Metal walls. Metal floors. Stairs. Nothing all that different. Everything looked the same. And that was the source of Roxas's dilemma. Not that Roxas really knew he had a dilemma. He was just wandering around the castle in a daze, mindlessly searching for his room. It was his first day, and he'd been told where it was, but that didn't mean he truly understood what a left at the lounge, a right up the stairs, and then down the hall really meant. Those were just words, meaningless to Roxas's fogged brain.
So he ended up running into things. Namely walls. Again and again for over an hour. The others had been graceful enough to steer him away from imminent doom (the stairs) or death (the altar) one too many times today. Roxas continuously found himself down an empty hallway with no clue where to go and no ambition to go anywhere in general. He sighed to himself, ran a hand through his blonde hair and looked at one of the doors. Chances were that one of the doors belonged to him, right? So he decided to try his luck.
The room Roxas walked into was a mass of colors, flowers, and scents. Petals littered the ground, but they were all rose petals scattered around plants that even Roxas in his dumb-daze could tell weren't the same plant. He heard whistling, then singing of some show tune or another, and then Marluxia stepped out from behind a bush, a sun bonnet tied onto his head with a pink ribbon and a watering can in his garden gloved hands.
"Oh! Roxas! What're you doing here?" Marluxia snatched at his straw bonnet and hid it behind his back. The motion scattered rose petals over the floor. "Are you interested in gardening now?"
Roxas stared blankly at the pink-haired... man... Well, he assumed it was a man. The actions by said "man" might prove otherwise, however. Roxas looked around the brightly colored room, the magenta walls, green-house effect atmosphere and overpowering scents made his throat close in and his nose burn in irritation. He frowned to himself and replied, "I… guess?" He didn't exactly know how to respond to Marluxia, or even if that question warranted a response.
For some reason, though, Marluxia looked OVERJOYED at this delayed response. "REALLY?" He squealed with girlish delight and clapped his hands together in amusement, "You have to meet my babies first!"
"Babies...?" Roxas repeated blankly. If he'd had half a brain, he might question Marluxia's sexuality even more. Men didn't have "babies," but he didn't exactly know that.
"Oh, you just have to meet them!" Marluxia grabbed Roxas's hand and led him down the path between flowers. The room was bigger than it looked from the doorway, and the plants were even bigger here than by the door. One in particular would have frightened Roxas had it not been for his lack of brain power and heart for feelings.
This particular plant was red and spotted with what looked like large teeth, and as they walked by, it leaned out and opened its mouth wide, trying to sneak a taste of the newest member of the Organization. It would have, too, if Marluxia hadn't spun around and started scolding the plant.
"Bad Xigbar! Bad boy! You don't eat people! Especially not ones with spiky hair. They'll give you digestive problems with all that hair gel!" He pouted cutely at the plant, "You KNOW what happened with Axel! Hair gel and flames! A potent mixture!" He continued to shake his finger at the plant, the plant wilted slightly in fear.
Roxas blinked cutely, unaware of the awkwardness of the situation in front of him, he sighed, leaning back on the wall. Well, it was a wall. Now it seemed to become a barrier of curious flame-colored vines. Poor Roxas could not for the non-life of him fight them off. "Ahhhh! They're taking off my pants! Why are they doing that?"
Marluxia jumped to attention at once. "Oh no! Not the Axel-vines! They seem to have taken a liking to you Roxas. I wonder why?" He mused this aloud as he pulled the terrified teenager from his soon-to-be rapists. Marluxia blinked. "Well, I guess you don't like tentacles either...?"
Somehow, somewhere, deep in the recesses of Roxas' mind, a warning went off. That warning clearly stated, "Danger, get away, something bad is happening and imminent doom is upon you." Roxas followed whatever instinct this might have been and headed for the door.
"Wait! I was gonna show you the rest of the gang!" Marluxia cried, grabbing Roxas's arm and pulling him back into the thick of the crazy plant life. He did keep Roxas safely away from his Axel-vines.
"Why are they Axel-vines?" Roxas asked. The name sounded vaguely familiar.
Marluxia shrugged. "They were red and spiky, so they reminded me of Axel." He then stopped before a whole collection of strange plants. "These are the rest of my pretty friends. Aren't they wonderful?"
Roxas was once again at a loss. He didn't know if "wonderful" described the large, odd, and slightly horrifying array of flora before him. There were nine plants, all centered around in a circle. The one on the far left was covered in thorns and had long dark colored reeds hanging off of it in clumps, which Marluxia said was Xaldin. The next was no better; it was large and bulky, the plant itself plain and ordinary, yet formidable in a sense—this was Lexeaus. There was a plant seemingly hiding behind it, it's grayish-blue hue seemed dull and shy—Zexion. The fourth one was yellow and had two tendrils sticking firmly upright out of it—Larxene. The fifth had a light green shade and was kept under a fan, seemingly to keep it cool—Vexen.
The other half of the circle was a bit separated. Starting on the far right was a bright yellow flower with fuzzy blue clumps attached to it—Luxord. There was a light brown one to the left of it that was currently drenched in water—Demyx.
The two that were apparently in the middle were the strangest by far. The one to the right of the middle was a bright shade of blue, with blue fuzzy ear-like petals and a large mouth-like projection. It had a little label under it that read, "Moonlight Bipolaridicus: keep out of direct moonlight," which Marluxia introduced as Saïx. Roxas couldn't help but wonder why the moonlight was bad for the flower, but he brushed it aside. The final plant that was in the middle was half white and half black, it was currently doing a small 'happy' squirm-like form of dancing next to the blue flower; this one was "Xemnas." Roxas couldn't help but suspect that he'd heard all these names before somewhere.
Marluxia walked over and gently pushed the black/white plant away from the other and said, "Watch this." The black-and-white plant stopped squirming immediately, and started to wilt, turning a shade of gray and looking quite sick. The blue flower twitched in irritation and 'snapped' at Roxas's nearby hand. Roxas had not read the subtle print underneath the plant's directions that said, "Watch out, I bite." Roxas jumped back a little, startled to say the least.
"They don't like to be separated," Marluxia explained, letting the black-and-white flower flop back over to the nasty one. "Keep that in mind, Roxas. It might just save your life one day."
"Why did you name them all?"
Marluxia chuckled. "Because they're my pretties! They need names."
There was an ugly squawk, and something popped out from one of the bushes-a peacock. "What's that, Marly?" Marluxia asked the funny-colored bird. "It's time to feed you?" He straightened up and dusted off his hands. "Whelp. I've got to feed Marly. See you, Roxas." And with that, he pushed Roxas out the door.
Roxas stood in the hall a moment, quite confused by what had just happened, then decided to wander to another door. Maybe this one would contain his room.
But before he had connected with the doorknob. A hand grabbed his shoulder and yanked him back. He turned to see a tall, lanky, red-headed man there, frowning at him. "Hey Roxas! Where're you going? Your room's over here!" The man, whom he later found out was Axel—Roxas hadn't memorized his name yet—led him back to another blank white door at the end of the hall.
Roxas rubbed his chin, "My room is...here?"
Axel put his hands on his hips. "Uh... Yeah. You forgot already?" Roxas nodded dumbly. Axel sighed, "Wow Roxas, you're definitely going to need to commit these things to memory." With that ending statement, Axel left Roxas in front of his room. Roxas opened the door, slipped quietly inside, and went to sleep, hoping that tomorrow he wouldn't get lost, again.
This is a cowrite with my friend, Inuobsessed004