"Hey, where's Demyx?" Roxina asked, poking her head into the Organization's kitchen, where Luxord and Xigbar were chatting excitedly. She narrowed her eyes at them. Something was up, she could tell. "Wherever Demyx is." Xigbar stated, and Luxord snorted loudly. She narrowed her eyes even further. "I'll go ask Roxas then." "Yeah have fun with that!" Xigbar called after her as she roughly shut the kitchen door.
"Roxas?" She knocked on his door. "Roxas? You in there?" There was no reply, so she opened the door and took a step in.
Then she immediately backtracked out of the room and slammed the door behind herself.
Xion burst into a fit of giggles from behind the door. Roxas laughed nervously, probably blushing enough for the three of them.
Roxina took several deeps breaths and tried to forget what she had just seen. "Um . . . Roxas?" Silence for a moment. "Yeah?" Roxina took a few more breaths. "Do you know where Demyx is?" "I have no idea, go ask Saix or Axel." He replied quickly. "Alright." She said, and almost ran out of that hallway, trying to contain her own embarrassed blush.
She looked into the living room, and saw Zexion and Marluxia sitting in silence, mostly because of Zexion keeping his head stuck in his book. "Hey guys," She said, standing by the couch. Marluxia looked up and smiled brightly at her. Zexion merely glanced at her for a split second to acknowledge her presence. "Do you know where Demyx is?"
"I have no idea where he is," Marluxia answered, seeming a bit less bright.
"I thought he was doing something with Xemnas, you should go ask him." Zexion despondently answered, still looking at his book.
"I wouldn't mind helping you look for him though." Marluxia offered, another bright smile on his face.
Roxina smiled down at him. "No thanks." He sighed and stretched his long legs out. "Alright then," She nodded briskly and walked out of the living room. That was definitely weird.
"Xemnas?" She called, knocking on the meeting room's doors. "Enter!" An upset voice yelled. She opened one of the doors. He turned to face her. "Come here, Roxina."
"Yes, Superior." She answered, and walked to stand in front of him. "Not so close." He muttered. "Oh, sorry sir." She said, and took two steps back. "Do you know why I'm upset, Roxina?" He asked, starting to pace. She took a deep breath. Great. He was in a ranting mood. She'd never find Demyx at this rate.
"No, Xemnas, I don't.. What's wrong?" She asked through half gritted teeth. He crossed his arms behind his back. "Because Vexen insists on making that god forsaken clone of me." Roxina planted her feet, preparing for a long wait. "Is that so?" He nodded. "And what's worse is that I can't shake the feeling that Xigbar is up to something . . . something shady."
"He always is." Roxina muttered. "What was that?" He asked, stopping to briefly examine her face. She shook her head. "Nothing." He shrugged and resumed walking. "And we're still not making any progress as to where Kingdom Hearts may be found. You know what the importance of finding Kingdom Hearts is, don't you Roxina?" She nodded, honestly trying to seem interested, although she really just wanted to run out of the room as soon as he turned around.
He explained to her the importance of their mission for a good fifteen minutes before he stopped pacing again and looked down at her. "I'm sorry, did you come in here to ask me something?" She took a deep breath, relieved. "Yes, sir. Do you know where I could find Demyx?" He took a deep breath, seeming to think over the matter for a moment. "He should be with Saix and Xaldin. Have you tried finding them?"
She shook her head. "No sir, thank you." She quickly walked out of the room before he had the chance to start ranting again.
Reluctantly, she walked back to the living room. "Hey guys?" She asked, standing in the doorway. Marluxia twisted his head around to smile at her. Zexion once again merely glanced up from his book. "Do you know where Saix or Xaldin are?" "I'm afraid not." Zexion answered. Marluxia shook his head. "Go ask Xigbar, he's usually aware of where Xaldin is."
She took a deep breath, and stormed back to the kitchen. She opened the door,. "OH MY GOD!" Luxord and Xigbar were both lying on the floor, perfectly still. Xigbar still held his trademark smirk on his face. Roxina looked up from the floor. "Vexen! What did you do?"
Vexen took a casual drink of Luxord's punch. "They're merely sedated silly, for one of my experiments. They'll wake up. Probably." She shook her head, her patience growing thin. "They'd better. But while I've got your attention, would you mind telling me where Demyx is?"
Vexen shrugged. "Go ask Axel. He's the one that ought to know."
Roxina took several angry breaths. "Where is Axel?"
Vexen shrugged again, not saying anything.
She practiced her breathing exercises, and walked out of the kitchen.
"AXEL!" She screamed, pounding on his door. "What do you want?" His voice complained. "Open the door!" She yelled. There was the sound of some shuffling from the inside of his room, and hen his door opened. He squinted at the light. "Tell me where Demyx is." "Wha . . . ?" He asked, obviously still waking up from the nap she had interrupted. "Now!" She yelled.
"Fine!" He yelled back. "He's out in Marluxia's garden." She took a deep breath, relieved. Then she wrapped her arms around shirtless Axel, giving him a tight hug. "Thanks." He stood awkwardly after she let go. "Um . . . sure." She smiled brightly at him, and then ran off in the direction of the garden, leaving a tired and dazed Axel behind.
As she neared the garden, a strange sound reached her ears. Now, normally one would not consider it strange to hear someone singing and playing guitar, but, in this castle it was. As far she knew, noone in the Organization could sing. Ar at least, sing well.
The last time she had heard someone sing in this castle was when Xemnas had discovered where the coffee was hidden and - well, it still brought shudders to her spine when she thought about it.
The voice she was hearing now sounded more like an angel, rather than a dying seal. She knew she needed to investigate. Quietly entering the garden, she tried to hide behind the plants until she had made her way to the center, where the fountain was.
Demyx sat on the edge, singing a song that seemed to fit him very well : All you need is love. And he sang it extraordinarily well. She waited until he had finished, and he was simply strumming on his sitar, to approach him. "Hey Demyx."
He looked up and smiled his warm smile. "Hey Roxina." She held her hands behind her back and summoned a little package. "Happy birthday!" She smiled and held it out for him to see. He set his sitar aside. "No way! You're the only one that remembered!" She nodded. "I know." He stared at the brightly wrapped little box, happy. "Well," Roxina nudged. "Open it!"
He jumped. "Oh yeah!" She shook her head, laughing at him. He carefully unwrapped it, making sure he didn't rip the paper. Then he opened the box. "No way!" He said again. She smiled and sat down next to him on the fountain. "I thought you'd like it." He admired the new device. "How did you know that my iPod got ruined on my last visit to Atlantis?"
Roxina shrugged. "Well, noone told me, but I noticed that ever since you got back you hadn't been listening to it anymore." Demyx turned to her, grinning. After setting the gift down, he wrapped his arms tightly around her. "And now for your gift." She did a double take. "What?" He leaned his head to one side. "I know that yesterday was your birthday, and that nobody else remembered it. I would've had them make a cake or something, but you, know, I wasn't exactly here."
She nodded. "Yeah it was. But you don't have to do anything." He grinned and picked his sitar back up. "Yes I do." She smiled. "Fine."
"So um, what's your favorite song?" He asked. She shrugged. "I don't have one. I don't listen to music that often." His eyes opened wide. "Are you serious?" She nodded. "Well then, we're going to fix that." He resumed strumming on his sitar and grinned over at Roxina, who was beginning to feel a sense of dread . . .