A feeling of comfort had spread throughout the castle overnight, easing wired nerves and weay minds of the thirteen inhabitants. Wintry chill froze the vast hallways hurrying feet into the sanctuary of rooms heated by roaring fireplaces. A blanket of tranquility settled over those gathered in the lounge around the dancing flames. Leather coats had been cast aside and fuzzy warm robes were donned by all as the couples cuddled close savoring warm affections shared between them. Some of the fiestier members teased their mates with sexy silk lingerie beneath lighting a different sort of fire in their eyes.
This time of year, once the snow began to fly sealing them inside, the Organization seemed to shift into the spirit of the season. Xemnas saw this as a perfect oppurtunity to begin bonding them together as a family. The elders had been adamant. Now that Kingdom Hearts had been destroyed they had insisted upon strengthening the ties between the members if they were to truly survive in this world. Though they were feared and respected across the realms Xemnas knew there was some valid concern to be head. They did not want to antagonize the keybearer and, for the elders, disappoint the soul of their fallen master.
"It's so weird." Demyx sipped at cocoa Xaldin had made, "to see them all acting like this. Even Vexie's out of his lab!"
"Yeah, it is." Axel leaned back against Roxas idly stroking the mullhawk in his lap.
"It's almost..." Roxas couldn't repress a smile, "like a real family. I've never been very supportive of Xemnas but something's changed now that the moon is gone. He's halfway sane." Demyx reached up to hold his little lover's hand and Roxas squeezed back. A mutual agreement, a shred of hope things would finally be different now. They had suffered for so long pursuing a fruitless dream, all they wanted was peace. No more pain, no more fighting. Demyx prayed with all his non-existant heart this wasn't just some allusion. That things would go back to how the elders lived when they were children alongside Ansem. The way Vexen would tell him stories about late at night. The way things should be. As a family united under their Superior.
It was Roxas that spoke up first.
"Xemnas." he held Demyx's hand tighter. Silence fell over the lounge, all eyes on the littlest nobody bold enough to speak the giant words they were too unsure to utter. "Is this real? Or are you just jerking us around?"
Xemnas pullzed Zexion closer against him, regarding Roxas not with fury, but understanding.
"I sympathize with your apprehension, Roxas. Yet you can be assured this is no Schemer's clever illusion. We elders, myself finally freed from my own delusional mind, have gathered together and determined it wouls be in the best interest of our Organization to bridge the rift between elder and neophyte. To eradicate the invisible barriers that have seperated us. So we may exist," here he pasued to kiss Zexion's forehead. "as a family."
Any fears harbored within the empty hearts of the neophytes disappated as the Cloaked Schemer drew against his love and flashed the most dazzling little smile.
There was nothing more to fear.
