Giggling.
That's all Axel had been hearing all day coming from the Nocturne's room. At first, the redhead didn't seem to notice; he thought it was just another case of the blonde entertaining himself in the weirdest way possible. He couldn't help but shake his head as he reminiced about the time when Demyx had discovered that a select few people could balance a spoon on their nose. Therefore, he spent almost a week trying to learn how to do it himself. Give him a stick and he'll go to town and back with it.
It had been before noon when Axel heard it the first time. After pulling the illness card once again and using his precious time to catch up on his sleep, he had stepped out of his room to find something in the kitchen that would strike his hunger fancy. He was caught off gaurd as he heard a loud, sucking noise coming from Demyx's room, followed by some muffled mumbling, and ending with loud giggles. The Flurry just rolled his emerald eyes, brushing it off and continued on his way to the kitchen.
Later that day, after making a few rounds about the Castle in an attempt to find something to do, Axel found himself back near his room, where he heard the same sucking noises he had heard earlier. His brow perked as he looked in the direction of Demyx's door, and contemplated whether he should investigate. He went towards the door, arm outstretched as if to grasp the doorknob, but hesitated. He wasn't sure what Demyx was doing in there, and frankly, if he were to go inside and find him doing something utterly stupid, the Nocturne would surely barricade the exit and force Axel to do whatever he was doing with him. Axel couldn't help but shutter as he thought about the time when he found Demyx (trying to) play Monopoly. That game seemed to go on forever. Axel just shook his head and left Demyx to himself once more.
The last straw was when he heard another set of laughter along with Demyx's. It caught Axel by surprise, wondering who the poor soul that had fallen to Demyx's grasp. After taking a moment to listen, he discovered the laughter belonged to no one other than Roxas. Now that Roxas was apart of this activity, Axel became more curious than he already was. So, he decided to invite himself in.
"Hey, Axel!" Demyx said as Axel opened the door, giving his friend a big grin. However, Axel's gaze was not focused on Demyx. It was focused on what seemed like an endless sea of blue balloons floating on the ceiling.
"Uh..." Axel began, looking over at Demyx and Roxas, who were both sitting on Demyx's bed, each of them with an untied balloon in hand, pinching the balloon at it's base to prevent the air's escape. Axel's brow arched even more as he motioned towards the balloons above. "First off, I wanna know where the hell you got all these balloons from."
"These?" Demyx beamed, holding up the balloon he had in his hand. "Oh, I had a mission today in Twilight Town and saw a man selling some of these. Aren't they cool?!"
"...I guess as far as balloons go as "cool", then yes." Axel replied sarcastically, rolling his eyes. Roxas looked over at Demyx, a mischevious flash flickering in his eyes for a breif moment, to which Demyx gave a small nod and grinned in response.
"You know, Axel..." Roxas said, rising from Demyx's bed as he looked at him. "There's more to these balloons than you think."
"Oh yeah," Axel scoffed as he stepped into the room, letting the door close behind him as he crossed his arms and approached the pair. "They're round, they float, and they make children giggle like idiots. You're breaking some new ground here, Einstein."
"No," Roxas said, shaking his head. "Have you ever sucked the air out of a balloon before?" This question caught Axel by surprise. His brow furrowed as he looked down at the boy before him.
"No." Axel answered, and though he wouldn't make it obvious, he was now curious as to why Roxas asked him.
"Really?" Roxas asked, a small smile spreading on his lips. "Well, you should try it! It's pretty cool, actually."
"What's so cool about sucking on a balloon?" Axel sneered as one of them drifted lazily by his head, obviously lacking the right amount of helium to float as properly as the rest. Roxas held out the balloon he had in his hand towards Axel, offering it to him.
"Just try it, you'll see what I mean."
Axel took the balloon from Roxas, making sure he had the hole pinched, and looked at it. It was light in his hand, weightless, as any balloon should be. He could see his reflection in the thin rubber, which was blown up out of proportion due to the balloon's round shape. Looking from the balloon to Roxas, and then to Demyx, who was just sitting there on the bed with his goofy grin, watching him intently. Axel shrugged, and brought the entrance of the balloon to his lips, and sucked in deeply. He felt a little lightheaded at first, but the feeling quickly settled. Axel frowned; nothing seemed to really happen.
"I don't see how this is funny-" Axel started to say, before he caught himself in horror. His voice wasn't how it should be; it was the sound equivalent to that of how a squirrel would sound if it could speak, so high pitched that it scared him at first, not completely convinced it belonged to him. "My voice!" The Flurry cried, releasing the balloon and letting it squeal as it flew around the room, expelling helium before landing on the floor. "What happened to my voice?!" His hand grasped his throat as his eyes dialated in both shock and fear.
Demyx and Roxas nearly died of laughter at Axel's reaction. This caused Axel to become infuriated.
"What the hell did you do to my voice?! This isn't funny! I sound like Steve Irkle!! It's ridiculous!" Axel snarled, though as intimidating as it would have been in his normal voice, Roxas could only fall to the ground and grasp his sides that were aching from laughing so hard. Demyx brought the balloon to his own lips and took a swig of helium.
"C'mon, Axel," Demyx piped in his own ridiculous sounding chipmunk voice. "It's funny! The helium makes your voice all high and silly! That's why these balloons are so cool!"
"So you're telling me you've been in here all day getting high off of helium?" Axel said, a little bit of his flaming fury coming to settle. Roxas stood back up and took another balloon, and unraveling it's end, he sucked in a little bit himself.
"Don't get your panties in a wad," Roxas squeaked. "It only lasts for a few seconds."
As if on cue, Axel started to cough a little as the helium wore off. After regaining his composure, he couldn't help but feel a sense of releif; at least the affect was only temporary. How could his two close friends find this amusing?
"You guys realize how stupid you sound, right?" Axel asked, his voice back to normal. Demyx and Roxas nodded in unison.
"That's the best part," Roxas replied, his own voice returning as well as a smile spread across his face. "It may be stupid, but it's something to laugh about in this dreary Castle."
"Yeah," Demyx jumped in to the conversation as he flicked at his balloon in his hand. "Nothing fun happens here, and hardly anyone smiles. It's nice to find something every once in a while that we can have fun with..."
Axel lips parted to retaliate, but found himself unable to speak. He knew that they were both right. Everyone was so focused on themselves and their ultimate goal of finding their hearts that there's hardly any laughter exchanged between them. Xemnas, Saix, Larxene, and many other Organization members didn't have a funny bone in their entire bodies. There was the occasional dirty joke exchanged between Xigbar, Luxord, and Xaldin, and Zexion and Vexen didn't have any time for humor when it came to their researches. Axel wasn't the most cheerful crayon in the box either, but he enjoyed a awesome prank or a hilarious joke that only he, Demyx, and Roxas dared to do.
With a newfound state of mind, Axel reached up and grasped a nearby balloon, and after quickly untying the knot, he took another deep swig of helium and looked at his two best friends, a small smile gracing his face.
"Well then, we better not stop now, we've got alot of balloons to cover." Axel squeaked. Demyx and Roxas cheered in victory.
The trio spent the rest of the day terrorizing their fellow Organization members with their chipmunk voices and killing braincells.