Title: Love Is A Place
Original: KH2 Beetches!
Disclaimer: Please, don't remind me.
Warnings: Oh, just a lot of wanna-be fluff.
Pairings: Yay! Luxord/Demyx :heart:

The two of them liked to believe they were the only ones with true passions; or, at least, the only ones with passions from before they died. And perhaps there was no proof but it only seemed logical to them from the way they had both been born with a need to play; play the dice until he was dizzy from watching the die roll, play the sitar until his fingers bled and his ears echoed every note he played hours afterwards; and they both loved it. It wasn't like Larxene's obsession with literature, an odd hobby of pretending she was refined and so much better than the drivel that humans were as portrayed in their romance and drama; not like Axel and his obsession with Roxas--though both could agree that a person was a perfectly fine thing to be passionate about, albeit Demyx would agree with a bit of a blush, though. And they were most definitely not like Marluxia and his creepy love of flowers.

So, it was only logical that they would be drawn together in their own little subtle ways. At first it had been Demyx to clumsily lead the way when he first sat down and actually noticed Luxord as more than "That craaazy gambler dude, ya know?" that was just apart of the Organization with him. This of course had only happened by chance one day when the musician had been particularly bored; all thanks to Axel who had decided to give the sitar a try. He had snapped every string but one while writing Ode to Pizza (which had seemed greatly related to Roxas in the aspect that the pizza had blonde hair and blue eyes and lacked a smile. But Demyx had wondered if that was because it was pizza and pizzas don't have mouths but then again they don't really have eyes or hair. Unless the chef got his hair all over it and that was just gross.)

Well, without his music to keep him entertained, the ADD inflicted blonde went in search of company. Alas, it had seemed as if everyone but the Superior--but he wouldn't be bothering him anytime soon after what happened last time--were on missions. Including Axel who had probably volunteered just to keep himself from finding out if Demyx ever got really, really mad. And this lack of anything to do was where he found himself as he dragged his body down the hall, utterly devastated at the boredom he was being forced to unfairly endure.

That was about when Luxord found him as he walked down that very same hallway, shuffling a deck of cards and whistling as he went. You don't look so good, he had claimed, stating the rather obvious as Demyx glowered at him from his sprawling position on the floor in mid-drag.

But before the other could shrug it off and walk away the musician jumped animatedly to his feet. Luxy! Let me play cards with you!" He had cried rather suddenly, clinging to the other man's jacket sleeve. Usually he wasn't much for things like gambling or really just cards in general but desperate times called for desperate measures in this extreme case.

Luxord just shrugged and said "Sure," the blonde having never been one to pass up a good gamble.

And that was why, an hour later, said gambler and card extraordinaire was confused out of his mind as to why he was losing so horribly.

"Fuck!" The Gambler of Fate cursed, tossing down his hand of cards. "What is up with everyone and this friggin' game?"

"I won again!" Demyx cheered in response, gleaming at his small horde of paired cards. "Wow, Luxy, you really suck at Go Fish," the Melodious Nocturne mused, shuffling the cards back into a sloppy pile. He grinned as he dealt another hand, seeing as Luxord was less than enthusiastic about playing another go.

For the first time ever the tenth member of the Organization was sickened by the sight of the cards placed in front of him and pushed them away, "Between you and Xigbar I've had more than my share of Go Fish," he whined, "I'm done for the night. You should find Xigbar, then the two of you could have hours of fun," the blonde claimed sarcastically, standing up and disappearing through a portal without even bothering to take his deck with him.

That was when Demyx first began teaching himself how to play poker with an only slightly stolen deck of cards.

Not long after their Go Fish episode, Luxord began to make a bit of an effort to run into Demyx--and vice versa, though neither were aware of the other's attempts and only vaguely aware of it with themselves--though his hard work was always only rewarded with a few brief encounters and such between missions. He found the Melodious Nocturne one afternoon on his way down a rather random hall he had taken just for the hell of it when he heard a rather catching tune that seemed only suitable for the upbeat male and the odd instrument that was the sitar.

Demyx hadn't noticed him for quite some time, his back turned to the door Luxord had come in through and his mind too centered on his playing. But finally when he had come to a halt in his song and had heard clapping--which was always a surprise for the uniquely styled musician in this Castle where the inhabitants lacked a taste for fine music--he had wheeled around on the polished white floor of the somewhat barren room and grinned sheepishly up at his audience. It's new, he stated rather blandly as though he were embarrassed by the piece. The Gambler of Fate couldn't understand why, seeing as he had played the broad and cheerful tune on the sole surviving string of the instrument.

"Now," he began as he scrutinized the shorter blonde and his sitar, "I'm not a musician or anything; hell, I don't even know much about the stuff you can hear on the radios in the other Worlds, but don't those stringed instrument-thingies usually have more than just one string? I mean, I'm just saying that's what I heard. I'm probably wrong and all," the Gambler of Fate added in response to the sudden pout on the other male's face.

"Axel broke them," Demyx whined, "When he wrote this really weird song and Roxas was pizza and the chef dude got his hair all over it and it was really nasty sounding because it had eyes and pizza isn't supposed to have eyes and--"

Luxord cut him off quickly, afraid he might have to run away to keep his sanity if the babbling kept up. "That's too bad. But can't you get more or something?" The blonde asked as he sat down on the floor with Demyx.

The musician's shoulders drooped at the question and he stopped fingering a fret, "Well, Axel said he would go and get me more but he was short on cash and said he would pay me back and all so I gave him all my munny but he spent it all on lingerie that he wanted Roxas to wear and bought me this string bikini to make up for it and I can't really use that to play 'cause it would sound bad if it made a sound at all." Pausing, he lulled the gambler into a false sense of security before taking a very large, very obvious, deep breath and Luxord held up his hand to stop him.

"Why didn't you get mad at him?" He cut in quickly, not minding the overly talkative male but afraid something might rub off by accident. Kind of like that gay thing. You could get it just by thinking about it...Or something, maybe, he wasn't all that in tune with the other Worlds and all those people who weren't Nobodies. What was gay? It sounded nice and friendly...

Luxord mentally slapped himself out of his train of thought to see Demyx staring cross-eyed at the hand still held inches away. "What? Is my hand diseased or something...With gay?" The last two words he had only thought about; he wasn't going to bring a subject up that he knew nothing about even if Nine probably new just as little; but he did want to know why the musician was suddenly playing with his hands.

"Oh," the blonde looked up at him, smiling suddenly. "You have nice hands. They'd be good for playing just about anything. The piano would be best though. You seem like you'd be a pianist." He laughed suddenly, smile cracking into a grin. "Or a hardcore rocker!" Demyx added, finding the idea hilarious. Luxord tugged his hand back and Demyx dropped his grin. "Ah, sorry. Sometimes I forget that the rest of the Organization doesn't share my love of music." Heaving a bit of a sigh, the blonde stood up before promptly freaking out. "Oh my god! Is it really that late?" Demyx cried out, looking at what seemed to be a partially broken watch with a kitten on it that was probably from some obscure and unknown World. "I was supposed to go see the Superior, like, ten minutes ago!" With that, his beloved sitar vanished and a dark portal appeared for him to do the same. Of course, not before waving a happy good-bye to the gambler sitting slightly dumbfounded on the floor.

Luxord had decided not to even try and tell him that this World That Never Was didn't share the same realm of time as the others, figuring that if Demyx didn't know it by now he probably never would. And on the thought of Demyx, he willed himself away and spent all of his savings at one store: A small music shop in a place similar to Traverse Town.

After Demyx had found a pack of random sitar strings lying on his bed (he must have overlooked them during his many searches. Silly him) he had gone about the entire Castle playing everything from Mary Had A Little Lamb to Fugue in G. Of course, he always sang along with the given words or made up his own off key lyrics. After about the first hour of this Larxene made sure to let him know the show was unappreciated; in a very, very painful manner that left his skinny a bit charred and his hair seared. But that failed to crush his optimism as he continued showing his happiness about finally being able to once again play the love of his life. Even after Xaldin, Saix, and Marluxia did just about the same in their own unique ways, he kept prancing down the halls. And when Axel came after him, claiming he needed to finish writing that song of his, Demyx ran like a bat out of Hell all the way clear to the other side of the Castle.

"Luxy! Lux! You have to save me!" The Melodious Nocturne cried upon spotting the gambler. "He's crazy! He's after me! He's crazy AND he's after me!" Demyx screeched, grabbing hold of Luxord's arm as he hid behind him, peering over his shoulder in search of the crazy fire user.

Number Ten tried fruitlessly to pry Nine off of him, wondering what the blonde was babbling on and on about. "Who's crazy? 'Cause the only crazy I see is you," Luxord informed.

"Shhh! I think I can hear him coming!" The Nobody all but shouted; and it was no surprise that he could hear Axel on his merry old way towards them, seeing as he was calling out for the musician and singing the lyrics to his unfinished song all rather loudly. "Saaaave me, Luxy!" He whined, despairing at the redhead's voice.

"Why can't you save yourself?"

"Fine! Just stop giving me that look," the gambler sighed in exasperation, finally giving in to the short male's pouting and pleading. What could he say? That face could even make the Superior cave in...Well, not likely but that was along the same lines of what he was shooting for.

Demyx grinned, dropping his well placed and well practiced pout. "Really? You're the best Luxy!" And with that the Gambler of Fate tugged him into a portal before he could continue blabbing on.

Several hours and several torturous games of Go Fish later, Luxord was once again wondering why he was in this situation. As a Nobody he wasn't all that bad; sure, he gambled but it was all just fun and games; and sure, he killed many people and captured many Hearts to be placed in Kingdom Hearts; and hell, he plotted against people, insulted people, and sometimes openly laughed at another person's misfortune. But still, why was he being forced to endure Go Fish! Of all things, Go Fish! And Demyx in his bouncy and giggly nature. Yeah, there was a small part of him that didn't really mind seeing as the others often called him a cheat or got mad when he won all their munny in only a single hand. It was even a sort of relief to be losing so many times in a row--even if it was to a game so demeaning to his masculinity. It almost made him feel like he was a bit closer to being human. And even if that were a silly notion he felt like it was something he could openly share with Demyx--

"Hey, Luxy?" Asked said musician, looking up from his cards a bit timidly despite his hyper-activeness a few moments ago.

He grunted in response before deciding that wasn't good enough. "Yeah? What is it, Dem?"

There was a pause and the blonde shuffled his cards as if he were contemplating whether or not to say what was on his mind. "Do you REALLY think we don't have Hearts?" Demyx finally asked, ducking his head before he had even finished asking, like a child admitting he had done something wrong. "Because...At times like this I kinda feel like I do..."

Luxord couldn't help but to answer the way he did and it left Demyx as red as a beat when he finally had the wits about him to pull away from the gambling blonde's lips. "Yeah, you make me think that way, too."

It took a second for that phrase to register in his head before Number Nine attacked Luxord with kisses, knocking their piles of cards to the ground in a messy kaleidoscope of hearts and spades and kings and jacks.

Axel slowly closed the door, turning to face Roxas. "I'm sorry, I don't think you'll be getting that song for quite some time."

The teenager merely rolled his, muttering a "Thank God" under his breath; though he spoke too soon as Axel began dragging him off, reminding him of that lingerie still waiting for him.

As a Nobody he wasn't all that good; he gambled for money and favors; he killed many people and captured many Hearts to be placed in Kingdom Hearts; and hell, he plotted against people, insulted people, and sometimes openly laughed at another person's misfortune. But Luxord had to wonder how he could have something as nice as Demyx happen to him. Especially when the musician did that thing with his tongue.