If I continue to call the Wii by that name, I won’t be able to play on it anymore.
83. Xemnas’s name is not Mansex.
84. It doesn’t matter if the other members are saying it.
85. Nor is he Saix’s “Sugardaddyâ€.
86. It STILL doesn’t matter if the other members are saying it.
87. Xemnas’s speeches are a blessing and shall be treated as such.
88. Lexaeus, Vexen, and Zexion are not Xemnas’s “Three Sexies.â€
89. Curiosity killed the cat, and it’ll kill me, too.
90. Roxas does not cut himself.
91. We’re NOT going to check if he does.
92. I am not to give Larxene vodka no matter how much she asks.
93. Jumping jacks are not considered jumping jacks unless you’re actually standing up.
94. Nobody CARES if I broke a nail.
95. Nor do they care about my hair.
96. I am not to point out the obvious double-meaning of the word “nobody†in every occasion.
97. Whenever I bring up the word “Coke†I’d BETTER be talking about the soda.
98. Uranus does NOT belong on “My Prenusâ€.
99. I am not to repeat that joke when Demyx says he doesn’t get it.
100. Nor may I say it slowly the first time so that he does.
101. Okay – screw it. I can’t say it at all.




__________________________
(Your name here)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I felt bad for neglecting this site and giving dA all the good submissions and KHV sloppy seconds... This one was sitting around for a while, and I decided to get off my arse and finally submit it.

Ummmm.... I'd rather this not be moved to the Spamzone, please. But it IS kinda 1337 for me, so, ya know, yeah. I'd understand if you did.

But don't. Srsly.

Mmm-hmm... Yeah. I think that's it. See ya'll next time.

Lord of the Wings,
~Leah.

For as long as I could remember, I was… different.

I couldn’t really understand why I was born that way… I heard from my dad that my mother was some sort of… demon. But just because she was didn’t mean I was!

One day when I was about nine, I sat on my bed and examined myself in the mirror closely for the first time. The eyes hidden behind my thick glasses were a sharp, golden yellow color and were slitted almost like a cat’s.

Big deal… I can hardly even see without my glasses on… I thought with a pout.

My eyes traveled up to my forehead. Two identical, slender horns were starting to form right below my mop of long, wiry hair. I ran my thumb carefully over the tip. They’re not even that sharp…

Then I turned around and examined the scrawny, maroon wings sprouting from my back and the skinny, swishing devil tail that formed right above my bottom. I can’t even fly with these stupid things… And so what if I have a tail? It doesn’t even DO anything!

It was true. Despite my frightening appearance, I was completely normal. Completely human, you might say. But people didn’t understand… No matter how much I tried to make friends, I was always shunned because of how I looked. Even my own FATHER started treating me differently. After a while, I got so sick of being despised, I all but stopped going outside of the safety of home at all.

My twin brother, however, was different.

Not a day went by that I didn’t envy him… Curse those sweet, baby-blue eyes and smooth, tanned skin and perfect, blonde hair… Not a fang or claw to be seen!

Even his NAME was normal! John… How TYPICAL!

Truth be told, John was drop-dead beautiful – I don’t care how weird it is for his own brother to say that. And yet, though the guy looked completely normal, he was the one gifted with the powers! Oh yes – I had seen it a THOUSAND times before. With a small smirk here and a flash of his eyes there… He could easily manipulate anyone he wanted, and usually did. John was extremely proud of his little talent, and showed it off ALL THE TIME. Of course, I was immune to his little trick, but it DID make me awfully jealous.

Secretly, I idolized John. I kinda wished I WAS my brother. But, c’mon, there was no way that could happen… So for the most part I just acted as… A personal servant to him, one might say. I spent a lot of my time being the invisible boy in the shadows, secretly doing all of his homework and washing his clothes and waiting on his every command. He never offered me any thanks, and to be honest, I never really expected any. It was just the way things were.

It wasn’t until my senior year in high school did all of that change.

********************************************

“Anishmial…â€

A soft clatter sounded as the boy dropped his fork in surprise and looked up at his father. He’d gotten so used to being ignored at the dinner table, that it was quite honestly a surprise to hear his name called. “Y…Yes, father…?†he asked meekly.

His dad was a large, formidable looking man with bleach blonde hair and a neatly-trimmed goatee. Though he had a solid, medium build, if you looked closely, you could see his gut tended to protrude a little – a reminder of his apparent age. Truth be told, he looked nothing like his alleged son across the table.

He took a sip out of his glass of apple-juice, and continued, “I got a call at work today… It would seem that you were absent…†His icy blue eyes flashed with obvious annoyance. “… Again.â€
Anishmial lowered his head a bit, biting his lip with shame. He could feel his twin across the table cast him a small, fleeting smirk, though he wasn’t looking up to receive it. “Well… No, I wasn’t—â€
“Why?†His father growled. “You look fine to me.â€

Anishmial sighed a bit. “I… don’t get along well with the kids there… I don’t… They’re always making fun of me.â€
“Hmpf. I’d expect an excuse like that from you. Well, it’s good news for you then that you two are getting transferred to ANOTHER school.â€

Anishmial’s face brightened instantly, but at the same time, John began to groan. “Awww, MAN! AGAIN, Dad?! And in mid-semester, too…!â€
The man sighed. “I know how much you hate moving, Johnny, but I got another job offer. This time in the city. You two will be going to a Catholic school—â€

Now it was John’s turn to grin as Anishmial began to groan. “Catholic?! Oh no – Father, please don’t do this! I HATE Catholic schools! The people treat me like even MORE crap there than in normal schools!â€
“Well, maybe if you got your freakin’ nose out of a damned book all the ****in’ time and tried to make some FRIENDS for once…~â€
“Make friends? In a Catholic school looking like THIS?! Please!â€

“Enough!†their father roared. “There will be no more bickering at my table. Anishmial, you will attend that school as planned AND if I catch you skipping classes again, you are IN for it! Do you hear me?!â€
Anishmial sighed, looking down. “Yes sir… Sorry, sir…â€
“That’s more like it…†the man scoffed.

There was a tensed moment of silence as everyone resumed eating dinner.

“So, John… How was that football game yesterday?â€
John beamed a bit and piped up with a mouth full of mashed potatoes and peas, “Oh it was AWESHUM, Dad! We totally PWNED those Bears!â€

Anishmial sighed as John began babbling about his team’s success, poking idly at his food.

These next few months would surely be a living hell.

********************************************

The loving family actually waited about two full months before the move took place – Johnny didn’t want to abandon his beloved foot ball season before they made it to playoffs, and whatever little Johnny wanted, little Johnny got.

It was pathetic, really.

Anishmial sighed as he watched his beloved suburban home roll away into the distance. He wasn’t particularly attached to it – the memories he’d held at that place were no more pleasant than others. But still… He hated having to leave something so familiar to him behind…

He took one more lingering glance at the small – cute even – bricked home with the small, stout chimney poking out at the top, the soft black tiled roof, and the aged driveway lined lovingly with flowers and neatly cropped bushes. In the middle of the yard was a small, neatly-kept island containing about six adult pines, maples, and even a large birch. That was always something he’d loved about the house – it was always so surrounded by foliage and trees. Almost the exact opposite from the destruction he was so often associated with.

Perhaps he WOULD miss it after all…?

The light from the golden sunrise flickered off the two front windows brightly, and for a second, it was as if they were two, mournful eyes. Sighing a bit, he collapsed back into his chair, and stared off into the distance. Maybe his new home would be even better…?

After all, wishful thinking never hurt…

********************************************

I stand corrected.

Anishmial looked up glumly at the raggedy old apartment complex in the middle of a concrete jungle that would serve to be his next home. It was nothing – NOTHING – like the serene, sheltered little house that he’d gotten so accustomed to…

He scowled inwardly at the rough, cracked pavement, rusty old stair-way, and at the paint obviously flaking off the window-panes. And, if it were even possible, he had to say that the only thing that looked worse than the little shack would be the surrounding area! A steady cacophony rose up around them, fueled by loud, crazy honking, shrill police whistles, blaring trains, barking dogs, and hundreds of other sounds he didn’t even want to think about. The air was so full of lung-clogging smoke that he barely felt like he could breathe, and the sidewalks were always clogged with people EVERYWHERE.

The only thing he could POSSIBLY think to say was, “This… Is it?â€
“This is it?!†John echoed, looking almost offended.
“I know it’s not much, but for a while, it’ll be all I can afford in the inner city. So get used to it, ducklings.â€
“Oh joy…†John muttered, rolling his eyes and lugging in some of his stuff as he went.

It was weird to think about. As long as he could remember, that was the first think he could recall them ever agreeing to.

With a sigh, he grabbed a box, and began pulling his weight. It was going to be a long week.

********************************************

Anishmial stood awkwardly at the bus stop, blowing warm air into his open palms to fend away the cold and fiddling nervously with the tie he was required to wear as part of his school uniform. He sighed, snarling a bit at the cursed thing. Stupid ties… I don’t see why they’d force you to wear this ugly thing anyway – I always feel like I’m about to get strangled…

As always, John distanced himself from his brother, and was looking off serenely into the distance with his hands casually jammed into his pockets. Anishmial felt a little stab of jealousy just looking at his brother. No brother of mine has ANY right to look so freakin’ cool all the time…

Luckily, the bus wasn’t far from coming, and the two brothers climbed on board. Before the ride was even over, John was already laughing and joking around with some guys around his age, all of them acting as if they’d been together since kindergarten. Anishmial, being the social butterfly that he was, just sat at the back by himself, calmly reading a book an ignoring any weird stares he’d receive.

Though the back of the bus was often labeled the section where all the “bad†kids sat, he decided he liked it the best, anyway. He liked being able to watch others… One could say he was an observer of a sort. Besides, sitting in the back made it harder for anyone to stare without him knowing.

As the bus steadily slowed to a stop and kids began standing up and picking up their book-bags, Anishmial sighed and snapped shut the book.

Like he’d said – these next few days would be a living hell.

********************************************

SPLAT!

Anishmial sighed a bit, wiping the mashed potatoes off his face and glared at the group of guys two tables across from him. John and his new pack of mates cracked up and began slapping each other high-fives.

Animals… Anishmial thought bitterly as he sipped on some of his chocolate milk slowly in the lonely island of a lunch table. He’d tried sitting with a few other students, but they’d quickly moved away. No one had tried to sit there since. Why can’t they just leave me alone…?! I haven’t done anything to them…

He was used to his brother treating him like dirt out in public. In school, it was pretty much understood that he wasn’t considered anything close to a sibling anymore. In fact, John would humiliate him on a regular basis just to look cool and fit in.

Which he did exceptionally, by the way.

Anishmial sighed, hunching his shoulders a bit. It just wasn’t fair… It wasn’t… Why would John do this to him for no reason? They were BROTHERS – he deserved to be treated better than this, and—

“Hi – is this seat taken?~â€

Anishmial, startled out of his thoughts, suddenly jumped and looked up to see a girl grinning down at him. Suddenly, his mouth went dry. Her tall, slender, majestic figure was incredible to behold. Her long blonde hair flowed well past her shoulders in graceful waves and her bright blue eyes twinkled with a strange light that was completely alien to him. Her perfect, pale, flawless skin seemed almost radiant with a happiness you felt more than you saw…

In short, this gal was drop-dead GORGEOUS. He felt hideous just standing next to her!

He averted his eyes to the ground automatically. “I’m sorry… I-I didn’t know—†he stammered, about to stand up.
“No – no… It’s fine…†she quickly assured him. “I just wanted to know if this seat was taken, silly!â€
He blinked, staring up at her. “Y…You w-want to s-sit…? With m-me…?†he stuttered, inwardly cursing at how stupid he must’ve sounded at the moment.
“Well, is there anyone else sitting here?†she asked with a little laugh.
It sounds like wind chimes… only prettier… He smiled foolishly, head swimming. “N…No, I suppose there’s n-not…â€

She giggled a bit, taking a bite into her sandwich. Anishmial stared at her for a while, completely captivated. And she has such pretty white teeth, too… and she looks awfully good in that skirt…

It took him a moment – a very long moment – before he realized she was staring back. At first, he thought that was strange, but then he realized he’d been doing it as well, and he reminded himself again just how socially awkward he was. He looked away with a slight blush.

“You’re new here, aren’t you? What’s your name?†she asked, trying to get him to look back up at her.
“Um… Anishmial, m-ma’am.â€
“Ugh… Don’t call me ‘ma’am’. Makes me feel like an old lady. My name’s Inaciel.â€
“That’s… beautiful…â€
She winked, slurping some chocolate milk. “Yours isn’t too shabby, either!â€
He blushed again, smiling sheepishly.

“So, uh… Yeah. What are you, exactly?†she asked, munching on some chips.
Anishmial blinked. “Pardon…?â€
“Are you an… elf or something?â€
“Elf…? Oh…†He blush a bit, unconsciously placing a hand on the side of his head. “You mean by the ears, right…? Well, no, I’m not an elf… Truth be told, I don’t know WHAT I am… But I’m certainly not the most people make me out to be…â€

She nodded thoughtfully. Anishmial exhaled deeply, happy to finally get that off his chest. He smiled at the strange girl. “Y…Ya know, I… I know this sounds weird, but I really like you… No one ever really cares about what I have to say, and I feel like… you really listen, ya know? Is that weird for me to say? I mean, we HAVE only just met…â€

Before Inaciel could answer, there was another SPLAT! Anishmial blinked in a dumbfounded manner and removed his glasses to see that they were now dripping with mashed potatoes. John’s posse roared with laughter at the expression on his face.

Inaciel growled at the mob. “JERKS!†she snapped.
John hooted rudely about how feisty she was.
For a second, Inaciel looked like she was gonna go over there and rearrange some faces, but Anishmial caught a hold of her shirt, gently pulling her back down with a shake of his head. “No no…†he murmured with a shy smile. “It’s okay… I’m used to it. No need to make a fuss…â€

Inaciel huffed, collapsing back down. “Who does that punk think he is?!†she muttered, munching angrily on her sandwich. “Flinging food around like a freakin’ barbarian… But, seriously – who IS that guy?! Haven’t seen him around before… Freakin’ new kids thinking they can just storm in and take over the place…â€
Anishmial shot her an amused glance. “He’s my brother.â€

The absolute shock on her face was almost comical. “I… I’m so sorry! I didn’t know!†She gazed across the tables. “I… I mean, he doesn’t look anything like you…â€

She blinked a bit, watching as John burst into laughter about something one of his friends had said, exposing a mouthful of chewed-up turkey, peas, and bread. Some of it spewed on the table.

“… And…This is just a wild guess, but chances are, he doesn’t act much like you, either…â€
Anishmial laughed a bit. “You could say we’re as different as night and day – yes…â€
“Good – then maybe we’ll actually get along,†the blonde said with a devious wink.

As always, Anishmial blushed.

********************************************

Lunch came and went. Anishmial and his new friend talked for a pretty long time, discussing various things such as politics, weather, the ugly skull-caps the lunch ladies wore – whatever. Anishmial had to say, it was nice having someone to actually talk to… And for once, being the good brother, too.

He never saw Inaciel again after lunch, but he decided that it didn’t matter. All he could do for the rest of the day was doodle random pictures, thinking about Inaciel all the while.

That night at dinner, it was unnaturally calm and for everyone. The twins’ father turned to John, munching a bit. “So, how was your first day at school, Sport?†he asked.
“Eh – it was good,†John replied smoothly.
“Did you make any new friends?â€
“A couple. Nothin’ big.â€
“That’s great.â€

Slowly, the man’s eyes turned to his ******* son, full of scorn and contempt. “And what about you…?†he asked grudgingly – as if he had to.

Anishmial thought about the question long and hard. He considered the fact that he could’ve complained about how John and his buddies teamed up to harass him all day, OR how people would do nothing but stare and whisper about him behind his back all sorts of things he didn’t even want to THINK about. OR that even the teachers would walk him to the principal’s office nearly every period for absolutely no reason and the fact that they held him responsible for everything that happened in the class.

He thought long and hard about these trials, and then shrugged with a slight smile.

“It was alright.â€

********************************************

The days flew by like seconds before Anishmial’s eyes. Every day during lunch he and Inaciel would meet up at the usual place and talk. It suddenly put things in a whole new light for the young half-demon. School was no longer a horrible place that he wished he could blow up and do the tango upon its smoldering ashes. Suddenly, it was the center of his life. For once, he didn’t mind the barrages of balled-up paper and spit-balls John and his group constantly sent his way. In fact, he was now welcoming them with a good-natured grin and a laugh.

He couldn’t understand why Inaciel was so kind to him… How she could see past his horrid appearance and appreciate who he really was, he didn't understand, but he was very grateful and absolutely DELIGHTED to have someone who finally did.

John, however, wasn’t as thrilled.

He hated how unnaturally cheery Anishmial had gotten – he wanted things to go back to the way they were. And, more than that, he could feel himself growing more and more envious of his brother. Sure, he had looks, talent, popularity, and hordes of girls at his feet, but how had ANISHMIAL out of all people gotten such a hot babe as hideous as HE was?! The more he thought about it, the more it ticked him off. And instead of Anishmial getting all upset when he threw crap at him to vent off the frustration like he was supposed to, he just laughed… As if he KNEW.

It drove John insane. Fine… If my stupid bro can win that chick over, it’ll be a piece of cake for me. That’ll show him… the devious twin decided in his mind.

********************************************

Anishmial grinned, approaching his friend at the table and plopping his books down. “Hello, again, Inaciel!â€
“Hey, Nishy! Where’s your food, man?†she asked, slurping on her chocolate milk.
“Oh – I’m going to run and get it right now, okay? Hold on right there – I have a funny story about this substitute teacher that came today!â€

Inaciel laughed and nodded as Anishmial scrambled off. She took out her ham-and-cheese sandwich and began eating with a serene look on her face.

Time for me to make my move…

John stealthily slid out of his seat and approached the blonde, slicking back his hair a little. Anishmial stopped on his way to the line and snapped his fingers. “Oh DANG IT! I forgot my money!â€

He turned around and was about to head back over to pile of books, and stopped short. He gasped a bit. John?! he thought franticly. He watched, horrified, as John tucked a lock of his hair behind his ear, grinning seductively and continued chatting. HE’S TRYING TO TAKE HER AWAY FROM ME!!!

Shock and pain flooded his senses and he slumped on the wall, pressing his hand over his heart. But… But why would he DO this…?! He already HAS a girlfriend!

He couldn’t believe it! This was the one possession he had – this one friend. It was his one source of joy and happiness and John was trying to turn her against him!

He watched as Inaciel shook her head viciously at whatever John was saying and offer a scolding reply. He smiled a bit. Classical Inaciel… Oh wait… He sighed as John gave the little flash of his eyes that would signal the activation of his manipulative powers and began speaking slowly – seductively again with the tell-tale smirk hovering just on his lips. There it is… he thought miserably. He could feel his heart sink with dread at the realization that he’d have to go through the rest of high school in exile now. As always…

Suddenly, something happened that obviously took them both by surprise.

Inaciel abruptly jumped to her feet and slapped the FIRE out of John. The poor guy stumbled back a bit, clutching his smarting face and staring incredulously at Inaciel. Anishmial’s jaw dropped. WHAT THE—?!?! She’s immune?!

Inaciel, not sensing anything strange, proceeded to scream her lungs off at John, threatening to spray him in the eyes with mace if he ever showed his scrawny butt around again. She then continued to throttle him, slapping him and kicking and SCREAMING at him until John eventually retreated back to his posse with his tail between his legs, so to speak. All of them were roaring with laughter by now.

Anishmial pressed his hand to his mouth and dashed into the line, pretending he hadn’t seen a thing. Too little, too late, though. John spotted him looking at the horridly embarrassing scene and scowled.

I’ll deal with him later…

Anishmial came back with his tray of food, looking a bit troubled. Inaciel smiled warmly at him as she HADN’T just been threatening his twin brother with mace a few seconds ago. “Hey, Nishy! How’s about you finish that story of yours, huh? With the substitute teacher and all?â€
Anishmial shook his head. “Nah… That’s alright… It wasn’t that funny, after all…â€
“Oh… Well then ya wanna hear about somethin’ funny that happened to me today?â€
“Sure. Whatever.â€
“Okay…â€

Lunch that day was long and awkward, Inaciel noted. Anishmial hardly said a word and would only poke around his food, not really eating at all. And he kept on glancing somewhere across the room from her, too. Something’s up with him…

After a while of long, awkward, one-sided conversations, she could take it no longer. “Okay – fess up.â€
“Hmmm?â€
“Fess up. What’s eating you? You won’t say anything, man! Is something wrong?â€
Anishmial looked away silently.
“Nishy? SAY somethin’, man!†Inaciel cried.
“I saw what happened, okay?!†Anishmial blurted suddenly. “With you and John! I saw it all!â€
Inaciel suddenly went silent. “… Oh…â€

An awkward silence followed.

She sighed a bit. “A…Anishmial, I didn’t… MEAN anything, okay…? I just… kinda lost it… I HATE how your stupid, stuck-up brother treats you like dirt half the time, and all you do is shrug it off! You deserve better than that! And then Lil’ Miss THANG comes up here asking if I’ll DITCH you just like that and become his little PLAYTHING for an hour before he drops me again and I’m all ‘HECK NO!’ and he’s all—â€

Anishmial blinked. “That’s not what I’m talking about… You didn’t notice him trying to manipulate you…?â€
She blinked. “Manipulate…?â€
“You… Didn’t notice…?â€

He sighed a bit. “Look… I know this sounds crazy, but out of the two of us, John’s the only one of the two of us who has any powers… He can manipulate people against their will. Until today, I thought I was the only one immune to it, but you didn’t even respond…â€

Inaciel blushed a bit. “… Oh dear…â€
“What?†Anishmial pressed gently.
“Well… Uh… This might come as surprise, but I’m not exactly normal, either…â€
Anishmial blinked, cocking his face to the side, not really understanding.
Inaciel leaned over and whispered in his ear, “Ya see, “I’m actually kinda an… um… An angel.â€

Anishmial’s eyes widened. “An… An angel…?!â€
“SHHHHH!†she hissed. “Not so loud! I’m supposed to be under-cover, okay? We angels have our share of enemies, too! But I think I can trust you…†she chuckled with a wink.
“B… But I don’t understand…†he murmured, still a bit awestruck. “You… If you’re an angel, then why, of all people, would you sit by someone like me?â€
Inaciel shrugged. “Angels aren’t as easily swayed by appearances as humans… We can usually look past that and see how people really are by small actions. It’s also the reason why I hate your dear brother so much. Understand?â€

It took a moment to click. Suddenly, Anishmial began grinning foolishly and nodding enthusiastically. Of course! It all made sense now! The radiant aura always around her, the complete grace of her movements, that pure heart…

I KNEW something was different about her! Never thought I’d see the day where I’d fall in love with an angel… he thought idly as the two continued their midday meal, no longer bound by words left unsaid.

********************************************

FWHACK!

A glob of blood splattered onto the floor. Panicked wheezing soon followed.

WHAM! SMACK! CRASH!

Anishmial cried out in pain as his head was smashed into the wall, and then as he was thrown into the table roughly.

“How the hell did you DO it?!†John screamed, his eyes blazing with fury.
“I didn’t do anything!†the panicked boy insisted, sobbing and trying to crawl away. He HATED it when John was like this. Sometimes the beatings were so severe, he actually feared for his life.

Still, he couldn’t say it wasn’t expected. On the whole way home, John was sitting on the bus with his jaw clenched tightly, staring off into space. He’d waited until they were home before ever even looking at his brother. Fearing the worst and seeking to appease him, Anishmial offered to do his brother’s homework again. If was as if he’d flipped a switch; before he’d even finished his sentence, John was upon him, swinging and cursing up a storm.

“BULLSHIT!!!†John spat, not impressed by his brother’s reply.

Anishmial grunted as he was viciously kicked in his ribs. “You’re the only one who’s immune to it, you *******. You must’ve told her somethin’!â€
“I didn’t John! I swear! She’s… Inaciel’s just naturally immune!†he whimpered, coughing out some blood.
John heaved him up by his collar, glaring coldly into his brother’s eyes. “What do you mean by that…?†he asked softly.
“She… She’s not human…!†Anishmial wheezed softly. “Not human… She’s… an angel…â€

John froze. “… An… angel, you say…? For real?â€
Anishmial nodded fearfully.
“… Hmm…â€

John dropped his brother carelessly to the ground, rubbing his chin thoughtfully. “An angel…†he murmured, slinking out of the house.

Anishmial coughed up a few more globs of blood, and collapsed, unconscious, onto the floor.

********************************************

Anishmial’s slowly cracked open. He groaned pitifully, clutching his head tightly. Huffing a bit, he sat up and looked around with bleary eyes. What the… What… time is it…? How long was I out…? The whole house almost completely dark by now.

He struggled to his feet, still aching a bit from the thrashing John had given him. He looked at the clock and groaned. Almost 8 o’ clock… I’ve been out for hours!

He rubbed his temples with a small sigh, trying to will the pain away. He blinked, suddenly remembering something. “John…? John, are you here…?â€

No response.

Fueled by curiosity, the young half-demon wandered around the house, calling for his brother. To his surprise, he was nowhere to be found!

Anishmial furrowed his brow a bit. But… Where could he have…?! Suddenly, he remembered.

“An angel… Hmmm…â€
“I’m supposed to be under-cover, okay? We angels have our share of enemies, too!â€

The teen gasped. “Oh, I’m so STUPID! I can’t believe I told him! Now she’s in dire trouble and it’s my entire fault!â€

Without a moment’s hesitation, he rushed out of the house.

********************************************

Inaciel gasped with pain, her huge, impressive wings fluttering pathetically as she struggled to free herself from John’s tight choke-hold.

The battle had lasted for hours now, and she was getting weary. They’d been all around the city and back, fighting like mad dogs. Inaciel had managed to keep most of the fighting on rooftops where people would be less likely to see, and where she’d have an elemental advantage – the air. But John fought akin to a pureblood demon, and it was almost too much for to handle alone.

Angel was not bore killers like demons were – they had to go through training. Inaciel was admittedly a few centuries short. It was appalling how she, who had trained for millennia, was still a few critical pegs beneath John’s level.

After a while, she’d felt herself tiring and tried fleeing from the scene by flight. John, cold-hearted and ruthless as he was, leapt up and grabbed her by the foot. Since the both of them were too much to carry by flight, she tumbled back down with a scream. Without wasting a second’s time, John jumped up and wrapped his strong hands around her neck. He could sense her giving out, too, and, fueled by bloodlust, he only tried that harder to give the final blow. It seemed that this would be it.

Finally… My ultimate goal… My life-long dream… REALIZED!

Pretty soon, Inaciel stopped struggling… Stopped thrashing about and clawing pitifully at his nails. Stars burst before her eyes and she could feel herself slipping into unconsciousness due to the lack of oxygen…

Suddenly, the door to the roof-top burst open, and in dashed in…

“Anishmial…?â€

The teen was bent forward, and leaning heavily on his knees, wheezing heavily. Sweat dripped from his forehead and fell to the ground. “S…Stairs…†he huffed. “T…Twenty… flights… of stairs… elevator… broken…†I am SO out of shape… Maybe I shouldn’t have skipped gym class today…

John narrowed his eyes and threw Inaciel’s limp body to the ground. “How did you know where we were…?†he hissed.
“F…Feathers…†Anishmial panted. “Lots of ‘em… Lead to here…â€

He stood to his full height, taking a deep breath, and examined the scene. There were hundreds of huge, blood-stained white feathers strewn all over the ground. Slowly, his gave travelled to Inaciel’s motionless form. He’d never seen her in her true form before… If anything, she looked even more beautiful now, despite the numerous bruises and a tiny cut on her cheek.

“Is… Is she…?!†he stammered.
“No. Just sleeping,†John answered. “… For now…â€
“Why are you doing this?!†Anishmial cried. “What has Inaciel ever done to you?! Why are you trying to KILL her?!â€

John smirked. “Idiot… Are you really that out-of-touch with the world?!†He laughed mockingly. “It’s only common knowledge… If a demon devours the body of an angel, his powers and strength will multiply ten-fold! I’d be completely unstoppable!â€

“You’re going to EAT her?!â€
“No, you sicko! I’m going to… Oh – you meant in the literal sense… In that case, yes. Yes, I am.â€
“Y-You can’t do that!†Anishmial stammered.
His brother scoffed in reply. “Says who? You?!â€
Anishmial gave a determined nod. “I… I won’t let you, brother! You’ve gone too far this time!â€

John snarled. “You know what…?! You’ve been a thorn in my side for a while now… You’re like one of those stupid eyelashes that keep on poking you and poking you and POKING you until you just want to scream! You’re everything I’m NOT! You’re a spineless, weak, hideous little *******, and I don’t care if we DO have the same parents – YOU’RE NOT MY BROTHER!!!†He glared coldly at Anishmial. “I think it’s about time I get rid of you, you little nuisance…â€

Anishmial gulped, horrified. “J…John, what do you—?!â€

Suddenly, John shot forward, his fist pulled back. Anishmial, fighting the strong, almost irresistible urge to drop to his knees and cover his head, ducked to the side, pulling his fists into an awkward fighting position.

John roared with laughter at the sight as Anishmial tried to put some distance between them. “You REALLY don’t stand a chance!†he chuckled, eyes flashing.

Anishmial gasped as he zipped forward with super-human speed, closing the distance he’d made in a matter of seconds. “H-HOW DID YOU—?!â€
Suddenly John was behind him. He chuckled a bit. “Oh, dear brother – you didn’t really think I’d let you see the FULL extent of my powers, did you…?â€

Anishmial whipped around suddenly, but it was too late. John slammed him in the face with a firm right-uppercut to the jaw, which sent the poor teen tumbling to the ground. Anishmial tried to scramble back up, but John just kicked him viciously again, laughing. This was actually kinda fun – a welcome change from the hard-fought battle with the annoying little fluff queen. I guess it wouldn’t hurt to toy with him a bit…

Anishmial spat out a bit of blood, struggling to his feet, and swung wildly in his brother’s direction. John only side-stepped with a faint smirk and grabbed Anishmial’s fist. The teen screamed, falling helplessly to his knees as he heard a sickening cracking sound.

I can’t do it…! he thought franticly. I can’t…! He’s too strong – he’ll kill me!

John smirked a bit. “You look so pathetic… But it’s okay… I’ll give you a second chance, you miserable worm…†The smile grew. “I’ll let you keep your miserable life if you stop this nonsense and become my little pet… Oh yeah – and I’ll need some BBQ sauce for your girlfriend, too.†He cackled shamelessly.

Something inside of Anishmial snapped. Some feral, barbaric part of his being that had been locked up as long as he’d lived, was suddenly sent free.

With a terrifying snarl, he glared up at his twin brother, eyes glowing blood-red. Before John even knew what was going on, Anishmial shot forward, head-butting his brother in the gut. His horns impaled deep into his body, sending blood gushing all over the place.

John screamed in agony, stumbling back and clutching his wound tenderly. Anishmial only growled and with a short, quick motion, he snapped his broken wrist in place.

John didn’t even see the huge butt-whuppin’ coming. Left jab, right hook, kick, punch, upper-cut… It was all he could do to keep up!

Suddenly, he lost his footing, and with a gasp realized he was at the edge of the building! With a scream, he toppled off, but with some luck, managed to cling to ledge, staring up fearfully at his twin brother.glared down at him from above, never before looking so formidable.

John grunted, trying to claw his way back up, but to no avail. Anishmial’s now-bloody horns had done a number on his stomach. To make matters worse, he could feel his grip slipping!

Cars beeped and honked considerably under him, and he shuddered as a huge gust of air swept below him, almost making him slip. His legs kicked uselessly beneath him.

He looked up again at the brother he’d tormented and made fun of as long as each of them had lived. The brother he’d beaten, spit on, pranked, and just recently tried to kill…

John gulped slightly. “Y… You wouldn’t kill your own brother, would you…?†he whimpered.
Anishmial blinked. He stared at his brother for a long time.

… I can’t do it… he thought sadly. He may have been horrible to me, but… I can’t… It just wouldn’t be right… He’s my brother…

With a sigh, he bent down and offered his hand. “Hold on tight…†he murmured.
John looked up incredulously at him. “Wh… What?!â€
“Hold on tight or you’ll fall. Hurry up.â€

Shakily, John took his brother’s hand, and was helped back up onto the roof. Anishmial backed away cautiously.

John shook a bit, clutching his bloody stomach and looked up at Anishmial with wide eyes. “Wh… Why did you do that…?!†he stammered.
Anishmial hesitated. “… You’re my brother.â€
“But… I’ve treated you so badly…â€
His brother only shrugged casually. “I let you.â€

There was a long silence.

John dragged himself to his feet, overcome with emotion. “A…Anishmial…†he sobbed, stumbling over to his brother. Anishmial blinked, completely shocked as his brother gave him a huge hug. “I… I’m so sorry for how I’ve treated you before… You’re… the best brother a guy could ever hope for…â€

Anishmial blinked, completely startled for a moment. After a while, he smiled, and hugged John back, smiling happily.

“… And also the stupidest…â€

Anishmial blinked as he heard a faint clicking sound, and gasped.

KA-BLAM!!!

He jerked violently, releasing John and stumbling back slightly. His hand unconsciously went to the bloody hole in his chest as he stared incredulously at his brother. John grinned, blowing the barrel of the smoking gun casually and grinning at him.

Everything seemed to go in slow motion. He stumbled back a bit, his motions short, jerky, mechanical, even. His body was rapidly going numb. He didn’t feel it… No pain. No pain… Only horror.

He couldn’t stop his twin brother as he casually walked up and shoved him off the edge of the building. He could only watch, as if he were a spectator.

Why…?

The last thing he remembered seeing was his brother waving him good-bye on the way down.

Lost the game.

LOLOLOL. Spread the loss for internation Lose-the-game day! 8DDD

Confused? Don't know what this "game" is? Then go here.

Meh... I unno why I'm here right now. XD; I've practically left the site already. *shrug* Whatever - uploading something to KHV first makes uploading it to deviantArt a whole lot easier.

Whatever.

I've been wanting to do this for a long time now, sooooo... Even though I'm in the middle of, like, 6 other fanfics, I'mma start another one! XD GO PROCRASTINATION!

Caution: Is kinda suggestive on a lot of different levels and OOGLES of profanity. XD; don't say I didn't warn ya.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The Birth of Xilord

He's a She's a He's a-WHU'?!?!​

Xigbar grinned a bit, slipping his tongue into Luxord’s mouth as their lips met again in a passionate kiss. Luxord couldn’t help but smile as well at the older man’s vigor, sliding his warm fingers into The Freeshooter’s long, silky hair. “Mmmpf…” he couldn’t help but moan.
“Mmmpf…” Xigbar agreed, sliding his hands around Luxord’s waist. As their tongues continued doing battle, he took the time to carefully slide one end of Luxord’s thin undershirt up a bit, and stroke the warm skin underneath.

He gasped in surprise as the blonde shoved him forcefully onto the bed, smirking slyly. He blinked, and smirked back. “You know I can just flip you off of me right now and dominate you, right?”
Luxord drew slight circles on his chest. “Well… Yeah… But I was hoping that, uh… Maybe I could top tonight…?”
“C’mon, dude… That’s not fair! You gotta win in the dominance fight just like everyone else!”
“I know, I know, but you’ve been topping for, like, three bloody weeks straight! I kinda miss it…”

Xigbar chuckled a bit. “Well… I HAVE been hitting the gym lately… Ya like?”
Luxord pecked him on the lips softly. “Hellz yeah! But c’mon… Just for tonight. Pleeease…? A nasty ol’ dominance fight would go and ruin the mood, savvy…?”

Xigbar rolled his eyes. “Okay, OKAY. Jeez. Now don’t say I don’t spoil you…!~”
Luxord chuckled, and kissed him again. “I know, I know…”
“AND don’t get used to it, a’ight? This is a one-time thing. No more asking for free-bees.”
“Or else what…?” Luxord asked slyly.
“Or else I’ll say no! Duh.”

Luxord blinked. “Oh… I, uh… thought you’d say something like you’d be seme that night.”
“What else would I be – the ringmaster?!”

Silence.

“Shut up and spread your legs, you bloody wanker.”

A few days later…

Luxord stretched, yawning slightly as he stumbled into the kitchen, and lazily started scratching himself all over. “Ahhh…” the blonde sighed, opening a cabinet and grabbing his “#1 Gambler” mug and walking over to the huge pot of tea sitting in one corner.

He grinned to see it was already brewing. “Nice… Tea and I didn’t even need to make it!” Whistling cheerily, he began pouring a cup for himself.

Then he walked over to the kitchen table, grabbed one of the newspapers by the wall that the mail-Dusk brought in every morning and took a seat. After a quick sip of his tea, he flung the paper out and began reading.

Not soon after, Xigbar wobbled in after him, groaning and holding his stomach. “H…hey, Lux…” he grumbled, shuffling over to the refrigerator and opening it. “Ya go a minute, dude…?”

Luxord quirked a brow and set down his paper. “What is it, mate?” he asked casually as he took another sip of his precious tea.
Xigbar pulled open the fridge, snatched up the jug of milk, and sighed. “I think I might be sick or somethin’... These last few days have been just…” he flailed his arms about. “Aggghhhh…! I’ve been snapping people’s heads off left and right for absolutely no reason… My chest feels kinda funny… I’ve been throwing up for absolutely no reason…”

He trailed off, and put his hands on his hips, a thoughtful look on his face. “But it’s kinda funny… Even though I’ve felt sick to my stomach, I’ve been GAININ’ weight – not losing it… Huh… weird…” He started drinking the milk without even bothering to pour a glass first.
“Huh… Well I’ll be darned…” Luxord grumbled, swishing his mouth to the side slightly. “Mmm… Probably just a weird virus flyin’ around… I’m sure it’s nothing TOO serious mate – just make sure you drink plenty of fluids, and—WHOA – HEY, HEEEY!!!” the blonde shouted suddenly, catching sight of Xigbar guzzling the milk. “Cut that out! If you really ARE sick, then all you’re doin’ is spoilin’ the milk for the rest of us, savvy?!”

Xigbar wiped his mouth with his sleeve, snarling. “Oh get eaten by a bloody shark, you limey Brit *******!” he snapped.
“Okay, okay! Sheesh…!” Luxord grunted, turning back to his paper.

Xigbar blinked and suddenly went back to the refrigerator. “…Wonder if we have anymore fried chicken left…” he murmured, as he poked through.

Unfortunately, they did.

He squealed with delight, got a bowl, and went back to the milk carton. He poured the milk inside the bowl, miscrowaved it for a minute, and then pulled it out the steaming hot liquid out of the microwave. He set that next to the chicken, and then went into the cabinets. “Where is it…? Where is it…?! AH! Here it is!”

He pulled out what he was looking for, grinning. “MUSTARD!” He dumped the whole thing of mustard on the cold chicken, and dipped that inside of the warm milk, and then took a bite. “Mmmm… Actually, it's not bad!” he chirped, dipping the chicken again.

Luxord, as you could imagine, was giving a look of absolute horror at the concoction Xigbar had stirred up – the Frankenstein’s monster of food. Oh, bloody hell – I’m gonna puke…! he thought, pressing his hand to his mouth. “****, man – find some ****ing help!” the blonde cried, getting ready to rush away.

Xigbar blinked, obviously hurt. “W…Wha…?!” His eyes suddenly grew wide and teary. “Y…You don’t… You don’t like it…?!” He looked down miserably at the bowl, his lip trembling. “Oh… Oh my god – I… I serious feel like I’m gonna cry right now…!” he whimpered, burying his face in his hands.
Luxord turned back to the man, quickly getting a bit exasperated. Cripes – what the hell is going on today?! “No, no, Xiggy!” he coaxed, running back to the man. “It’s not that I don’t LIKE it – it’s just, that, uh… I, uh…”
“You don’t like it…” Xigbar finished miserably.
“No! It’s not that at all! It looks… uh…” Luxord glanced at the strange food again, gulping. “Er… delicious… yeah.”
“Good!” Xigbar chirped, suddenly perking up. “Then go get me some tacos and chocolate!” His eyes narrowed to slits. “NOW.”

Luxord blinked, drawing back. “Waaaait a second…” he murmured, striking his thoughtful pose. “What’s goin’ on here…? Are you, like… PMSing or something? But, no – that wouldn’t explain the weird cravings…”
Xigbar blinked and smirked a bit. “Uh… Dude, what are ya talkin’ about? You said it yourself – I’m just kinda sick or… somethin’.”
“Naaaah – I think it might be something else…” Luxord murmured, circling around his lover a bit.
“Seriously, dude – you’re creepin’ me out…” Xigbar chuckled. “What – do you think it—”

“Got it!” Luxord cried, snapping his fingers. “Xigbar… I don’t know exactly how to tell you this, but, uh… I think… you’re pregnant.”

Silence for a long time.

Xigbar abruptly cracked up. “OH, DUDE! That is SO totally rich!” he cackled, slapping his hand against the table. “HAHAHAHA – RIGHT! I’m TOTALLY pregnant! Jeez, Luxord – only you would come up with a conclusion like that!”
“But it’s probable!” Luxord insisted. “Think about it! The mood-swings, the puking, the weird food and the gained weight… All symptoms of pregnancy!”

Dead silence.

A mustard-covered drumstick plopped into the bowl of warm milk. “… What?” Xigbar asked, eyes wide. There was a tiny “I don’t believe you!~” grin on his face as he spoke.
Luxord beamed, and threw his arms out wide. “YOU’RE GONNA BE A MOMMY, MY XIGGY-POO!!!~”

That was the breaking point. A man could only take so much. Xigbar suddenly jumped up and slammed his fist on the table, his teeth bared in rage. “AS IF!!! That can’t POSSIBLY be! I’m a MAN, DAMNIT! MEN don’t get PREGNANT!!!”

Luxord simply crossed his arms. “Well… Technically you’re a Nobody… And we don’t even know if you’re male yet… I mean… not like any of us actually had the guts to spy on Larxene and see if she actually squats…”
“But…” Xigbar whimpered. Tears started welling up in his eyes. “I’mma guy…! I’MMA GUY!!!”

He slumped onto Luxord, sobbing. “WHAT DO I DO NOW, HUH?! Do I **** it out?! **** it out like… Like some kinda TURD or something…?!” he wailed.
“We’ll find out the specifics later, m’kay?” Luxord cooed, patting his lover on the head. He then bent down so that he was eye-level to Xiggy’s stomach, and rubbed it gently, cooing, “Hey, there, lil’ fellah!~ Can’t wait till ya come out for us to see…!~”

“CUT THAT OUT!!!”

Luxord yelped as he went flying across the room due to a boot in the face. He tumbled slightly, rolling across the ground, until he smacked into the wall on the other side of the kitchen.

K.O.

“… Oops…” Xigbar rubbed the back of his head slightly, a vivid blush clawing at his cheeks. “S-Sorry, there, Luxxy…! You surprised me…”

Silence.

“C…Can ya breathe…?”

************************************​

“GYAAAH!!!”

Xigbar suddenly sat up, his chest heaving. He glanced around for a while, and then sighed, collapsing back into the soft sheets of his bed, chuckling to himself.
“Nyugh… What’s wrong, Xiggy…?” Luxord asked sleepily from the other end of the bed.
“Heh… Oh, nothing, Lux… I just had this… ya know – HORRIBLE dream that… somehow I magically got PREGNANT, and you...! Oh, JEEZ! You… you were… uhm… Y-You were…” He gulped. “Oh…”

Luxord sat up a bit, grinning lazily. His nose was plugged up with bloody tissue, and a good portion of his face was black-and-blue in the shape of a foot-imprint. “Oh that? Heh… That was real. It’s just that after I woke up from passing out, you were so sorry that you said that you’d be willing to make it up for me any way you could, and – hell – I wasn’t givin’ up that chance, and at first we were gonna do it right there on the table, but Demyx walked in and freaked out and then XALDIN got involved, so unless we wanted to get castrated then and there, we needed to take it back in room and then you were all like, ‘OH, LUXXY!’ and I was like, ‘OH, XIGGY!’ and we kissed, and I ran my tongue up your—”

“So I really AM pregnant?!” Xigbar screeched. He could almost feel his brain completely snap in two.
“Uh… Yeah – as far as I know,” Luxord replied, yawning and scratching the back of his head.

Xigbar instantly slammed his face into a pillow and began pounding it with his fist, screaming as loud as he could into it. “THAT! IS ****ING! IMPOSSIBLE!!! I! Am! A! GUY!!!” he screamed. “**** IT ALLL!!!!!” He was truly a pioneer, he was. He was gonna be the first ever Organization member to have a child. Shame he didn’t see it as an honor.

“Hey, heeey…!” Luxord coaxed, rubbing his lover’s back slightly. “Don’t be like that… Just think about it! Wouldn’t it be nice to have a little bundle of joy that we could order around all we want and get to do crap for us without pay…? Like a mini-slave of some sort, but instead we give them a place to sleep so we’re not infringing the child labor laws!”

Xigbar sniffled. “True, but… How the hell are we supposed to explain this to Xemnas?! You know how he gets about crazy **** like this… I mean, SURE – the guy SAYS he knows all there is to know about Nobodies and hearts and the Heartless and blah, blah, blah, but c’mon, dude! I’M A FREAKIN’ GUY!”
Luxord smiled a bit. “Well… He doesn’t HAVE to know about it… Heh – it reminds me of that time I…” he trailed off. “Er… Nevermind. Ehhehhehheh…”

Xigbar quirked an eyebrow. “When you WHAT?! Luxord, the Gambler of Fate, is there someone else I should know about?!” the Freeshooter demanded.

Initiating ***** mode!

Luxord chuckled a bit, scratching his head nervously. “Nononono! It’s nothing like that, mate – I swear it! Nothing that bad!”
“YEAH?!” Xiggy shrieked. “THEN WHAT IS IT LIKE, HUH?! What can it POSSIBLY be that’s not THAT bad, huh?! Ya know what?! That one time I was at Port Royal, and we were supposed to meet each other at the town at 8:45 pm, guess when you came! JUST GUESS!”

He didn’t give Luxord enough time to answer. “8:47!!!!!!” the Freeshooter exploded. “You thought I didn’t notice, didn’t you?! DIDN’T YOU?!?!?! Oh, I noticed, alright! You’ve been sneaking over to Xaldin’s room while I’ve had my back turned, haven’t you?! HAVEN’T YOU?!”

Initiating psychotic wife that every man regrets marrying after two weeks mode…

Luxord growled. “Xigbar, you’re acting REDICULOUS! If I was cheating on you, don’t you think it’d take longer than TWO BLOODY MINUTES?! So I needed to use the bloody John before I met you – so what?! Xaldin and I are just friends is all! We don’t do THAT! Sheesh!”

Xigbar blinked. “Oh, really? You’re just friends?” He sighed, grinning. “Phew! Oh, that’s a relief! Cuz, ya know, at FIRST, I thought, like, MAYBE, but then I was like, ‘Oh there's no WAY!’, and…” he kept happily chattering on and on about this.

Initiating preppy Girl Scout mode!

Luxord face-palmed with a soft sigh. “I’ll be back…” he grumbled as he made a portal that would lead to Vexen’s lab. “Just… stay here, out of sight.”
Xigbar gasped. “What?! NO!!!” He clung to Luxord’s arm, whimpering. “Dun… LEAVE me, Luxxy…!” he sobbed. “I’m sorry for EVERYTHING!!! I’mma WRECK without yoooouuuu…!”

Initiating sniveling fool mode!

Luxord yelped in surprise as he felt Xigbar’s strong arms wrap around him. “Wha?! Huh…! Oh, for Pete’s sake! I’ll be back, you bloody wanker! Let me go!”
Xigbar sniffed, finally giving up. “O… Okay…” he whimpered. He let go of Luxord’s arm, and pulled his blankets over his head. “Just… Just make sure you get me a t-shirt, okay…?”

A pause.

“Oh… and a peanut-butter and mayonnaise sandwich? I’m starving…”
Luxord quirked a brow at the t-shirt comment. I wasn’t like he was going to frickin’ HAWAII! But he nodded anyway. A gift probably would make him feel better.

He then shivered at the sound of the nasty-sounding sandwich, desperately holding back a gag as he stopped into the corridor of darkness.

************************************​

Luxord glanced around slightly. All of the lights were dimmed, making everything look eerie, and a few instruments next to him were glowing soft, vibrant colors in strange patterns…

The blonde blinked, and cupped a hand around his mouth like a mini-megaphone. “Oh, VEEEE-XEEEEN…!~ Ya home?!”

A far away gasp. “L-Luxord?!”
“Yup – it’s me, mate!” Luxord yelled back.

A sudden cry of distress and sounds of scuttling footsteps. “What are you doing in here?! D-DON’T TOUCH ANYTHING UNLESS YOU WANT TO BE OBLITERATED ON IMPACT!”
Luxord gulped, blinking slowly. “… ‘Kay…!”

After a few moments, the weird machines next to him stopped glowing funky colors, and the lights flickered back on. Vexen sighed, stomping over to where Luxord was and growled, “Yes, what is it…? I was in them idle of something VERY important,” in a fairly distressed tone.
“Well, uh… It’s pretty awkward to say this, but, uh… I got someone pregnant – and one hell of a weird ‘someone’…!” he added under his breath, “and now they’re freaking out like crazy! What on earth do I do?!”

Vexen quirked an eyebrow. “Huh…?” Suddenly, his eyes widened. “Oh my… You don’t mean LARXENE, do you?! I never knew you swung that way! DAMN, you’ve got guts! Do you still have your…?" He trailed off, spinning his finger meaningfully.

Without giving the poor blonde enough time to answer, the scientist turned away, running his fingers through his hair. “This is some kind of breakthrough! So, wait, she really IS a female?!” He didn’t know exactly know WHAT to think of this.

Luxord smacked his forehead. “It’s NOT Larxene, dumbass! No one’s stupid enough to get anywhere NEAR her to even find out, man! But, seriously, mate. They’re bloody freaking out and I have NO idea what to do. Advice PLEASE?”
Vexen scratched his head. “Uh… Wear a helmet, and carry an umbrella…?” He shrugged. “Honestly, I don’t know what to say. No woman’s ever been drunk enough to find me attractive.”

He snickered at his own joke, and said, “Why not try Marluxia or Zexion? I’m sure they know a thing or two about the matter…”
Luxord rolled his eyes. “Right…” he grumbled, portalling off again.

************************************​

Xigbar stared at the clock. What on earth could that limey bloke be DOING for 1 minute and 28 seconds?!

************************************​

“YO! Flower Power!” Luxord cried, stepping into Marluxia’s room. “Ya in here?!”
Zexion, who was seated at one end of the room smiled a bit. “Oh! Hi, Luxord…! Heh…” An awkward silence. “Whatcha doin’ here?”
The blonde blinked, then shook his head, deciding it’d be better not to ask. “Is… Marly here? I need to ask him a very urgent question…”
Zexion shrugged. “Um… I heard he was going to dye his hair again…!” he said kinda loudly.
“DYING MY HAIR!” Marluxia shouted from the bathroom.
“See?”
“Ah…”

Luxord sighed a bit. “Well, I was just wondering if, uh… Either of you two would be willing to help me out with a little pregnancy problem…”
“Pregnancy problem…?” Zexion blinked. “Oh, don't tell me…! LARXENE?! So, wait… It IS established that she’s actually a GIRL, right?”
“It wasn’t Larxene!” Luxord insisted. “No one’s stupid enough to get close enough to find out! You guys should know that. Anyways… I got someone pregnant, and they’re pretty much freakin’ out. So what do I do?!”
Zexion struck a thoughtful pose. “Well… what is it exactly that you want to know?”

Luxord did the same. “… How about… we start with how the hell they’re gonna HAVE the thing in the first place! And how the bloody hell do I get rid of the crazy mood-swings and non-stop spazzing?!”

Zexion shrugged. “Can’t help ya with the second, man. You’re just gonna have to tough that one out for nine months. Just make sure you don’t say anything about her weird-ass cravings. You’ll be hurting for weeks. And, as for the first thing…” He shrugged again. “Like… normal, I guess… What – you don’t know what that looks like? I can show you an illusion of one if ya want…”

Luxord thought this over, and nodded. “Okay… sure.” It was JUST an illusion… What was the worst that could happen?

Zexion nodded, and waved his hand around a little, murmuring words in a language that no mortal could possibly understand. And, suddenly, Marluxia’s room disappeared, replaced by a hospital room.

There were nurses all about, but none of them seemed to see the two Nobodies. Zexion was sitting in one of the chairs by the wall.

“Watch and learn…” he chuckled, pointing to the woman screaming on the bed. And then, he showed the poor blonde the whole, long, agonizing, and utterly disgusting process of child birth.

Luxord could almost feel the bile tickling the back of his throat. He gagged slightly, covering his mouth with his hands. “I…Isn’t there another way?!” he cried, wanting to cover his eyes, but unable to look away from the horrible sight.

Zexion stood up, and walked over to Luxord. He phased right through anyone who got in his way – they WERE only illusions, after all. “Well, sure. You can always have the baby cut out of the mother’s stomach. I won’t go into details, but I will say that they’ve done it multiple times before and it usually comes out without any major issues. Buuuut... whether it’s better than this, I can’t say. How would you like it if someone cut YOU all the way down the middle, hmmm?”

Luxord’s eye began twitching uncontrollably. “If I was this woman,” indicate pointing to the one giving birth, “I’d bloody get cut open ANY day!”

When he’d looked over towards the woman again, blood was starting to gush, and it was safe to say it him freaked out a bit. He hid behind Zexion, groaning and holding his stomach. “Thank god I ain’t a bloody woman!”
“Well, while we’re on the subject, why don’t you tell me who the lucky lady is, huh, Luxord?” Zexion asked. “Is it anyone we know?”
“Eh…” Luxord pressed his two fingers together slightly. “Yes and no on both subjects…”
“Then tell me…” Zexion insisted. “Or else you’re never getting out of this hospital.”

He paused and blinked. “Oh, please tell me you didn’t rape Namine. Dude, do you know how much **** you’re gonna be in when Xemnas finds out?!”
Luxord fell to his knees and cringed on the floor. “I’M NOT A PEDOPHILE!!!” he screamed, cupping his hands around his ears, trying to sound out the screaming of agony. “And, strangely enough, it’s not a woman at all!”
Zexion blinked at the last part. “… Come again…?” he asked dumbly. Silence for a second. “EWWWWWWW!!!!!! BESTIALITY?!?!?!?! DUDE! That is SO ****in’ WRONG!!!!”

“Oh, for CRIPE’S SAKE!!!” Luxord roared, jumping to his feet. “It was XIGBAR, okay?! I got XIGBAR pregnant! Not Namine! Not some poor defenseless puppy wandering along the road! XIGBAR!!! Seriously – how sick do you think I am?! First you go accusing me of being a pedophile, and THEN you think I’d go around raping some poor animal! That’s DISGUSTING! You need to take your mind out of the bloody gutter!”

Zexion blinked, his eyes wide, his mouth agape and his face ashen.

Luxord started at him for a while, then exploded, “CAN WE GET THE HELL OUT OF HERE NOW?! The screams of pain are getting to me!”
Zexion stared dumbly at him. “…………………………… Nyuuuuuuuuuughhhhhhhhhhh…?!”
Luxord grabbed Zexion roughly by his shoulders, and began shaking him like there was no tomorrow. “GET ME THE **** OUTTA HEEEERE!!!!!”
Zexion snapped back to reality. “Oh! Yes… Of course…”

The illusion wafted away, leaving them at Marluxia’s room – where they’d started. Zexion stared at Luxord incredulously. “Okay… So… Explain. Now. Or else you’re going back. And the NEXT woman’s in for 18 hours of labor!”
Luxord scratch the back of his head, awkwardly. “How the hell am I supposed to explain something as freaky as that, mate?! The bloke’s pregnant! He eats freaky-ass **** and he’s having mood-swings all to hell and… the bloke keeps throwing up in the morning or at other random times… and he’s been gainin' weight like crazy! So I don’t know, okay?! It just HAPPENED!”

Zexion stared at Xigbar incredulously. “Well… Those ARE the symptoms for pregnancy… But, that’s IMPOSSIBLE! Xigbar’s a MAN!!!”

He paused.

“Right…?”

Luxord blinked. “Uh… Yeah! DUR!”
“BUT HE’S ****IN’ PREGNATE!!!!!!!!!” Zexion screeched, eye twitching like mad.
Marluxia slowly pushed open the door. “Um… Did I miss something…?”
Zexion pointed to Luxord frantically. “HE GOT XIGBAR PREGNATE!!!”
“What the hell?! You’re joking, right?!”
“That’s what I asked HIM!”
“Isn’t Xigbar a guy?!”
“Not as far as I know!”
“HE’S A GUY!” Luxord screamed. “I’ve seen his wang-danger enough times to prove it, man! Would you like me to get him over here and pull down his pants to show you?!”

“YES!” They both screamed at the same time.

“He’s probably gotten a sex change while you had your back turned, Luxord!”
“OR MAYBE IT CHANGED OVERNIGHT!!!”
“YEAH! Or that!”

They were both so freaked out by the possibility of XIGBAR OF ALL PEOPLE getting pregnant, that they forgot that their suggestions were even MORE illogical.

Luxord blinked. “BOLLOCKS!!! Are you guys even HEARING yourselves right now…?! That’s impossible! You can’t just get a sex-change over-night! And even if you COULD, I was with him all night, so I’d know!”
“WE WANT PROOF!” Marluxia demanded.
“It’s ****in’ IMPOSSIBLE! How’s he supposed to have the ****in’ thing?! Does he **** it out?!”
“That’d be one big turd, man!
“One ****IN’ big turd!”

Luxord rolled his eyes. “Well, I guess I’ll be going now…” he grumbled, getting ready to portal off.
“NUUU! Luxord!” Zexion cried, pouncing on the blonde and clinging to his legs. “I HAVE TO SEE IT FOR MYSELF!!!”
Marluxia pounced, too, making all three Nobodies topple to the ground. “SHOW US!”
“Dude! If you're shittin’ me right now…!”


Luxord grunted as he was practically buried under the Nobody dog-pile. “Get the **** OFFA me!” He pushed the others off and hastily made a portal. “FINE! FINE!!!” he screamed as he transported them all to Xigbar’s room.

************************************​

Xigbar had his hands on his hips, glaring icily at Luxord. “WHERE have you been?! It’s been TEN WHOLE MINUTES, do ya know that?! Boy, if I find out you’ve been getting’ it on with Demyx, I’ll shove my foot SO far up your ass, the—!”
“Sorry, mate! Gotta interrupt!” Luxord cried, scrambling up to him, and yanking down his pants and boxers. Satisfied by what he saw, he grinned and triumphantly pointed at Xigbar’s crotch. “SEE?! I told ya!”

Zexion blinked. “So… He’s a guy.”
“I KNEW IT!” Marluxia screamed. “I KNEW HE WASN’T PREGNANT!!!”
“Nuh-uh, you TOTALLY fell for it!”
“Yeah, well, so did you!”

Xigbar blushed vividly and growled. Before anyone could do anything else, he back-handed Luxord as hard as he could. “Don’t you EVER do that again!!!” he roared, pulling up his pants back up. “And where the HELL is my peanut-butter and mayonnaise sandwich?!”

Zexion and Marluxia stopped and stared.

Luxord rubbed the newly red hand-print across his cheek, and looked back up at Xigbar sadly. “Oh, bugger… Sorry, I was caught up in watching some scary-ass illusion and I forgot…” he grumbled.

Xigbar’s eyes quickly got wide. “Wha… HUH…?! You… you forgot…? You forgot about ME?!” He began sobbing. “Luxord, how COULD you?! I thought what we had was SPECIAL!!!!”

Zexion and Marluxia stared at each other, eyes wide.

“Look, Xigbar…” Luxord replied patiently. “We’ve been together for how long…? Me not making you a sandwich does not mean that it’s over. I just didn’t have enough time to run to the kitchen and whip ya up something. O-KAAAAAAY…?”
“Really? That’s it?” Xigbar laughed. “Okay, then!”

Marluxia gulped. “X…Xigbar, stop messin’ with us, ma—What are you doing?”
Xigbar drew one of his guns, a shadow of pure, simple HATE shrouding his face. “I will give you to the count of ten… for you two mother-****ers to get the hell outta my ****in’ room. One… two… TEN!”

Marluxia and Zexion screamed and scrambled out of the room as a barrage of bullets flew past them. Once they were safe, they collapsed on the ground, huffing.

Zexion blinked. “He's faking it. He's gotta be.”
“… Looked pretty real to me…”
“Guys do NOT get pregnant…”
“Alright, but when his stomach starts jutting out, NO pinning it on a beer belly.”

( To Be Continued... )

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Yeah... Larxene bashing. XD; Usually I don't do stuff like that - hell, I LOVE Larxene! But it just kinda FIT, ya know? XD; This was chock-full of OC moments and randomness... And I wrote 18.5 out of the 20 pages that it took last night aroun 4 am. XD; GO INSOMNIA!

*yawns* Yeah... and you guys thought that Xiggalicious was bad. >.>; I have successfully distroyed every piece of dignity that Xigbar had with this fanfic. *shrug* Ah well... I tried to let him keep some part of hiss usual, bad-assed self, so that's why Luxord keeps on getting knocked around so much.

Poor Luxxy... XD;;; *gives the poor guy a cookie for being such a good-sport* 83
Xigbar: HEY! Where's MY freakin' cookie?! D8< I'M a good sport! DDD<

........ *snatches cookie from Lux and gives to Xig* 8D;
Luxord: Awww... ;~;
Xigbar: YAY! 8D *nomz on*

Oi - I hope I don't get in trouble for this one. XD; There's nothing BAD bad in, but... still. This might be pushing it a bit. ^^;

Oh well.

Lord of the Wings,
~Leah.

(( Uncensored version here! ))

---EDIT---

Part 2!

I can't figure out what's wrong with this thing... Curse not being computer literate...

Okay - I only have 10 more minutes online, so I'll make this quick. I just downloaded the new version of MSN Plus, and now for some reason, it's not letting me back on AT ALL. It keeps on saying something about the parental controls! I'd call my parents to help me fix it, but, if I'm reading this right, the new parental controls will be sending a copy of my IMs to my parents AS WELL AS giving them control over WHO I talk to!

HELL NO!

Somehow, I've gotta figure out a way to get this solved without bringing my parents in, but HOW?! I'm seriously so frustrated right now, I wanna cry. ;~;

Could you guys please help? PLEASE?! TTATT

Yeah, well... I decided to go back and try to beat KH 1 again on Proud mode for just the heck of it. Hard stuff, but i managed.

Anyways, the more I played, the more I got into the tiny details of really and truly beating the game. I've killed all the major Heartless including the snake guy in Agrabah and the Phantom in Neverland, I've got all the 99 puppies, I just recently wiped up the floor with Sephiroth, and the Ice Titan as well as beat all of the tournements alone and with a time limit. Right now, there are just 2 things that are driving me up the wall. >.<;;;

1.) There is ONE LAST TRINITY JUMP that I've searched for long and wide and cannot seem to find! I don't even know which world it's supposed to be on! Could someone tell me of all the hard trinities they've found before?
2.) In Traverse Town, there's the little Postcard thingy, right? Well, so far, I've found 9\10 and it has been driving me banas trying to scope every inch of the town for the last one.

Could someone help me please and save my sanity?! ;~;