Beginnings

Another day. Another meeting. Another half hour of listening to Xemnas ramble on. And on. And on. And on. And on some more. ... then maybe a little more just for the satisfaction of hearing his own voice falling blissfully unaware on deaf ears.

However, today turned out to be different. Today, there was something other than Xemnas' wet dream to discuss. Eleven pairs of eyes bore down upon the hooded individual stood below: unmoving, back arched slightly in restlessness, but standing still like a good little minion nonetheless.

"Gentlemen," the droning, dull, monotone voice rumbled out, washing over like a stifling breeze. "Today, we gather to welcome another into our ranks. Another has stepped forward to wear the coat and help our cause."

'Another'. 'Another'. He always used that word when introducing 'another' poor sap. He liked de-humanising them. It meant he could make no attachments. A 'he' became an 'it' and the name was just a little tag to make conversation a little easier. Not that Xemnas even really lowered himself to direct face-to-face conversation with his neophytes.

Nonetheless, they all peered down, oogling at the mysterious newcomer below, as if trying to drink in every detail of a creature in a freak show. The bright white sheen of the room made such a stark contrast with the black-cloaked figure far below, their visions became blurred and made any chance of distinguishing them out practically impossible.

So, it came as an immense shock when Xemnas said, "Allow me to introduce our new Number Twelve..." The figure removed their hood, provoking disbelieving gasps from the men surrounding them. "... Larxene."

The impossible had just happened. There was a woman among them.

"A woman!? A woman of all things, can you believe it!?" Luxord was muttering as he dealt the cards. Opposite him, Axel grunted in equal disapproval and growled, "Damn women... what good are they for?"

"Aren't you guys being just a teensy bit mean?" Demyx asked timidly as he looked at the hand Luxord had dealt him before promptly folding, tipping on his chair in boredom.

"No," they both answered instantly.

"For once – and God forbid if I ever have these filthy words pass my mouth again – I actually agree with Nine," Zexion chipped in from the sofa where he was deeply engrossed in an anthology of poetry. "I had a chat with her shortly after her introduction. An intelligent girl she is: strong-willed."

"Who CARES if she's smart? I bet she's a complete wuss!"

"And why do you assume that, Eight?"

"Cus... cus, well... she's a GIRL."

"A rather sexist remark, don't you think?" Zexion raised an eyebrow, looking over the pages of the book to the red head, Demyx nodding in agreement with his arms folded. "Yeah Ax, don't make judgements just cus she's a girl."

Axel just slyly batted his hand into Demyx's chair while it was balanced precariously on it's back two legs and sent the guy tumbling backwards with a wail. "Oh come off it: let's just look at this realistically," he began counting on his fingers. "Women have been proven not to be as strong as men. I saw next to no muscle on her from what I could see. Her figure is WAAAY too delicate to be of any use... and she's blond."

"Ahem."

"Present company excluded, Luxord."

"... AHEM," Demyx chipped in moodily. Axel just ignored him and continued, "She's probably gonna faint at the sight of blood, squeal at the sight of violence, not to mention this'll make things much more awkward for US! We can't have 'man-chats' anymore!"

"You never let me listen in on them anyway!" Demyx protested, setting his chair back up and sitting on it, only to have Axel knock him off again for interrupting.

"She'd probably demand we tidy up more, that we do CHORES, that we stop using bad language..."

"You know, you said all this when Marluxia joined, and you got owned when we found he really was a man," Zexion actually managed a sneaky smile. "Though she is, indeed, a woman. You make too many snap judgements, Eight... get to know her before you label her as 'useless'. You might find yourself pleasantly surprised."

"What's that meant to mean, Mr McScratch-and-Sniff?" Axel demanded sulkily, but got no answer as Zexion got up from his seat, book tucked under his arm and his legs taking him through a portal to his room to read in peace.

"I think he means you should try talking to her."

"Pah! Like hell I will! I might catch her girly-ness."

"... Well... I might go chat to her. It'd be nice to talk to a girl for a while."

"Heh, noooo Demyx! Don't go toward the liiiiight!" Axel snorted sarcastically. "Stay heeeereeee! With uuuuuus! Be coooool! If you are seen with her, people will suspect thiiiiiiings!"

Demyx just stared at him unimpressed, then got to his feet, walking out the room, calling, "Have fun being a pain in the ass, Ax. Oh and by the way, Lux: he has a pair of aces and three Queens."

"TRAITOR!" Axel howled as Luxord wisely folded with a devious smirk. Demyx looked pretty proud of himself when he was brought to a jumpy halt. Xigbar was directly blocking his path whilst standing on the ceiling. He was surprised he hadn't noticed the Freeshooter there a few seconds before.

"If you're going to go speak to the new girl, so long, and goodbye: leave me something in your will."

Demyx's face went into one of nervous shock and he nervously stammered, "w-w-what?"

"Trust me, Squirt: this girl's power ain't something you of all people should want to wrangle with."

"That blond bimbo has a power?" Axel asked in disbelief.

"Probably 'girl-power'," Luxord chuckled, making Axel burst into roars of laughter. Xigbar narrowed his one eye and said gruffly, "Laugh all ya want kids. Just don't come crying to me when the hag rips you a new one."

"Hag? Oh, and Zexion thinks WE'RE the mean ones!"

"Trust me guys... that ain't no pretty dame we've got ourselves."

"Eh, I won't deny she was pretty, but still... a hag?"

"Ooooooh! Axel thinks she's pretty! Axel thinks she's pretty!" Demyx began singing tauntingly, dodging the fireballs that began hurling in his direction and running out the room laughing as the Flurry stammered with a bright red face of rage, "EW! NOT LIKE THAT! EEEWWW!"

"Squirt! Wait! I didn't even tell you what her power was!" Xigbar shouted, actually sounding concerned. However, Demyx was long gone and happily chuckling his way towards the kitchen. Xigbar sighed and mumbled, "Well, that's probably the last we'll ever see of him... poor kid."

"Relaaaaax, he may be a pushover and he may be annoying as hell, but this is a GIRL we're on about, Xig."

"Correction: this is a girl who controls LIGHTNING and could probably kill Water Boy with one little volt."

Axel and Luxord blanched with a sudden twinge of horror.

"Oh," Luxord said weakly.

"Leeeexxxxxxxy!"

Lexaeus didn't look up from his newspaper at the kitchen table, despite the youth poking him in the shoulder repeatedly.

"LEEEEXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXYYYYYYYYY-" A gasp for air – "YYYYY!"

"..."

Demyx took another huge intake of breath and whined, "LEEEEEEXYYYYY" – gasp – "YYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!"

"... Can I help you Demyx?"

"... Do you know where I can find the new girl?"

"She's with Marluxia in his garden. He's showing her around."

"Thank you, Lexy!"

And with that, the guy skipped off whistling merrily.

Two seconds later, Axel skidded into the kitchen and wailed, "LEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEX!"

Lexaeus sighed inwardly and wondered if he'd ever get any peace.

"Yes Axel?"

"Where's Demyx!? I HAVE TO SAVE HIM FROM THE CLUTCHES OF THE EVIL HAG LADY GIRLY THING!"

Lexaeus eyed him up and down, then enquired, "Do you happen to mean Number Twelve?"

Axel nodded violently, hopping from one foot to the other impatiently.

"Why? What's wrong?"

"JUST TELL ME BEFORE SHE ELECTRO-KILLS HIM!"

Lexaeus raised an eyebrow, took his sweet time debating whether Axel was insane, then announced, "What makes you think she would hurt him?"

"LEX JUST FREAKING TELL ME!"

Lexaeus was starting to enjoy this. It wasn't often he got his hands on some mental blackmail, and Axel's current hysterics were proving potentially entertaining. However, he kept his stone face and said calmly, and deliberately slowly to further stall him, "That is no way to speak to a Superior, Number Eight."

Axel looked close to blowing a random kitchen appliance up in panic, but he blabbered a brief hundred-mile-an-hour apology then asked again.

"...Well.......................................... Let me see............................. hmmmmmmmmmmmmm.................................. I think I MAY have seen him......................... or I may not have... Hmmmmm...................................."

Axel gave a puppy-whine in pleading.

"..."

Another whine. A nervous fidget.

"......."

Axel was now jumping around like a child in desperate need for the bathroom.

"... Now I remember."

The Flurry's face lit up.

"... No... no it's gone again."

A pathetic wail.

"Wait! Yes! Yes it's come back to me!"

A hopeful grimace.

"... nope. Sorry. Can't help you."

Axel gave a stifled scream of frustrated desperation and took off at speed in the completely wrong direction to seek out the blond himself, leaving Lexaeus sat there with a smug satisfied grin on his face that he quickly hid back behind his newspaper. Oh yeah: he hadn't lost it.

By this time Demyx was just entering Marluxia's private garden, when he heard a conversation, and not wanting to interrupt, he felt it would be best and more polite to stay half-hidden by the wooden rose-covered awning and linger about until he heard a break in the conversation.

However, his youthful, mischievous inner child hissed at him to take a quick peek at who it was and what they were up to, and he found himself peering through the thorny curtains and beyond into the heart of Marluxia's garden.

His eyes widened in surprise.

There was the new girl, sat on one of Marluxia's white stone benches, staring in a rather bored way at the tulips he was ranting on about. However, Marluxia himself was what intrigued Demyx. The guy was prancing around excitedly, throwing sakura petals with every sweep of his arm as he pointed out all his precious 'babies' to her. He was speaking in an airy, care-free way and seemed to be patting her shoulder an awful lot. It reminded Demyx of...

"Hee hee, that prince-type flirty guy from that anime... Tamaki, wasn't it?" he mused to himself deviously chuckling. "Oh man, don't tell me Marly is trying to iimpress/i her!?"

He began giggling childishly, his hands over his mouth as he closed his eyes and tried to stifle his mirth. Marly has a crush? A crush on the new girl? Oh boy, this is the stuff corny love songs are made of!

He pulled himself together after a few more seconds and put a hand to his chin in thought. Now, ithis/i information could prove very, very useful. Considering that Marluxia usually treated him like dirt...

Demyx actually managed a cruel grin for the first time since losing his heart as he gave a nasty quiet cackle and drummed his fingertips together in a scheming way.

"Oh sweet Madonna, the fun I can have with THIS... heh heh-"

"DEEEEMMMMMMYYYYYYYYY!"

Axel came out of nowhere (or rather a thick shrubbery to be more accurate) and lunged wildly for the bewildered Nocturne, sending both men crashing through the awning, staggering on a few more steps, then into the tree directly between Marluxia and Larxene, where they collapsed in a heap on the floor.

"DON'T GO DEMMY! WE LOVE YOU! DON'T GET YOURSELF KILLED!"

"Axel!? Get the hell off of me!"

The force of their bump into the tree had sent leaves cascading down... as well as a beehive.

Four screams rang out across the garden to the accompaniment of ominous buzzing.

Vexen stared at the three men blankly.

"Do I even want to ask?"

"... There was an incident in Marluxia's garden involving bees."

"... Bees cannot break bones, Axel."

"No. But a pissed off woman with lightning powers and a heck of a good throw can."

Vexen turned to face Larxene, who was lamenting a broken nail irritably. Then he turned back to the battered and, in Axel's case, broken-armed men, all swaying giddily, covered in bruises. Demyx had little wisps of steam curling off him and parts of his statically ravished hair was charred black at the roots. He coughed with a puff of smoke coming out of his mouth. Marluxia was just glaring unhappily, his hair dripping with honey and his usually unblemished face riddled with sting marks.

Vexen just shook his head and got to work leading them into the infirmary, leaving Larxene outside, now with her hands on her hips, watching them with the barest hint of a smirk.

"You know," she said lightly, turning to Zexion, who had been stood unseen in the shadows, his back to the wall smiling. "I think I'm going to like it here."

The short man laughed softly. "I think so too. "

"Yeeeaaah. I think I can get used to this..." she burst into laughter and shouted, "Look out, boys! There's a new bitch in town and she's here to stay!"