A/N: part of me wanted to be embarassed when i started working on this late one night in IHOP. that lasted about a minute; after that i was too enthralled with my own idea. it was funny tho--i didn't even realize that i shipped marluxia/larxene until i began working on this. shrug can't be helped i guess. hope you all like it as much as i do--its the first thing i've cranked out in a while that i'm completely pleased with.
disclaimer: i don't own the kingdom hearts franchise. i'm not trying to make money here. being sued will only allow me to file bankruptsy, which will only improve my financial situation.
He sighed at the sensation of gentle fingers brushing down his spine. She was always gentle when she touched him, no matter how rough he might have been with her. It was a sharp contrast to their personalities—she was soft and gentle in bed, he was hard and rough. He always thought that suited them.
With a smile that neither of them was sure contained any real emotion, he turned to face her. "Good morning, Larxene."
"Good afternoon, Marluxia," Larxene replied, with an answering smile and a glance to the clock on the bedroom wall. "We seem to have overslept."
Marluxia glanced to the clock as well. "So we did. Not that it really matters."
"Zexion and Lexaeus will want to know where we've been and what we've been doing," she said, rising from the bed.
He watched her form appreciatively as she moved to dress. "Only if they truly want to confirm what they only suspect. Come back to bed for a while longer."
She paused in zipping up her robe at his suggestive tone. "Axel is supposed to get here in a little while."
"Damn. That's right; Xemnas sent that fool here for some reason." Reluctantly, Marluxia pulled himself out from under the blankets.
In a manner that could almost be called affectionate, Larxene threw Marluxia's robe around his shoulders, then kissed him passionately.
"Besides," she said as she broke away, "You know we'll need to relieve some stress tonight."
Thinking of all the trouble Axel was prone to causing at Xemnas' headquarters in the World That Never Was, he grimaced. "You may be right about that."
"Nice place ya got here, Marley. Its very…sterile," Axel said, looking around at the foyer of Castle Oblivion when he arrived.
Marluxia scowled as he walked into the room, not pleased to see the other Nobody. "Don't call me Marley. Remind me again why our superior sent you here?"
"Says he wants me to keep tabs on Namine. Since this place was built for testing her powers and all," Axel told him. "Oh, and someone hasn't been sending home any progress reports."
"Vexen has been handling the research and reporting on Namine's powers." Marluxia refused to rise to Axel's immature taunting. "You will have to take up any clerical errors on the subject with him."
"Vexen huh? Well, that explains everything. I told Xemnas that's probably all it was." The redhead shrugged. "He still wants me to handle it."
Marluxia sighted, knowing exactly how adversely this could affect his own plans. Vexen had been allowed to handle things with Namine exclusively specifically because the superior would hear very little about his real work at Castle Oblivion. He and Larxene would have to be much more careful now. "Very well. I leave it to you to inform Vexen of this change in orders."
"Sure. Whatever." Axel looked around the foyer, then back to Marluxia. "So where's my room?"
"Everything is on the thirteenth floor. The rest of Castle Oblivion is Namine's to do with as she wishes."
"Yeah, okay, but its obviously your decorating, Marley."
Marluxia decided, as he opened a portal to Darkness and left Axel alone, that he had better get used to being called Marley. It seemed he wouldn't be getting rid of this thorn in his side any time soon.
Dinner that night was a strained affair. Axel was, without exception, driving all the Nobodies in the castle crazy already. Even Namine had complained about the redhead's needling, and she never complained to anyone about anything. The others thought that Axel was simply being his usual, overbearingly annoying self, but Marluxia wondered.
He was well aware that the fire elemental was far more intelligent than he let on.
It had been Larxene's turn to make dinner, which meant that she had gone to another world and simply brought back something. This wasn't surprising; at Castle Oblivion, only Zexion and Marluxia cooked.
Tonight she had brought back a spicy meat and noodle dish from one of the more recently discovered worlds. The food was supposed to be eaten with two wooden sticks, an awkward proposition at best for most of them. Axel of course, was currently annoying them by attempting to prove that he really could pick up anything with them. When he reached for one of Vexen's sheets of research notes, enough was finally enough.
With an angry sounding cry, Vexen materialized his shield and smashed it into Axel's face. Silence descended across the table as the redhead fell out of his chair and onto the floor. The researcher then took his notes and stormed away from the table.
Marluxia pinned Axel with a frozen gaze. "If you insist on continuing to provoke everyone else, I will send you back to The World that Never Was."
Axel picked himself up from the floor and looked back at Marluxia, rubbing the bridge of his nose. "I hear you. But I didn't remember you guys being such stiffs."
"Yeah," Larxene added, "And we didn't remember you being such a dumbass. You have to get serious if you plan on staying here."
The fire master looked from Marluxia to Larxene and back. "Oh. I get it. I should have known you'd be shacked up together here."
Larxene shot to her feet. "What's that supposed to mean?"
"I know how girls like you have to get by in Organizations like ours. Don't worry, babe; I won't rat you out to the boss." He stepped through a dark portal before the ball lightning Larxene threw at him could connect.
"Don't be so worked up, Larxene," Lexaeus said. "He only said what we were all thinking."
Larxene raised her hand to cast a thunderbolt at Lexaeus, but Marluxia grabbed her wrist. "That's enough, Larxene. We're all stressed to the breaking point over Axel's antics. Go cool off."
With a burning glare at Marluxia, Larxene opened her own portal to Darkness and left.
"Methinks the lady doth protest too much," Zexion said calmly, speaking for the first time since dinner started. "Did Axel hit a little too close to the mark?"
"Is it really any of your business if he did?" Marluxia replied.
"Anything that could adversely affect the running of the Organization is my business."
"Why?" Marluxia opened his own portal, preparing to go to his own room and leave the other two to do the dishes. "Would you rather I was sleeping with you?"
He heard Zexion's shocked sputtering as he stepped into the Darkness.
He could hear her crying through the door before he even came into the room. Things like that often made him wonder if they really were as emotionless as Xemnas and the others claimed.
Marluxia hated it when Larxene cried; it made her seem like something less than the strong woman he knew she was.
"Go away," she said as soon as he opened the door.
"It is my room," he replied in a reasonable tone. "Did what Axel said really upset you that much?"
"No."
"Ah. Lexaeus then?" He moved to sit beside her on the bed.
"No."
"Then what is wrong?"
Rolling over to face him, Larxene slapped Marluxia's hand away from her bangs, which he had been about to brush back from her forehead. "It was you, damn it!"
"Me? Explain, please."
"You didn't even try to stand up for me! You're always acting like you don't care when we're with the others! You act like this thing with us is just some fling on the side, to keep you occupied when you're bored." She climbed from the bed and stalked away. She stopped to stare at their reflections in the bedroom mirror. "You make me hide everything about us."
Marluxia felt—almost—ashamed that he had let their relationship go on for so long without noticing any of her concerns. "I'm sorry. I didn't know that it was that important to you."
"Of course not," she replied, attempting to scrub the tears from her cheeks with a sleeve. "Because we can't care enough for it to matter."
Marluxia was silent for a moment, unsure of what to say. Unsure of what he was feeling—for the first time he could remember since he woke up as a Nobody. Finally, he stood and walked up behind her. Gently, he stroked on thumb down the reappearing tear tracks on her cheek.
"Does this feel like not caring?"
Despite herself, Larxene closed her eyes and leaned into his touch. "No," she whispered.
"Then why do you say you don't care?"
"Can't care if you don't have a heart." There was no disguising the bitterness in her voice.
The place where his heart had once been clenched at her words. "I don't…think that's entirely true."
She opened her eyes and gave him a confused look in the mirror. "What?"
"What do you feel, Larxene?"
"I don't feel anything."
"Don't lie to me. What do you feel?"
Larxene fell silent. Marluxia didn't push her; the blond Nobody would answer when she was ready. Instead, he wrapped his arms around her waist and rested his head on top of hers while he waited.
Finally, she confessed, "If I had a heart, I'd say I was in love with you."
It was an answer that he had both been expecting and dreading. Love was something that had no place in the Organization—neither Xemnas' nor the one he intended to create to replace it.
But he couldn't deny that he would categorize his own feeling the same way.
When he didn't reply to her statement, she said, "I knew you'd think it was stupid. That I was stupid. Larxene tried to pull away from Marluxia's embrace, but he pulled her more tightly against his chest.
"Never stupid," he told her. "Rash, impulsive and short-tempered, but not stupid. I simply did not know what to say. For the first time in my existence, I cannot sort out my own thoughts."
"Why?" She was confused again.
"Because you made me feel."
Her blue eyes were shocked as she looked back up at him. Uncertainly, he bent down and kissed her.
Larxene blinked at him in confusion when he pulled away. "Marluxia, what…?"
"Shh….Don't question it too closely; I can't explain it all yet." Marluxia brushed gentle fingers over her cheekbone. "Let it stand at the fact that we feel something now and figure out the rest as we go."
She nodded, one last tear slipping down her cheek. Marluxia planted a gentle kiss where it caught at the corner of her mouth, then he pulled her close. With a sigh, she melted into his embrace.
"I'm still mad at you, you know," she told him, her voice muffled by his robe.
"Of course you are. I haven't apologized yet."
The Savage Nymph pulled away slightly to look expectantly up into his eyes. "I'm waiting."
"I'm sorry." He was mildly surprised to find that he really was. "I didn't see how hurt you were. I never wanted you to cry."
"Is that all?" Her tone was almost challenging.
"I told them about us before I left. Doubtlessly, they will tell Xemnas, but you won't have to try to hide it anymore."
Larxene's face lit up in a brilliant smile, then she hugged Marluxia tightly and nuzzled her face into his chest again. "Thank you."
He found himself smiling slightly in return. "Come to bed now. Its late and we're both tired."
She followed him willingly, knowing that for the first time they wouldn't just be performing the sex act--they would be making love.
The contrast almost frightened her.