Paparazzi by Juukai
Disclaimer: I don't own these characters, just the order the words are placed in and the idea behind them.
Kingdom Hearts 2 Oneshot prize to OddityX for claiming my 10k kiriban. Prompt was first date.
Pairing: XigDem.
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"You're awefully jumpy, even for this being a first date," Xigbar commented as he watched the small blonde across from him squirm at their café table, looking over his shoulder at the window quite a few times. "It's almost like you expect some kind of animal to come and press up against the glass and shout 'BOO'."
It was true that Xigbar didn't necessarily know that Demyx wasn't always like this, but he was sure that it wasn't the case. He and the smaller man had only met at his buddy's house during a surprise party a few weeks ago, and this was their first meeting outside that party, so the technicality stood that Xigbar could be witnessing what he was like away from a crowd of his friends, or from the way everyone had been giving him protective looks on the behalf of the one he had been flirting with, he guessed that a lot of them were his friends… The party had gone off well- Reno came in with Axel, his little brother, to their apartment completely unsuspecting, and had cursed loudly, nearly jumping into his brother's arms when the lights came on and everyone shouted "Surprise!" at him. Reno had actually hit his boyfriend, Reeve, for not giving him some sort of warning about the surprise party. He hated surprises.
"It's good for you," Reeve had argued with a chuckle, ignoring the hard glare that got sent his way. Xigbar only figured Reeve was used to it. Both Reno and Axel were quick to anger, but also quick to forgive and forget when the situation arose.
"So," Xigbar had said as the party was coming to a close and Demyx admitted he had to leave, "can I get your number?" When he didn't get an answer, only had gotten gawked at just a little by the little punk with the Mohawk-mullet hybrid, he'd had a brief moment of fear of being rejected, but the kid who wore his heart on his sleeve snapped out of his surprise just in time to save Xigbar's pride and had listed off the numbers before he had left.
Now, maybe the nervousness was partially Xigbar's fault, too. It had always been a rule in the Sidry house that you never called for a date in the first week of having the number of whomever one intended to woo. His father and grandfather swore that it was the trick to getting their wives, and while Xigbar never intended to try the tactic on a woman, it hadn't ever done more damage than good on the more rugged of sexes, either.
He rolled his eyes as Demyx turned just enough to look over his shoulder again. "Seriously, you want me to take that seat so you can face the window and not have to worry so much?"
On the other side of the table, Demyx blushed slightly under his purple-tinted glasses and shook his head. "Sorry. I'm okay," he mumbled, digging his fork into his food without really trying to eat it.
"No need to apologize, little dude." Xigbar sighed, rubbing the back of his neck. Well… wasn't this just awkward. His date couldn't seem to get a grip on his nerves, and that was just making things more difficult for Xigbar. Couldn't well get someone to open up and talk, maybe even get downright flirtatious, if he looked about ready to jump out of his skin anytime a shadow passed their seats.
"So…" Xigbar looked up from his plate when Demyx made the attempt to start conversation. "… I never did hear what your scar and eye patch were about…"
That only made the dark haired man almost drop his fork in surprise.
"Oh, I'm sorry!" Demyx smacked himself on the forehead. "That sounded a lot nosier than I meant it. You don't have to tell me… if you don't want to, or it's a painful memory or anything."
With a small laugh, Xigbar waved a hand at his date. "Nah, its fine. I'm just used to people trying to be a lot more sneaky 'bout asking." Xigbar ran a finger down along the scar along his cheek, watching Demyx's pretty green eyes follow it behind his strange but cute sunglasses. "Nothing too exciting about this, really. I come up with a bunch of stories for it, and Reno only loves to make up more and more outrageous ones, but really, I just had a pretty bad skating accident as a kid and it healed a bit on the nasty side."
Demyx stared at him for a moment, and Xigbar couldn't help but laugh at the look on his face. "That's it," he finally said, looking a little confused.
"Yep, that's it. Not some amazing story about being mugged, or attacked by a shark while surfing in Destiny Islands, or whatever it is it is that Reno is telling everyone these days."
He looked down at his plate, finally taking a bite, before he looked back up at Xigbar. "That's weird. Everyone told me I shouldn't ask about it like you were going to get upset when we were at the party."
Xigbar shrugged. "Again, Reno likes to make up crazy stories, so half the people probably think I'd have some flash back or something and start trying to kill everyone." He smiled as Demyx looked like he was finally starting to relax a bit, managing to do so himself then.
"And… the eye patch?" Demyx looked a bit awkward about that, still.
Xigbar looked off to the side a moment, and then back. "Mostly that's there so that other people don't get uncomfortable. "
That only piqued his interest. "Uncomfortable? Why? Do you have a glass eye or… something?"
A few heads turned to stare at Xigbar for the volume of his laugh at the new questions. "No, it's a real eye. The one I was born with, even." He grinned. "I'll show you if you want. Promise it's not gross or anything. Just a little… out of place."
There was a moment of hesitation, and really, Xigbar could understand that. Even Reno got a little antsy when Xigbar took his patch off and left it off for long periods of time, and they had known each other for decades. It wasn't that it really made Reno freak out; it was just that, as Reno put it, it was like watching your parents get undressed. You get used to seeing them in clothes every day that you've ever known them, and when the clothes are gone, things are just plain weird. Though, Xigbar had to point out that parents getting naked in front of their kids after a certain age where that would be a problem was just wrong.
"If you want, you can. I'll trust you that it's not going to make me regret saying okay while we're still eating." Demyx smiled brightly at Xigbar, making him smile back.
"Well… I guess how it makes you feel about food depends on how squeamish you are." Xigbar answered, reaching up to remove the patch slowly. He blinked at the level of light that his eye wasn't accustomed to, a usual reaction to finally getting the thing off. Demyx sucked in a shocked breath, and Xigbar tried hard not to look away from him. As used to it as he should have been, he was a normal person, and he got embarrassed over his faults, no matter how few they may have been.
"Your eye… it's almost white," the blonde remarked quietly, like he was thinking aloud. Then, "can you see out of it?"
Xigbar shrugged softly, holding the patch tight in his hand against the table. "A bit. Not like I'm completely blind in it, but it's doesn't do me much good. The patch wouldn't make much of a difference either way, 'cept the light sometimes bugs me if it's bright out." It was late enough in the day for it not to really be much of an issue, even with the window being right there.
"What… happened?" Now Demyx just looked concerned, and that touched Xigbar a little. It meant… well, this date wasn't going too bad if he had the guy willing to feel bad for him. He wasn't too worried about getting an unhealthy amount of sympathy and having that be the reason they would see each other again, if that happened. Demyx didn't seem like that kind of guy, he just was caring.
"I was a clumsy-ass kid, that's what." Xigbar shook his head with a chuckle. "Got me a big ugly scar from skating around on big hills with cobble-stone sidewalks, and messed my eye up in Magic classes. Spell turned back on me. They fixed what they could, but the damage was already done to the eye by then."
"That's aweful… I mean, you have such a nice eye color and all…" Demyx blushed slightly as he realized what he had said, making Xigbar smirk. "I mean, that color brown isn't exactly common, it's almost yellow. It's not very often that you see that."
Xigbar chuckled. "I see it a lot. My brother, Saix, has the same color." He liked the way that Demyx was fiddling with his glasses as if he was trying to pretend he wasn't embarrassed. "Now it's your turn."
"My… turn?" The look that the little blond gave him was almost disgustingly adorable.
"Yeah. I told you a bit about myself, so now you have to tell me about you." He leaned his elbow onto the table, putting his chin onto his hand.
"About me… Uh…" Demyx seemed to be getting awkward and tense again, and Xigbar experienced a flash of irritation. He'd just gotten the guy to relax, and at a vague request to know something about him, he went clamming up again. "Well… I like to play sitar, but that's not exactly new information."
"Huh?" Xigbar started to tap a quiet rhythm onto his plate with his fork. "I didn't know you played an instrument, never the less a sitar… That's less common then yellow eyes." It was hard to ignore the look Demyx was giving him. "What?"
"You… seriously didn't know that I played an instrument? Did you know I was in a band?" He was giving Xigbar the best 'duh' look that the man had ever seen.
Xigbar shook his head, looking surprised, and just a little impressed. "Had no idea. How many of there are you in the band? You guys any good? What all do you do?"
Demyx was still looking amazed, shaking his head slightly. "You seriously haven't heard? There's four of us. I do vocals and play sitar, and if I'm in it, then we're obviously pretty good." He flashed Xigbar a slight smirk that just made the older man grin.
"Someone's got high opinions of himself. Guess you'll just have to let me drop in on a show so I can make sure that you aren't giving a false impression." He waved a waiter over to request their check. "You don't want any dessert or anything, right? Got to watch that rock star figure…"
Demyx rolled his eyes, but shook his head. "No, I'm good. I'll just OD on double chocolate chip cookies with macadamia nuts when I get home, since my date refused to give me the proper amount of sugar…"
"Jerk," Xigbar chuckled, paying their bill and taking a last big drink from his soda glass. "What if I take you over to the ice cream parlor to make up for not getting you something here, huh?" Xigbar smirked. "There's much better stuff there than the desserts they have here, anyway."
Demyx smiled. "Good save. Guess I won't have to blog about how unfair the date was, after all."
"You sure know how to put the pressure on a guy…" Xigbar shook his head, straightening in his seat and beginning to put his eye patch back on.
"No," Demyx said suddenly, startling the other man into looking back at him. "I- I mean… you can leave the eye patch off, right? Your eye doesn't hurt, does it?"
"Uh… No…" Xigbar looked confused, hands still poised to put the cover back on. "It's more about making other people more comfortable when it's not bright out. I'm scary lookin' enough without the strange eye."
"I don't think it's strange, or that you're scary looking," Demyx said in a low voice, looking shyly up at him. "If you'd rather wear it, that's fine… Just… don't feel like you have to on my account…"
He smiled at the littler man, looking down at the patch. Then he shrugged, putting the item that was both hated and appreciated away into his pocket. "I won't worry about it, then. Come on, let's get going to that ice cream place, so we can make sure I get you home at a reasonable hour…"
"Such a gentleman," Demyx grinned getting up from his seat and looking around and out the window again, making sure, once again, that whatever he was afraid of wasn't going to come and get him.
"What are you looking for?" Xigbar shoved his arms into his jacket after standing up, not able to keep from commenting on his nervous tick any more.
"N-nothing, really…" Demyx said, casting a last glance out the window, even leaning over to make sure that there was no one hiding out of direct sight of the window.
"I'm starting to get the impression that I've taken a spy out on a date. A spy that sucks at his job and is afraid he's going to get caught by the FBI at any moment." Xigbar cast a strange look at him, reaching over to ruffle his hair.
"Watch it! You're going to mess it up!" He squeaked, batting Xigbar's hand away to make sure that the spikes on the top of his head weren't laying flat now.
"Are you really reacting like a girl right now because I touched your hair, little dude?" Xigbar laughed, more than tempted to reach over again, especially at the glare that he got for his comment. "I guess I have to watch the rock star do, got it."
"Don't hate the hair. You're just jealous because mine's more exciting than your ponytail," the blond sniffed, pulling his jacket tighter around him as they both walked outside into the chilly night air. The temperature dropped a lot in downtown Twilight Town as soon as the sun started to go down with the cold coming off the ocean. The sun was still up at the moment, but it wouldn't be long before they would be watching the sunset together from inside a building or from the street.
They traveled to the ice cream shop without incident, and when Xigbar wrapped an arm around Demyx, to keep him warm of course, the smaller man only smiled and blushed in a way that just made him more irresistible. There were a few people hanging around the outside of the parlor, and that seemed to have Demyx a little on edge again, but Xigbar paid them no mind. Maybe Demyx was just the kind of guy that didn't like public displays of affection. After all, it wasn't as if everyone was so forgiving of gays. Where the ridiculous notion had come from that gays weren't just normal people, too, Xigbar didn't know, but anyone who had a problem with it could suck on it, and that was how he had always felt. Straight people didn't edit their behavior just because he was gay and might not agree with their practices just because he didn't prefer them, so why should he?
Once inside they waited patiently through line, a small bit of noise starting outside, but that wasn't anything that either of them were really concerned over. Demyx was quickly distracted by trying to pick what flavor he wanted out of the enormous selection. It wasn't until someone with pink hair who was sitting next to a window started to get excited over something that they started to really pay attention.
"There's a bunch of camera guys out there," the man said, smiling almost giddily. "I wonder if there's a star around. They're all looking around in here and outside the door…"
And that was when Demyx tensed up so tight on Xigbar that he was beginning to think that he hadn't really seen the kid nervous yet. And that prospect was just scary.
"Who do you think it could be," the pink haired man's blonde companion asked, and Demyx started trying to sneak off from Xigbar. She started to look around, eyes passing once over he and Demyx before she centered on them and whispered to her friend.
The pink guy turned, and an unbelieving smile captured his lips. "Oh, be still my beating heart," he breathed, standing quickly. "It's Demyx!"
Xigbar lifted an eyebrow at the guy. How did he know Demyx… and why the hell was he acting like he had just seen God? He cast a look down at the petite blond that was trying his best to become one with Xigbar's jacket. "We need to go," his date whispered to him, not really glancing up as he passed the person a shy and forced smile.
"Go…" He looked back up to see that people were starting to form a little bit of a crowd, and nodded. He knew that if there was something going on inside, that the vultures with cameras wouldn't be too easy on them. "Is there a backdoor we could use," he asked the person behind the counter. The teenage star-eyed girl behind the counter nodded quickly, pointing to the back door behind the counter. "Come on then, little dude." Xigbar ushered him towards that back door. "I doubt anyone with cameras will be out in the back yet… Not unless Pinky squeals on us."
Demyx didn't say anything, eyes centered on the ground as he walked with Xigbar, biting his lip. "They'll track us down," he warned in a small voice, and Xigbar just turned him down the ally in back. He'd lived here for long enough, he knew all the backstreets by heart. He directed Demyx with a hand to the small of his back for the entire walk getting away from the ice cream store, their rushed journey ending when the last of the back alley ways ending at a cross street and a rail sectioning the beach off from the road.
Demyx stared out at the sea and the setting sun for a moment before he went to go lean against the rail, his butt sticking out as he leaned to manage getting his chin against the top bar. Xigbar had to force himself to be the good boy and look away.
"So… I guess Demyx is a pretty popular guy…" Xigbar stepped up beside him, only leaning his arms against the metal with the chipping paint. He glanced down at Demyx out of the corner of his eye, and then back out at what was the typical romantic setting. Not his normal style, but he wasn't exactly going to complain against nature working with him on his date.
For a moment the other was silent, watching everything before him before he sighed and smiled softly. "Yeah, guess so." He looked up at Xigbar. "I… uh… I told you I was in a band."
"You didn't tell me it was a popular one," Xigbar defended. "I'm not much to listening to the radio or anything. I discover new artists when Reno forces the CDs on me in his car, and so far I haven't heard yours." If he had, he just didn't recognize the kid's singing voice. "What's the name of the band, then?"
"We're Melodious Nocturne. I'm really surprised you haven't heard… I mean, Roxas just replaced our old drummer, so Axel must have been bragging about the fact he was dating a rock star, right?"
Xigbar chuckled. "When isn't Axel bragging about something or other with Roxas? I just thought he was being a douche and ignored him. It's what I tend to do with him." He was more Reno's friend, after all.
Demyx smiled again. "You have a point, I guess. But yeah… I suppose that's why I was kinda jumpy, in case you didn't notice… I was trying to avoid something like at the ice cream shop from happening."
"Believe me, little dude, I noticed." Xigbar laughed at him, slapping him lightly on the shoulder and ignoring the protest he got. "I'm glad to hear it wasn't me making you so skittish."
Demyx blushed, returning his gaze to the waves and sun. "I kind of feel like I was trying to hide it from you, though. I didn't tell you we were really that… famous, I guess, when I told you about the band since you obviously didn't know."
"I'm a big boy, I'll get over it."
"That's not the point," the musician countered with a sigh. "The point is that I didn't tell you. I guess… I was kind of afraid you wouldn't want the hassle. 'Cause… I kind of like you, and I didn't want that to scare you away, you know?"
Xigbar just chuckled, leaning down to his date's level. "You know, I've been known to have some pretty high maintenance boyfriends before, and you don't seem half as bad as some of them."
Demyx just rolled his eyes with a huff and pushed him away. "Gee, thanks. Hearing about your other love conquests just makes me feel soooooo much better."
Laughing, Xigbar righted himself, putting an arm around the blond. "I thought that was a good touch, myself. Got you to loosen up, didn't it?"
"Got me to regret not kicking you in the shins when I had the chance at the restaurant," Demyx grumbled, though he was smiling.
Xigbar just held him close to his side, eventually coaxing him into standing all the way so that he could place a tentative kiss at the corner of Demyx's mouth. "Does this mean I get a second date?"
"We'll see, Patchy," Demyx grinned, winking at him before dipping low to squeeze through the rails and down onto the beach, kicking his shoes off once he was in the sand. "Depends on if you can catch me! The water is my element; I'm like a ninja when I'm around it."
Xigbar laughed and followed him, taking a little more time to get his shoes off. "I guess this means I should make dinner reservations at a nice place for Friday, 'cause there's no way I'm going to lose, dude," he yelled just before he took off after the nimble man.
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THE END. For OddityX as my 10k kiriban. I hope you enjoyed!