A/N: Soooo now that exams are over and summer has begun, I've decided that I'm gonna upload one last long story! I start writing this to impress the girl I liked, turns out it worked. So I've decided to upload it here, in honour of how I went from casually shipping Zemyx, to making it a freaking obsession because of her.
When the sky is as grey as metal, that's when you know it might start raining. Not that, that occurred to Zexion when he left his apartment. He'd forgotten his umbrella when he set off, and regretted the action as soon as the sky clouded over. Today was a strange day for Zexion in general. He'd woken up feeling like today had some sort of significance, then this feeling had been growing all day. This wasn't the first time either. When he still lived with his mother, she'd always acted funny on this day as well. Maybe the habit had passed on to him. Either way, the feeling was pissing him off, because he couldn't figure out why. He went to the corner shop, picked up the milk he needed, then planned to go home; then he saw someone walking to the park across the road. The two of them locked eyes for what seemed like a fraction of a second before tears sprung to his eyes and he ran off into the park. The boy looked shockingly familiar to him, but couldn't place where from. Something was obviously distressing him, and it'd be kinda shitty to just leave him. He ran the short distance back to his apartment black, slid the milk into his mail box, then ran back to the park. He looked through the curtain of rain, trying to remember what the guy had looked like. He could remember him having dark blonde hair, maybe styled in a mullet? He cursed himself for not being as observant as usual, but to give himself credit the guy had been sprinting full pelt. He looked around and tried to listen over the torrential for the sound of anyone. He brushed his blue hair out of his eyes, the fact that it was drenched made it poke him constantly. He spotted a blonde person sitting on a bench, alone, their hair drooping. As he got closer, he realised that this was the boy from earlier. His turquoise eyes were ringed with red from crying; his blonde mullet that once stood on end was now down around his face. Zexion went over to him and crouched in front of him.
"Are you alright?" He asked, making sure he could be heard.
"Ah! I'm sorry! I didn't mean to disturb you!" He gasped.
"It's no problem. Please, come back to my apartment, you're soaked. If you stay out here, you'll catch your death." He offered.
"No! I can't ask that of you! You…you don't even know me…!"
"I'm not asking, I'm insisting. You'll get sick. My apartment is close by." He held out his hand.
The boy looked at him in shock for a second, then took his hand gratefully. Something about this short interaction was abnormally familiar. Zexion felt the sense of Déjà vu wash over him, but he quickly dismissed it. He lead the boy though the park, out to the street, then quickly back to his building. The only time he paused was to pick up his milk, then they quickly continued to the escalator.
"I'm Zexion. Zexion Charta." He muttered, running his fingers through his hair.
"Demyx Altare…"
They continued up to the sixth floor in silence. He wasn't at the top, there were still three more floors above, but Zexion was glad that it had a nice view. They got to his floor and stepped out, then went to the left for a minute, before Zexion stopped and pulled out his keys.
"You…you really don't have to do this…" Demyx muttered.
"I know I don't have to. I want to. I saw you run into the park, and what kind of person would I be to just leave you there. Come in." Zexion swung the door open.
His apartment was bright during the day, due to the large windows. But now that it was raining he had to switch the lights on. Everything was neat, but not obsessively so. There was a large bookcase extending along one wall that was completely crammed with books, with a relatively large TV sat square in the middle, across from a comfy looking sofa. Other than the bookcase, there were several piles of books everywhere, scattered dangerously around the apartment.
"Take a seat. I'll get you a change of clothes. Do you drink tea or coffee?" Zexion asked.
"Uuh…coffee please. Milk and three sugars…"
Zexion was about to question him, then decided against it. He went and made the coffee and his own tea, then set them down on the coffee table before going to his room. Demyx was about his size, so he figured his clothes would fit. He pulled out a dry t-shirt, and jogger bottoms for himself and Demyx before quickly changing into his. He then went back into the sitting room.
"Here…they should fit. You can change in my room if you want, but I'm not too bothered." He muttered, handing the clothes over before sitting in the arm chair by the window.
"You don-" Demyx began.
"If you say that I don't have to do this one more time I'm going to throw a book at you."
That shut him up immediately, and without another word, he hurried off into Zexion's room. As he waited for the blonde boy to come back, he become overwhelmed by the feeling that he'd seen Demyx before. Even though he couldn't recall ever meeting him before now, it still irked him that he couldn't remember. He rubbed his temple, and took a sip of tea as Demyx re-entered the room nervously. As he sat back on the sofa, Zexion's chest felt…funny when he saw Demyx sitting on his sofa in his clothes.
"So…Demyx? Do you want to tell me what's wrong? The minute we made eye contact you burst into tears."
"Aah…sorry about that! You…you just look a lot like someone I used to be close with when I was little. It was just a shock. I didn't mean to…I mean I…"
"Honestly, don't worry. I'm not the kind of person to just leave someone in the rain."
For a second, he thought Demyx had muttered something under his breath, but he must have just been hearing things. He saw that Demyx was shivering still.
"Wait here."
"Hm?"
Zexion went back into his room again and rummaged around for a bit. He found a thick blanket, a clean hair brush and his hair dryer, then went back into the living room. He wrapped the blanket around Demyx's shoulders, then plugged the hair dryer into the nearest socket.
"What're you doing?"
"Drying your hair. I won't be able to style it, but at least then you have less chance of catching a cold."
He expected the blonde to protest again, but obviously the threat of being hit by a book got through to him that this wasn't any bother. He brushed out his hair until it was softer and dryer, and Demyx sat there humming to himself. When he was done, Demyx took the brush off him and started cleaning it.
"Now what are you doing?" He asked.
"Repaying the favour. You did my hair, so now I'm going to do yours. I…I don't want you getting sick either. Not after everything you've done for me." He smiled nervously.
"Fair enough." He shrugged.
Demyx must have had a lot of practice working with hair, as he managed to dry and brush Zexion's hair without hitting a single knot. As he worked, Zexion took the opportunity to get to know Demyx a little better; maybe get to the bottom of this familiarity.
"So Demyx, do you live around here?" He asked.
"I live on the University campus. I'm a third year Marine Biology student. Are you still in school?"
"No, I graduated from the University in my town a year early. Took Psychology, was at the top of my class, took exams and all that early. I've been looking for work recently, and my aunt, who's the landlady of this building said she'll take care of rent and bills until I have a solid income."
"Aaah. That must be pretty cool."
"I guess. Why were you going to the park?"
"Oh…I…uuh…you remember I said you look like my childhood friend? Well, we used to go to the park all the time and it's been 11 years since he moved away, so I thought I'd go relive memories." He explained.
"Huh…I guess that's a good a reason as any."
As Demyx finished drying and brushing Zexion's hair, he was none the wiser as to how the blonde was so familiar. He decided to shrug it off, and went over to the window. It was still absolutely hammering it down, and it was really dark. He knew the University was quite a long walk from his building, and he didn't want Demyx walking that distance. He'd have offered to drive him, but he didn't actually own a car, he'd have called a taxi, but around here they were all pretty shady, and the last bus was 15 minutes ago. There was only one option left.
"Look, it's dark out and still raining. I wouldn't normally do this, but I think it'd be better if you stayed here tonight…"
"What?!" He gasped.
"The last bus was 15 minutes ago. I wouldn't want to put you in any of the taxi's around here, they're all too seedy. I don't have a car, and it's too dark and wet for you to walk all that way."
Demyx paused for a second, considering his options. Eventually, he sighed, nodded and accepted the offer.
"Right. You can have my bed; I'll take the sofa. It's getting late, you should really get to bed."
"Are you sure?"
"I wouldn't have offered if I wasn't sure. Leave the blanket, though."
Demyx nodded, and untangled himself from his fabric nest. He looked at Zexion for a second, before nodding and going into the bedroom again. Zexion sat on the sofa, and began thinking. He was 99% certain that he had never met Demyx before today. So why did he feel like that was wrong. So why did he feel like he should know the blonde better, and why did seeing him in his clothes make him...happy?
"Damn…" He muttered, before lying back, wrapping the blanket around himself, and drifting off to sleep.
