AUTHOR'S NOTE: I do not own these characters. They belong to Square Enix and Disney. ….but if you're reading KH fanfics, you already know that, right?

"I don't want to hear any more of this talk about love, Number IX." Xemnas looked down at the Melodious Nocturne, who was walking beside him with hands in pockets and shoulders sagging. "I've been meaning to speak to you about it for a while, but now seemed like the proper time for it."

"Any particular reason why, Superior?" Demyx asked, his voice just short of insolent. "And why now?"

Xemnas sighed. "I know what happened on Memory's Skyscraper with Zexion."

Demyx reddened. "Know about what?"

"Were you not aware that directly after that particular incident, Zexion was called to the meeting chamber? Did you not know that he told me everything about what had happened? In excruciating detail, I might add." The Superior leveled his eyes at the lower-ranking Nobody, who cringed under his glare. "He informed me that during your- ahem- liaison, you begged him to tell you that he loved you."

"I can't help it, sir!" Demyx exclaimed, unable to stay silent under Xemnas' glare. "I know we don't have hearts, but-"

"But you want to feel like you have one?" The older Nobody smirked. "It sounds as though you've been speaking with Number VIII. It's a foolish shred of a dream, nothing more."

Demyx turned toward his superior, green eyes pleading. "I can't accept that none of us can even touch each other. It doesn't do any harm, and it feels…" He looked away. "It feels real."

"The key phrase there, Demyx," Xemnas said haughtily, "is 'feels.' And regardless of what you think you feel, whatever it is inside you that causes you to pursue one after another of the other members- yes, I know there have been several incidents between you and them- whatever it is, it's false. Not only is it false, it's dangerous. If you had bothered to consider the repercussions of your actions, you might understand my concern. Your powers themselves prevent you from having even the shadow of a relationship with them. You will never be able to love them, even with a heart, because your element makes it fatally foolish.

"What happens when water touches paper, Demyx? It melts. It dissolves into nothing. What happens when fire meets water? The water extinguishes it, snuffs it out. What happens when electricity and water mix? They demolish everything in sight."

Demyx cowered, covering his face with his gloved hands. "Please stop."

The other nobody pushed on, relentless. "What about water and earth? Water erodes it, and sooner or later there'll be no stone left. Water plummets to the ground and injures all below it when combined with gravity. Water distorts light, makes it strange and unfamiliar. It kills nature by drowning it, giving it too much."

Demyx's hands were no longer sufficient at hiding his expression, and the older Nobody could see the tears trickling down Number IX's anguished face. "STOP!"

"And what about the cold? Water and ice make more ice, freezing and destroying the original liquid. Time allows water to evaporate and disappear forever. The moon controls the movement of the water, its actions, its everything. It is water's master. Wind shatters water, keeps it from ever being whole. And nothingness swallows everything that ever existed, including water." The Superior looked down coldly at his subordinate, not even bothering to sneer at the pathetic sight. Demyx was curled into a fetal position, huddled against the wall. His shoulders were shivering, and he was making small noises of pain. Xemnas bent down until his head was at the same level as the Melodious Nocturne's.

"You hear all of what I'm telling you," he said softly, his voice devoid of even ersatz pity, "and yet you refuse to listen. Demyx, even if you did have a heart, your element- and, to some extent, your personality- would destroy you and whoever you loved. Without a heart, all you have is the Organization, and you can never be with any of them the way you seem to want. Just as none of us can be with any other Nobody. We are all unfit to become intimate with one another, due in part to the nature of our powers. We'd destroy whatever tiny, hopeless piece of life that still belongs to us. And none of us are willing to risk the chance at existence, real existence, for some pathetic daydream of love."

Demyx curled his fingers into his thick blond hair, replying in a shaking whisper. "I never asked for this. I don't want to be alone forever."

"You don't want anything, Number IX. You can't. You have no heart. That's why you're a fool to seek out love right now, with the other members of our group. You're throwing away a heart so that you can pretend to have one." The Superior shook his head. "The sooner you realize this, the sooner you can take on a new mission and help build Kingdom Hearts. As you are now, you are useless to the Organization." With that, Xemnas straightened and strode away to contemplate, once again, his obsession that was the heart-shaped moon.

Demyx stayed where he was for what seemed like an eternity, fingers clenched in hair, knees pulled up to chin. Tears burned his eyes whenever he tried to open them, so he left them shut and rocked back and forth against the wall. Was Xemnas right? Of course he was. Demyx was in denial, that much was obvious. He had been told again and again that Nobodies were incapable of any kind of emotion, but he had never understood it as deeply as he did now. The tears he was shedding like rain at this very moment were false, merely an illusion to convince others that he was sad. Deep in his chest, Demyx felt not the clench of sorrow, but the vast lonely maw of nothingness.

And he was no ordinary Dusk or Dancer Nobody, a nonbeing in a distorted body. Being a far stronger Nobody, a member of Organization XIII, meant that not only could he not love, he couldn't even pretend. He might kill himself and his partner in the process. How could he risk that, to die in emptiness, without ever having a chance to feel again?

"Our Superior is too harsh, in my opinion." The Nocturne's head snapped up to see a pink-haired man in Organization uniform looking down at him. Marluxia, Number XI, the Graceful Assassin. Demyx hastily dragged his sleeve across his eyes and stood stiffly to face the other Nobody. Even though he preceded Marluxia in rank, and was technically superior to him, Number IX was intimidated by the man's stature and attitude of detached arrogance.

"I heard what he said to you, IX, about being able to touch another member of the Organization." Marluxia's voice was soft, but unlike Xemnas, he was making an effort to sound gentle. "He's been a Nobody for so long that he doesn't remember tact, much less how emotions work." Marluxia laid a hand on the younger but superior member's shoulder. Distantly, Demyx noted that the Assassin's fingernails were coated with fresh dirt, no doubt from his garden. "He also forgot something else. Something even more important."

Demyx mustered all his strength and met Number XI's eyes. "Which is?"

To his great surprise, Marluxia smiled. "He forgot that even though our powers could feasibly cause us to harm each other, they could also be very compatible. Take water and nature, for instance." He removed his hand from Demyx's shoulder and clenched his fist, opening it a moment later to reveal a tiny rose. Its buds were still sealed tightly shut. "The Superior is right. Too much water can kill plants. But also… give me your hand." Demyx obliged, and the Assassin laid it on top of the miniscule flower. "Now let the water flow, just a little." Number IX's eyebrows crinkled together as he concentrated, and released the slightest flow of liquid from his hand into Marluxia's. Then XI squeezed their hands together, concealing the rose.

"And this does what, exactly, besides drowning it?" Demyx asked crossly, trying to hide the fact that there were still tears gathered in the corners of his eyes. Marluxia only shook his head and chuckled, pulling his hand away from the Nocturne's.

"Look here." He opened it and held the rose up to Demyx's face for inspection. The blond Nobody's eyes widened at what he saw: instead of a wilting, overhydrated stem, the rose had grown and opened its petals to reveal a bluish inside layer. "You see?" Marluxia asked him, pulling the rose back and stroking it. "We won't always destroy each other. Sometimes we're meant to fit together." He smiled once again at Demyx, and then turned to walk away.

As Demyx watched him leave, his mind was silent in shock. Then, one thought, brighter and stronger than any others since he had discovered his new nonexistence: he might not have a heart, but it didn't mean that he was alone. He could work with the others in the Organization, and maybe once they all had hearts, they'd be able to feel things for each other again. Maybe if they pretended now, and tried to fit together, they'd be able to love each other when they were fixed.

"Marluxia!" He ran down the hall after the lower-ranked Nobody, looking for a flash of pink that would alert him to the Graceful Assassin's presence. Wait, there it was- just turning a corner in the hall to his left. Demyx darted clumsily after him, still calling his name. Number XI finally turned to look at Demyx questioningly.

"Did you need something, IX?" he asked carefully. Demyx stood there panting, hands on knees, trying to catch his breath. It took a moment before he could speak, and when he did, what he said made Marluxia blink in surprise.

"Why do we have the powers that we do? Why am I water, and you nature?" The Nocturne finally stopped breathing had and stood up fully.

"That's a question better suited for the higher-ups, Demyx," he replied, a bit confused by the irrelevance of the question. "They are scientists, after all. But I'd assume that it's based on our personalities- rather, the personalities of our Others."

"That's what I figured." Demyx nodded. "So does that mean that if two of us have matching powers, we've got compatible personalities?"

XI thought for a moment. "Yes," he said thoughtfully, "I suppose that it does mean you'd be good complements for each other."

"Interesting." Demyx stepped closer, trying and failing to conceal a smile. "I know you said that all the members could work together well, but I don't think that me and Larxene would get along too great, or me and Axel. Xemnas had a point about that."

"You're right, of course, but that doesn't mean-"

"So I was thinking," Demyx interrupted, coming near enough that Marluxia had a close-up view of his spiky blond hair, "that we would probably be best buddies if we got to know each other better. Since our talents are so complementary and all."

Marluxia looked down at the younger Nobody silently for a moment, thinking. Then without warning, he burst into laughter. "Xemnas is going to be extremely angry with me for this," he gasped between guffaws. "He was trying to get a point across with you, and here I come and make you ignore everything he had just said."

"What, because I think we could be friends?" Demyx asked petulantly. He pulled away and started pacing back and forth across the corridor. "If the Superior believes so strongly that Kingdom Hearts will give us hearts and normal lives, shouldn't he be preparing for that life better? By, say, trying to set things up so that when he has the ability to love, he'll have a person to use it on?" He threw his arms into the air in disgust. "He's forgotten so much about having a heart that I can't even believe he has a good reason for wanting one!"

Marluxia, still laughing, grabbed Demyx's arms and pulled him closer. "You have a point. You're far more optimistic than our dear Superior. But then," he said thoughtfully, raising an eyebrow at Number IX, "you're younger, and your Other must have had so much of his life ahead of him."

"No." Demyx waved a finger in his face. "Not just Edym. I have a lot ahead of me. Right when I get my heart, I'm gonna start doing it. Making the most of my life."

"And you're getting ready for that now."

Demyx nodded. "Yes, that's pretty much it." He cocked his head to the side and looked at Marluxia with a wicked grin on his face. "But it's also because I'm young-" he imitated the Assassin's previous tone- "and lonely. I need friends to talk to. Plus everyone refuses to listen to me play my sitar, and if I have a friend, they can't refuse because it would be rude!" He grinned maliciously (or attempted to) at his new "friend."

Marluxia rolled his eyes and started walking, pulling Demyx after him. Perhaps compatibility wasn't as simple as it sounded.