Devils Never Cry
And I can see you lying through those bright green eyes, because you don't even know the truth and you know it's eating you inside.
"I think there's a fine line between angels and demons," Axel was saying as he breezily took his seat at the eighth chair along the long table in the Organization's meeting room and relaxed into it, slouching lazily over the varnished wooden surface before him.
"Hmm?" Xigbar, who sat towards the head of the table, looked up from the weapon he was polishing. "What're you babbling about this time, red?"
A few of them were early for the impromptu meeting. And Xigbar was always one of the first to be there. He loved to polish his amethyst-colored weapons for some reason that Axel didn't quite care to know about.
"I mean," Axel continued, "angels and demons. They're like semi-immortal or something. And, really, there's nothing quite so different to them," the redhead said casually, eyeing Luxord, who was single-handedly shuffling a deck of cards without breaking a sweat. "Nothing at all."
"Angels live in heaven," a cool voice came from the doorway. "That's the main difference."
Axel grinned as he turned to regard the young blond who had just stepped into the room. The blond key bearer walked up to his place at his chair, engraved at the back with the number thirteen in roman numerals, and sat down noiselessly.
"Yeah?" Axel challenged the young Nobody with a lopsided smirk.
"Yeah," Roxas nodded curtly.
Luxord snorted. "Angels live in heaven. Demons come from hell. Simple as that, don't you think?"
Axel shook his head in disagreement and wagged a finger in the Gambler of Fate's general direction. "Nuh-uh. Lucifer was an angel before, y'know?"
"And that damn bastard of a devil lives in hell now," Xigbar responded nonchalantly, holding one purple-tinted rifle up in the light to watch it gleam faintly, squinting his single eye in critical scrutiny.
"I wish I could go to heaven," Demyx quipped up with a small voice from where he sat next to Axel. The blond sitar-player had kept unusually quiet throughout the whole conversation so far, as though troubled and uneasy with the whole theme of devils and angels and everything in between.
"Or hell," Xigbar muttered in response, slowly putting down his rifle and glancing down the table at the Melodious Nocturne from the corner of his eye.
Luxord rolled his eyes and began to deal cards to VIII, IX and XIII with a swift hand, implying that there was going to be a quick round of Blackjack to pass the time whilst awaiting the Superior and the rest of the members to turn up. "Why the bloody hell," the gambler muttered as he deftly flicked the cards to their respective players, "did you suddenly come up with this odd topic of discussion, Axel?"
The redhead shrugged offhandedly, picking up his cards and studying them. "No reason," he muttered dismissively, "You know me. I'm just a curious bastard who loves to play with fire."
Demyx laughed uncertainly at this, tentatively reaching for his own cards.
Roxas, however, was not fooled by his friend's nonchalance and was staring at the Flurry of Dancing Flames in a different light. He wondered what Axel's Somebody did in his previous life that had caused the redhead to be so drawn to the scarlet element of the elusive hell. And he supposed Axel was thinking the exact same thing too.
Number eight glanced at Roxas.
"You gonna' pick up your hand or what, Roxy?"
The blond blinked and looked down at his two cards, then back up to look into Axel's bright, smiling eyes. He saw something in those eyes. It held a spark of fear.
And for a brief moment, he believed that maybe, just maybe, Axel's Somebody did something to deserve the life of the underworld. And maybe that's why Axel wanted so very much to reassure himself that no, there was hardly a difference between the creatures of heaven and the creatures of hell.
The boy sighed quietly and finally picked up his cards.