Dashing through the snow, on a bathtub run away,
Jack and Sora go to borrow Santa's sleigh.
The sleigh began to crack, they couldn't bring it back,
They fed it all to Oogie for an early midnight snack!
Zexion laughed as his daughter danced around the living room with a bunch of tinsel. The rose haired girl smiled up at him and ran over to toss the shimmering strands over his book and onto his head. She giggled as he scowled and brushed the tinsel from the pages of his book. Blue eyes met blue, and the two started laughing. Over the thirteen years since the girl's birth, the two had been living in Halloween Town, working with Jack Skellington, Sally, and Dr. Frakenstein on perfecting Halloween, and trying to come up with new ideas for the holiday.
Marluxion, nicknamed Harli by Jack, looked like her father, with the exception of her hair. Her pale pink hair fell in short layers around her shoulders. Her bright blue eyes were always full of laughter, and a smile was perminately on her pale face, her fangs almost constantly peeking out. She was almost always wearing a pair of black pants under a slitted skirt and a black shirt under a black jacket. The only thing keeping her hair from falling into her face was a single blue hair scarf with a rose tucked into the knot. A pair of black gloves were tucked into her back pocket when she wasn't working with Jack and Sally. Zexion's slate colored hair fell in front of his blue eyes, which had softened in his years hiding from his past. His usual clothing matched his daughter's, without the skirt and the addition of a longer coat.
"Are you having fun, Harli?" Marluxion giggles as she bounced into her father's lap.
"Yep! Aren't you?" Zexion smiled as he brushed tinsel from his hair.
"In my own way. I take it Jack told you about his failed attempts at Christmas?" There was a laugh as the Pumpkin King entered the house.
"She asked. Anyways, I'm here with a message." The look in the skeleton's eye holes made Zexion nervious.
"Marli, why don't you go poke around in the attic?" Marluxion looked at her father.
"Daddy?"
"Go, Marluxion." The girl looked to her boss before following her father's order. Zexion looked up at Jack.
"What is it?" Jack smiled slightly.
"Don't worry. It's simply from Sora. Origionally came from Demyx, though. The water-lad wanted to know how the two of you are doing, and wanted to pass on the message from Axel. Both of them are doing fine. The others are doing ok." The slate-haired vampire relaxed and sat back down. He thought for a moment before looking up.
"Ask Sora to pass this on. We're doing fine. Marluxion is doing great." He shifted in his seat before getting up and walking over to his desk. He rummaged in it for a moment before coming up with two slips of glossy paper. "Pass these to them." Jack took the photos and slipped them into his pocket, nodding.
"I will." Zexion smiled, and Jack left.
"You can come out now, Marlu." The girl sheepishly made her way down the ladder from the attic.
"How did you know I was there?" Zexion smiled as he ushered the girl back up.
"I'll tell you one of these days. Until them, we have an attic to clean." While Marluxion complained about cleaning, Zexion though about the events that separated him from his friends.
{-}
"She's beautiful." Zexion smiled up at his lover as Marluxia softly played with their daughter's hair. The baby whined and squirmed in Zexion's arms. The rose-haired man jerked his hand away, panicking slightly. The slate-haired man smiled as he rocked the tiny girl slightly in his arms.
"Calm down, Marly. She's just restless." Marluxia smiled a little and traced the baby's cheek. A tiny fist curled around his finger, and a light chuckle slipped past his lips. "She's like you." The Graceful Assassin smiled and ran a hand down the side of his lover's face.
"She's as beautiful as you." The Cloaked Schiemer chuckled and turned to press a kiss to the hand resting against his cheek.
"Yes, yes, she's beautiful. Out of my way, XI." Marluxia made a sound when Vexen pushed him aside. Zexion glared at the blond as he gave the baby a short check-up. "Have you chosen a name yet?" Marluxia bit his lip before looking at Zexion, who was nodding.
"Marluxion." Vexen snorted and jotted a note on his clipboard before whirling out of the room.
"Damn bastard." Zexion wiped a hand across his face, trying to hide the tears in his eyes. "Damn it. Come here." Marluxia drew his lover to him, wrapping his arms around him and stroking his hair. He rocked the smaller man until he fell asleep, and slipped his arms around Marluxion, drawing her to his chest.
When Zexion woke a few hours later, he had a moment of panic at not finding his daughter in the bed with him. He jerked up, and his eyes fell on a sight that made him relax. Marluxia was lounging in a nearby chair with Marluxion in his arms, both of them asleep. Softly smiling, the man slipped out of the bed and over to the two in the chair. A soft touch on the cheek woke the taller man. Zexion smiled at the pink-haired man and bent to scoop up the child. Marluxia stretched and stood.
"I can't do this, Marly. I can't give her to Vexen." Marluxia smiled and hugged Zexion, careful of Marluxion.
"Good. Because I can't either."
{-}
"Hey. What's this?" Zexion's thoughts were interrupted as Marluxion held up a black leather coat with a zipper running down the front and a tarnished silver chain at the neck. He groaned as he slipped it from her hands.
"Something from when I was younger and stupid. Nothing more." Marluxion rolled her eyes and went back to rummaging through the attic. Half an hour later, she leaned back to peer around the shelf separating her from her father.
"This something from when you were younger, too?" Zexion glanced at his daughter and paled. Clutched in her hands was a thick, leather-bound book with silver designs on the cover.
His Lexicon.
"Where did you find this?" The book slid easily from Marluxion's hands to her father's.
"The bookshelf in the back. What set does it go to? I don't remember seeing any books like it anywhere." The man passed the book back to his daughter.
"It's just an old diary a friend gave me a long time ago." Young blue eyes traced the designs before looking back up to older, and wiser, eyes.
"Can I keep it?" Zexion laughed.
"Go ahead." Marluxion slipped down the ladder to carefully place the book on the shelf in her room. When she finally cleared a space for it to settle on the open book stand, a piece of paper slipped out from between the pages. She knelt and scooped the paper up, unfolding the worn page and reading the scrawled lines.
{-}
Zexion,
By now, you're probably away, safe from Vexen, with
Marluxion with you. This is going to be hard for the
both of us, but I know we'll see each other again one
day soon.
I love you with all my heart, and won't be able to smile
until I can finally put my arms around you again. Make
sure Marlu knows I love her, too, and only let you do this
to protect her. I love you.
Marluxia
{-}
Marluxion tilted her head at the pages and glanced up towards the ceiling. Carefully, she slipped the letter back between the pages of the book, and made her way back to the attic. She found her father in the corner where she started and grinned, instantly heading to where he had began. Her eyes fell on another book, this one with the pages bulging, and she slipped it into the basket she had brought up to take interesting findings back down with her. As she turned back to her work, she saw the coat from earlier discarded on the ground.
"Do you have any plans for this?" Zexion shook his head, and smiled grimly as Marluxion slipped it into the basket.
{-}
That night, after dinner, Marluxion was lying on her low bed, the many books rescued from the attic in a neat stack on the floor beside her. She sighed as she dropped another book onto the floor with a loud thump, and reached for another volume. She paused when her eyes landed on the bulging book she had snuck down. Quickly glancing at the door, as pulled the book from the stack and sat up to open it. The cover moved aside easily, and a pure black page with silver writing glared back at her.
"Organization XIII." The girl read the page out loud before turning it. The pages after were filled with fading photographs. She scanned the pictures on the first page and smiled when she saw a younger version of her father scowling and in the process of attempting to push a tall red-headed man away while two blonds watched in the background. The caption undernieth read "Axel and Zexion: Star-Crossed Lovers? NOT! Demyx and Roxas in background" in her father's neat script. She looked at the next page and found another picture of Zexion, this time lying on a couch with a book in hand. A smaller blond was lying on a second couch angled so his head was at the same end as the slate-haired man's. "Zexion and Roxas enjoy a moment's peace…." was written under the picture with an arrow pointing down. She looked at the second picture and laughed. Her father and the blond were in the process of jumping off the couches as the red-head from the first photo and a grey-streaked black haired man attacked them with squirtguns. "….Until Xigbar and Axel join the fun". The familiar sound of her father's footsteps coming towards her room made her jump and stuff the book under her pillow.
"You know, you have work in the morning." The girl blushed and nodded, jumping to bounce onto her bed.
"I know. Good night, daddy." Zexion bent down and kissed the girl on the forehead.
"Good night, sweetie." Marluxion felt guilty when her father turned out the light, and she pulled out a flashlight. She flipped through the pages, smiling at the pictures of her father when he was younger. The only thing different about him between the Zexion she knew and the Zexion in the pictures was the look in his eyes. The harsh "don't touch me" glare he gave had disappeared in the years, softening into a warm, welcoming glint. She paused when she found a picture of two silhouettes in front of the moon. She read the caption and smiled. "Zexion and Marluxia begin their adventure under the moon". She turned the page and found another picture, this time of her father curled on a couch in the embrace of a man with light rose colored hair. "Zexion and Marluxia watching a movie". Marluxion smiled as she traced the face of the man called Marluxia before turning the page. Centered on the paper was a single picture of Zexion and Marluxia. Zexion was sitting in a chair and attempting to glare while smiling. Marluxia was laughing, his arms slung around the smaller man's neck, hugging him from behind. Marluxion's eyes softened as she traced the faces in the photo. She glanced at the door again, and slipped back under the covers, hugging the book to her chest. She fell asleep, dreaming of the people from the photos of her father's past.