CHAPTER ONE: MEET AWKWARD

"I don't want to be here," said the pale-skinned pharmacist flatly. "Just because you're friends with the bouncer-"

Zexion wasn't having it. "Trust me. You're going to love this party."

"Except that coming from you, 'trust me' usually seems to translate into 'fuck you.'"

Zexion turned away, hiding a smirk beneath his steel-blue hair. "Not tonight, dear. I have someone else in mind for you."

Vexen groaned audibly. "What are you plotting this time?"

"Oh, you'll see."

At that moment, in walked Zexion's "plan."

Marluxia wasn't a huge fan of being called out to parties, a working boy, he was but parties risked the chance of business and his social life seeping into one another. But the money was good. Very good. So he had decided to go, strutting over to the man who had hired him and the unpleasant looking blond he stood with. He flashed a smile in greeting.

The unpleasant blond smiled back sarcastically.

"Right on time," Zexion complimented. "Have you met my friend Vexen?"

Vexen rolled his eyes.

Marluxia waved to the shortstuff who'd hired him, quickly checking himself in the closest reflective surface - yes, the glitter swept over his cheekbones was still in check and his mascara wasn't stuck together - before strutting over to the pair. In truth, he didn't usually accept jobs that involved going to parties; the risk of business and pleasure mixing was too great. But the money for this one was good. Very good.

Mascara? Glitter?! Was Zexion seriously expecting Vexen to make friends with this person? Never great at controlling his facial expressions, Vexen couldn't prevent himself from sneering.

"We most certainly have not met," he huffed. "I make a point not to befriend people with sparkles in their skin."

"He's as charming as you said he was." Marluxia said, trying out his smile on the foul-tempered blond. He raised one finger, making sure to have the blond's attention as he did so, and rubbed it over his cheek, wiping away a line of glitter and smiling again. "The glitter is easily remedied. I'm Marluxia, nice to meetcha."

Vexen forced a smile, though it still came off sarcastic. "Vexen," he said, his voice quirking oddly as he said his own name. A flush crept across his pale cheeks. He hated it when his voice did that. "I'm a pharmacist and my roommate dragged me to this party," he said curtly, wishing to make it known that this party was not his first choice of places to be this evening.

"Well, you certainly don't seem like the type to come willingly." Marluxia agreed. He decided not to mention his own profession; he just laid a hand on Vexen's shoulder and gently nudged him. "Buy me a drink."

Vexen pursed his lips. "And why would I do that?" he asked. He didn't much like people waltzing up to him and asking for favours.

Marluxia smiled a little, batting his long, curling lashes as he nudged Vexen again in the direction of the bar. "Because you want to."

Vexen didn't know about that, but he did know he himself could use a drink. "Fine," he relented, "but I hope you aren't expecting me to buy you anything else."

"We'll see about that." Marluxia grinned, looping his arm through Vexen and ignoring any displeasure the blond showed him. He was just doing his job.

Vexen pulled his arm away. "What do you think you're doing?" he gasped.

"I'm doing you a favor." Marluxia replied, snatching Vexen's arm back and boldly nestling against his shoulder. "Unless you want someone else draping themselves all over you."

"I don't think anyone could possibly be worse," said Vexen curtly, pulling away.

"Tut tut, Vexen," said Zexion, amused. "Is that any way to talk to your new friend?"

"I never agreed to be friends with this... this person!" spat Vexen, stalking off in a huff. He went to get the drinks anyway, against his better judgment

Marluxia laughed, a little sharply, flicking a strand of pink from his face. "Oh, how mean. You don't even know me."

"Your hair is pink, you wear glitter, and you ask strange men to buy you drinks," said Vexen in a final tone of voice; in his opinion, that was all he needed to know. He signaled to the bartender and ordered two Cosmos

"Surface stuff." Marluxia pouted, sweeping his fingers across his glittered cheeks again. "For all you know I could be one of the greatest minds in existence."

That gave Vexen pause. He was being rather shallow and superficial, wasn't he? But he was after all an intellectual and preferred to look the part. He took out his cell phone and handed it to Marluxia. "If I ever need to know when to giggle at a party, I'll call you."

"Ha ha." Marluxia said dryly. There was a pause as he debated whether or not he should give this man his number, or simply put in a fake. This was business, after all. With an odd jump from his heart, Marluxia put in his own number, and handed the phone back, grabbing his drink.

Vexen smirked. It looked like he wasn't going to get told off for buying his new friend such a girly drink. "You know why I'm here," he said, somewhat curious. "And you?"

Marluxia shrugged, sipped his drink and smiled up at Vexen. "The same reason why any twenty three year old comes to a party, silly." He replied.

"I wouldn't know," said Vexen. "I was in grad school at 23."

"You look like the type." Marluxia laughed softly. "Bet you spent every Saturday night holed up in your room doing work that wasn't due for another month."

"Of course not," said Vexen, looking scandalised. "I did every assignment on the day it was assigned, if I could help it."

Marluxia laughed again, louder now, and couldn't help his grin. "Oh, oh dear. Tell me then, what did you do with your Saturdays?"

"How would you expect me to know something like that? The days of the week all bled together for me," snapped Vexen.

Marluxia took a long sip of his drink, trying not to choke as he laughed. "Wow. You must never have gotten laid." Marluxia mused aloud.

Vexen was tempted to slap the glittering pinket, but chose to glare at him sullenly instead. "That's not the kind of thing I discuss with strangers, thank you," he said tartly.

Marluxia merely smiled, finding the answer he wanted in Vexen's tone. "School must have sucked for you." he grinned.

"Not at all," said Vexen, taking a sip of his Cosmo. "I was an excellent student and I took pride in my academics."

"But nobody ever looked at you unless they were copying the answers off you." Marluxia smiled, bringing a hand up to play in his hair. "Right?"

"The first time someone tried to copy my answers, which was in algebra, I wrote 42 as the answer for every question, then erased it and filled in the right answer when they gave up," said Vexen. "But otherwise, you are correct. I was mostly invisible when my classmates found out that I was in fact a male, despite what the length of my hair might say otherwise. Speaking of which, how do you generally break the news?" he asked sarcastically.

"I let them find out for themselves." Marluxia grinned, draining the last of his drink. "Their expressions are priceless."

Vexen allowed a non-sarcastic smile. "I do hope you take pictures," he said.

"I will next time, for you." Marluxia smiled, rather than grinned, signalling for the bartender to bring another drink.

Hmm, thought Vexen. Maybe letting Zexion force him to befriend this guy wasn't such a bad idea after all. "Cheers," he said. Zexion smirked in triumph, then went to the door to make out with the bouncer. Vexen was right: He was good friends with him.

"Cheers." Marluxia raised his glass a little, taking a mouthful. "So, are we just gonna stand around making awkward chit chat, or do something fun?"

"What kind of 'fun' do you suggest?" asked Vexen dryly.

Marluxia shrugged. "Would it be a waste of time if I asked you what you like to do for fun?"

"I honestly don't think you'd be interested," said Vexen, "but just so you know, it has nothing to do with alphabetising post-it notes or rearranging sock drawers."

Marluxia raised his eyebrows, but swallowed his comment down with a gulp of his drink. "Well- do you dance?"

Vexen blushed slightly. "Y-yes," he said

Marluxia pulled a face. "But you don't like to?" he guessed.

"No, I do," he said, "But I don't think the kind of dancing I have in mind is the kind of dancing you have in mind."

Marluxia grinned, deciding Vexen was probably right. "Well... I have something in mind. Wanna leave?"

Vexen tipped back the rest of his drink. Might as well get his money's worth. "Alright," he said boldly. Marluxia followed suit, shaking off the slight dizziness chugging his entire drink bought on, he caught Vexen's hand and headed for the door. Vexen pulled his hand away. He wasn't quite comfortable with holding hands just yet. In fact, any sort of physical contact with another person tended to make him deeply uncomfortable. "Is our destination a surprise?" he asked suspiciously

"Yes." Marluxia beamed, ignoring the fact that Vexen dropped his hand. He walked close enough that his knuckles grazed Vexen's. Vexen again withdrew his hand. "Why do you keep trying to touch me?" he asked, genuinely curious.

"I live off of physical contact." Marluxia said with an expression of dead seriousness, that he held for all of three seconds. "Why won't you let me touch you?"

"Because we just met and I think you should have a little more respect for other peoples' personal bubbles," said Vexen, not buying the bit about him living off of physical contact. What was he, an incubus?

Marluxia looked as though he was truly taking into account what Vexen had said, before he stepped in front of the blond, threw his arms around Vexen's neck and clamped his lips onto Vexen's. "You are very boring." He said as he stepped back, smiling a little as he licked his own lips.

Vexen flinched away. "Are you insane? You just sexually harrassed me in a public place!" he shouted.

"I kissed you. It's not like I shoved my hands down your pants." Marluxia didn't even bat an eyelash as he said this, he just watched Vexen with a glint of curiosity. "Chill out."

"Chill out?" Vexen repeated, a trace of humour in his voice as he regarded Marluxia.

"Yes, chill out. I'm 23, I can still get away with it." Marluxia said, slightly huffy in tone. Vexen smiled as he grabbed Marluxia's hand, manipulating the temperature to a much colder degree.

"Oh." The laughter broke out of Marluxia in his surprise at the contact and temperature of Vexen's hand. "Hey, you're touching me. Does that mean you forgive me?"

Vexen didn't answer but let the coldness slowly spread to Marluxia's own hand. Marluxia smiled a little, squeezing the hand in his as he started to drag Vexen onwards. "Come on, let's keep walking."

Vexen smiled to himself as he continued to lower the temperature of both his hand and Marluxia's. Soon the cold would spread up Marluxia's arm as well.

After a while, Marluxia's arm was indeed thoroughly numb. Which was weird. It wasn't a cold night. He glanced down at his hand in Vexen's, as if it would explain something that he was missing. It was hard to move his fingers. "My arm's freezing." he said, sounding rightfully shocked. Vexen withdrew his hand and the cold immediately drained away. Frowning, Marluxia stepped back from Vexen, still staring at his hand. "How... How did you do that?"

"Simply put, I'm a freak," said Vexen, shrugging.

For what seemed to be long enough, Marluxia pretended to think that over, then he grinned at Vexen. "That is so cool!"

Vexen blinked. He wasn't accustomed to this reaction. "Yes, well, I've used it to fend off unwanted advances in the past. I think we might be friends, so I didn't freeze your arm as quickly as I could have."

"Oh, how... Nice of you." Marluxia laughed a little, picking up Vexen's hand and inspecting it. Vexen pulled his hand away reflexively.

Pouting, Marluxia took his hand again. "So, what exactly can you do?" he asked, tone dripping with curiosity.

Vexen pulled his hand away again, looking annoyed. "I manipulate the temperature around certain areas of my skin and whatever comes in contact with it. I used to be terrible at controlling it but I've had forty-three years of practice."

"Is that why you won't let people touch you?" Marluxia didn't try again for his hand, just fiddled with the tips of his own fingers.

"No, the freezing isn't involuntary anymore. I don't let people touch me because I don't like to be touched," said Vexen. "It's very... invasive, and I consider myself a private person."

"So what would make you allow me to touch you?" Marluxia asked, innocently enough as he slowly started pacing around Vexen.

Vexen ignored the question and the pacing. "You said you wanted to go somewhere else," he reminded Marluxia

Marluxia shrugged, still pacing. "I had nowhere in mind. I was just gonna keep walking until I found something to do."

Vexen shook his head disbelievingly. "Do you mean to say you have no direction? No ambition? Nothing you actually had in mind for tonight?"

"Relax, you sound like my mom when I told her I wasn't going to college." Marluxia waved a dismissing hand at Vexen. "Besides-" He pulled out his phone, checking the screen for the time. "-I have to go soon."

"To an actual place or do you plan to sleep on the street?" snarked Vexen.

"I have a very high paying job, thank you very much, and a nice apartment." Marluxia huffed back. "I have to turn in because my time's up, that's all."

"Let me guess," said Vexen, still in sarcasm mode. "You're a lawyer, Zexion is suing somebody for intellectual property theft, and paid an extra hundred dollars if you'd spend an hour with his socially inept schizoid mutant roommate."

"Uh, not quite." Marluxia laughed sheepishly. "Do I look old enough and boring enough to be a lawyer?"

"Paralegal maybe, through family connections," shrugged Vexen, trying to look nonchalant and failing miserably. "But Zexion did pay you to spend time with me. I suspected as much."

Marluxia gnawed on his lower lip for a moment, before shaking off the odd feeling that writhed in his stomach- he had nothing to be ashamed of or guilty about. "Yeah, well. Now I have to go. You have my number, if you feel the need to see me again."

Vexen drew back his hand and smacked Marluxia as hard as he could across the face before turning around and walking back into the club. Marluxia was stunned, and he stood holding his cheek for a long time, going from being shamed and then angry. But no, he wouldn't follow Vexen, he would just ask for some extra cash from Zexion and never see Vexen again. Simple. He stalked off, ready to collapse into bed.