"Hey," the dirty-blonde man says. "Hey, Axel." He nudges the redhead lying down on the couch, pressing his palm against the other man's inert shoulder. The redhead doesn't even open his eyes, and the blonde nudges him again, this time harsher, and the redhead sighs.

"Dem," he mumbles, almost painfully, making the blonde cringe slightly. "Demyx. Really. Lay off."

Demyx shrugs his shoulders dramatically, even though the other man's eyes are closed. His face seems so empty without his bright green eyes, he realizes.

"Lay off what?" he asks, again shrugging his shoulders, brushing everything away; pft, as if

"You know. Everything." Axel raises his hands from the entwined pose on his lap, and gestures them awkwardly near their faces. Demyx pretends not to understand.

"Really, Axey, what is it? You can tell me what's bothering you," the blonde whispers into Axel's ear, which just causes Axel to emit another sigh, but the blonde refuses to give up just yet. "Really," he continues, brushing his gloved fingers across Axel's cheek and up over his eyelids, feeling the rough, drying tears caking them on his way up. "You never cry… The only time you ever cried was when…"

Demyx makes a fake "oh" sound, attempting to hide the sarcasm, and slightly thankful that Axel's eyes are closed and shielded from his smirk.

"Oh," Demyx says again sarcastically. "Ohhh…"

Axel sighs again, his body almost shivering, and his knees shaking, even though lying down. Demyx notices - he swoops his body closer to be able to look into Axel's empty face, and stretches his arm to accommodate the man's knee-movement; he gently squeezes, and brushes his hand up and down his leg.

"Ax-el," the blonde drawls, obviously annoyed and confused. "Did you really care that much about him? He was just a kid, after all."

When Axel doesn't respond, Demyx leans forward, sighing, and lies his head down on Axel's chest, his eyes facing Axel's closed ones. He continues to gently soothe the man's knee, but his hand ends up trailing a bit higher and higher with each passing moment.

Demyx listens intently to the nothing he hears.

"Do you think that…you could pretend I was him?"

The redhead's teeth clench tightly - not completely going over the blonde's head, but close to it - but his eyes finally open, green staring into Demyx's blue. The blonde is almost sure he's pushed his luck far past the limits once again…until Axel sighs once more, sits up, and brings Demyx with him, wrapping his arms around him, cooing sweet words into the blonde's ear - words not about him. The blonde isn't sure how he's convinced Axel into this yet again, with only the uttering of a simple - and yet, not so simple - phrase. It's been way too many times to count.

"I love you, Axel," Demyx whispers, melting into the redhead's love and embrace not meant for the likes of him.

Meant for another blonde…