Just An Experiment
Overall Disclaimer: I do not own any of the Characters, nor do I own Kingdom Hearts, or Dissidia, or anything else you can recognise.
Pairing: Zemyx. Mild Akuroku that can be seen as friendship.
Rating: K+ to T
Warning: Nothing as of yet.
Genre: Romance/Friendship/Drama. Fluff.
Note: For FinalFallenFantasy, who gets this giftfic because she's just awesome like that.
Full Summary:
A mysterious note compels Zexion to find out what it feels like to be a somebody; to have a heart. The note has a simple experiment on it. Its main component? Someone who displays a lot of emotions. Demyx opens a whole new door for Zexion, full of fun and happiness, all of which are foreign to him. But what happens when the experiment is completed, and Zexion, the socially challenged, no longer has a legitimate reason to spend time with Demyx?
Author's Note:
Woohoo for first longish Zemyx! This is for FinalFallenFantasy, because she's been an awesome reviewer to many of my fanfics, so I thought she deserved something. This fanfic kept growing and growing and growing, I was intending for it to be a one shot, but… yeah. I got this idea while drawing a picture of Zexion reading a book on my brand new sexy graphics tablet. There should be linkage on my profile to the picture, if I remember to put it up. If not, it'll be on my dA.
Also, sorry if this fanfic is updated rather slowly-- exams are looming again, and I don't know shit. No joke. so I need to study like hell or my dad won't buy me KH358/2 Days (WHICH STILL HASNT BEEN RELEASED IN AUSTRALIA!! WTF!!!)
Also, I've become really obsessed with Katekyo Hitman Reborn!! So it might get a little harder to write this, but who knows. I doubt it, I have the whole plot set out, so...
Anyway, this will probably be five chapters or so long. That's the planned length. But mind you, the original planned length was a oneshot, and then a twoshot, then a threeshot....
R & R, Enjoy,
V. Plum.
---
Chapter 1 – 9th of November.
"…If this doesn't work, nothing will."
There was a reason Zexion was called the Cloaked Schemer. Even though he was one of the youngest members in the Organisation, more than a few would deny that he was the smartest. Some ventured into saying he was a genius. In some ways, he was one of Xemnas' trump cards; he was not strong, but he was well informed. Manipulative. Smart. He was always reading, always soaking up the unimaginable amounts of knowledge in the Castle's archives. If Zexion wasn't on a mission, then he was in the library, it was as simple as that.
"AXEL!"
Zexion sighed, slipping his glasses off with a frown. Axel had never been so disruptive until number thirteen had arrived. Zexion stood, shutting his book with a soft snap. He glanced at Kingdom Hearts out the only window of the library. Judging from the position of the moon, it had to be around 10PM now. He picked up his books and papers into one stack and left the library quietly—the last thing he wanted to do was attract the attention of VIII. He quickly made his way to his room, shuffling pass a moogle with an organization coat. Zexion vaguely wondered who made all the organization coats, and who would bother to make smaller sizes for moogles…
"GYAH!" Zexion's papers were sent flying, and his books fell to the ground, pages creasing upon impact. Zexion winced slightly.
"VIII. What the hell do you think you're doing at this time of night?"
"Ehehe… Sorry, Zexy. You shouldn't have been daydreaming like that, it's dangerous for someone as young and as small as you." Axel bent down to pick up Zexions belongings, ignoring his heated offended glare, "Come on, aren't you gonna help me pick up your stuff?" Zexion stared down at him, feeling his superiority kick in.
"No. You're the reason they're down there, you do it," Zexion paused then added, "And while you're at it, smooth out those creased pages, and tie my shoelaces."
Axel grinned and stroked a crease out pointedly, murmuring, "Yes master". Zexion narrowed his eyes, clearly not amused by the redhead's immature antics.
"YES! I found y—oh. Uhm, hi, Zexion." Roxas ran up to them. Zexion turned at his name, raising an eyebrow.
"Do I even want to know…?" Zexion sighed again.
"No." Roxas blushed, looking around the short slate haired boy to Axel. Zexion turned back again and caught Axel giving Roxas a thumbs-up, but the redhead hid his thumb behind his back when Zexion turned around.
"What's going on…?" Zexion queried suspiciously. Axel replied without missing a beat.
"We're playing a tag game where we have to find each other, and when the finder finds the hider, the hider has to give the finder a thumbs-up, and if the hider forgets to give a thumbs-up, they have to sing a nursery rhyme. Roxas thinks it's an embarrassing game, but I think it's great. We were so bored before… want to join in?" Axel scratched the back of his head sheepishly. The look on the other's face was a good enough answer. Zexion snorted, if anyone other than Axel had said that, he would have thought they were lying. Axel stood and handed Zexion's belongings back to him, giving a very small apologetic smile.
"Right, well… I get a ten second head start!" Roxas exclaimed before running away again. Ten seconds later, Axel ran off as well, smirking widely. Zexion sighed and continued his way to his room without anymore impediments. He closed the door to his room quietly and set his things down onto his desk, sifting through them to make sure everything was still there after their collision with VIII. His brows furrowed together when he checked his favourite lexicon. He put his back against a wall with the lexicon in his hands. The pages were still a little creased, but nothing seemed out of place…
Zexion flicked through it carefully, and found a slip of paper around the middle. It was a little crinkled. He'd never put a piece of paper in here before. He flipped the mysterious sheet of paper over and found a message on the other side, written in horrible handwriting. The words on the page slowly got bigger and bigger as the writer went and they were quite legible.
Understanding Hearts
In order for one to understand the workings of a heart, one must first surround oneself with people who have heart.
Living by oneself in the desert as a hermit will not cause a sudden epiphany. This is because by oneself, one can only study ones own heart, and this can lead to unreliable biased results.
Therefore, the best way to study a heart is to surround oneself with a person who displays a lot of emotion. This person must be someone one does not know well—this will minimalise any biased opinions.
After doing this simple experiment, one will definitely be able to understand what it means to have a heart.
Signed,
Flan… Key…
Below the last word there was a signature, to which Zexion could only make out bits and pieces of it. Zexion scanned over the message again. It was written poorly, in a format that made a mockery of an informative piece of writing. What kind of example was a hermit in a desert? And why didn't they state that it was an example? Unless they were implying that he personally was a hermit in the desert, which was a complete load of rubbish. And 'minimalise' wasn't even a word! Whoever this Flan person was, they certainly didn't have very good English, or script. But maybe Zexion was just being pedantic, because they did raise an interesting concept. A concept that was definitely stirring Zexion's curiosity.
It wasn't like he didn't understand hearts. He understood them perfectly; both in an anatomical sense and in a philosophical sense. He knew that the fact that they, nobodies, were living was scientifically impossible because they didn't have hearts to pump blood through them. And he knew that the reason he didn't feel anything emotionally was because he didn't have a heart, which was said to be where all emotion comes from. But he could remember some emotions, though. Most prominently, he remembered hatred, jealousy and depression. Though he could not remember why he remembered those three the most. He had very little memory of more… positive emotions. Zexion narrowed his eyes and looked up in thought; he knew surprise, content… perhaps the vaguest, vaguest remnants of love.
Well, if he couldn't remember what it felt like to be in love, than he mustn't have been in love for very long, or it mustn't have been very strong…
Curiosity began to gather in the back of Zexion's mind. It was a very simple experiment, and it did make a lot of logical and common sense. Perhaps doing it would reveal other emotions that he once knew, or perhaps it would strengthen his memory of the ones he already knew. Zexion shut his book and placed it back on his desk, before walking over to his bedroom window and sitting on the wide ledge. He wondered if he could stand being around someone with such a different personality to his own. Spending time with someone who displays a lot of emotion would be like putting two polar opposites together… only polar opposites attract… well, they attracted scientifically, but not… what was the word… 'relationship-wise'? Zexion sighed, he felt as though Flan's horrible skills in English were rubbing off onto him somehow.
Zexion stared up at Kingdom Hearts, in all it's perfectly symmetrical glory. Rain hit his window at a steady pace. He knew there were hundreds more emotions that existed besides the ones he remembered. He could probably name them, but it'd be like knowing a name without a face. Meaningless. Zexion huffed slightly to himself, he didn't like not understanding things, especially abstract things. He'd spent his whole life (and probably his whole 'somebody life') knowing that with his intelligence…
Zexion saw something twirl in his peripheral, and looked down at Dark City. Below, a small figure was spinning, maybe dancing, with huge waves of water flowing around him. Translucent figures (definitely forms) danced around the figure, grabbing onto other forms shaped as music notes and… pretending to play the guitar with them. The blonde figure held a real sitar, and was shredding on it at an insanely rapid pace, though Zexion couldn't hear the music over the rain. Who was that down there? An organization member?
Yes, there was definitely a member in the Organization that had an affinity for water… who was it again… IX. What was his name again? Remix? Demix? Demyx!
Suddenly, IX threw his head back, his hands still playing the blue sitar at the same incredible speed, grinning widely as the rain hit his face, slicking back dirty blonde hair.
'A person that displays a lot of emotion…'
'Someone one doesn't know well…'
Zexion's mouth broke into a tiny smirk. He got up quickly, flicking the hood of his coat up and summoning a black portal.
He was glad he wasn't the only one who was nocturnal.
---
Outside, the rain seemed to be even heavier. Zexion walked through the rain slowly, making sure to keep himself unnoticed by the blonde sitarist. He had to make sure that Dimix, no wait… Demyx was the right candidate for his little experiment. The rain showed no signs of stopping, and he could feel the water beginning to soak through his coat. Zexion stood behind a staircase in the shadows, watching the sitarist.
Up closer, Zexion could hear the sitar. Demyx had stopped the fast paced song he'd been playing earlier, and was now playing a much slower song. Zexion blinked in mild surprise when he heard the other's voice begin to sing over the arpeggios and chords. It was perfectly in tune, and it was really clear, even in the low notes. Demyx pointed at one of the forms, grinning wildly, and the form grabbed a music note form and began playing it, a second guitar joined the blonde and they played together. Zexion's eyes widened slightly, that was pretty impressive... forms were primarily used in battle, he'd never seen a form do anything but fight until now…
"Are you going to come out of your little hiding place any time soon, Zexion?" Demyx called still playing guitar, though the other forms melted away. Zexion stepped out, feeling like a child caught with their hand in the cookie jar. He also felt a little bad at the fact that Demyx knew his name, while he'd struggled to remember the other's name only a couple moments ago.
"How did you know I was there?" Zexion asked quietly. Demyx laughed.
"I made this rain so, I feel everything it hits… and you're soaked to the bone."
"You're soaked too."
"Yeah, but I like being wet. If you haven't noticed yet, I can control water." Demyx wriggled his fingers at Zexion as though he was casting a magical spell. Zexion snorted, and Demyx laughed again. He wondered how it was possible for one person to laugh so much.
"So…" Zexion regretted not thinking this through before coming down here, it was probably the most impulsive thing he'd ever done in his whole life, "What are you… doing?"
"Well, I felt like playing in the rain, but it wasn't raining… so I made it rain and you know…" Demyx blushed a little, Zexion was about to reply, but he sneezed instead, "Oh crap, sorry, you're probably freezing, uhm…" Demyx scratched the back of his neck as the rain immediately stopped, "So, why're you down here?"
… Crap.
Zexion looked up at the sky and pretended that he was impressed at how Demyx could control the rain, but really, he was just buying time. What was Axel's excuse for doing pointless things again?
"… I was bored." Zexion lied.
"Well… Why didn't you just read a book like you always do?"
"… I was bored of the book I was reading."
"Oh… okay." Demyx grinned, accepting the lie with an understanding tone, as though he went through the same kind of boredom every day. The two of them stood awkwardly for a moment before Demyx suddenly grinned. He dropped his sitar, and it melted away like water.
"Well, I'm sick of being soaked," Demyx snapped his fingers, and all the small droplets of water on his skin and hair flew off him and dropped to the ground as well, "How about some food?" He snapped his fingers again and all the water droplets on Zexion came off as well. Zexion slowly touched his hair, holding back his incredulous expression. His hair was still a little damp, as were the clothes under his coat, but his face and coat were dry. Zexion wondered why someone would learn how to do such trivial things, when they had the power to make it rain…
"… Food?"
"Heh, yeah, you know, the stuff that sustains us? I thought you were smart, but in person you seem sorta slow… No offense," Demyx paused to let Zexion answer, but he didn't, so Demyx continued rambling, "Like, you're not slow in a retarded way," He began walking back to the castle gesturing for Zexion to follow, "But sort of in a way that makes you seem more approachable and more relaxed than you look from the distance. Not that you look like a cold person from the distance. And not that I look at you from the distance or anything, I just…" Demyx paused awkwardly before continuing, "… I want waffles."
Zexion scrunched his nose in confusion. Demyx was so weird; why were they walking back to the castle when it was a twenty minute walk, and they had portals? And why did he talk so much?
"What?"
"Uhh, the conversation was getting a little awkward, so I just changed the subject. It's easier that way. What do you want?"
"I'd hardly call this a conversation…" Zexion muttered under his breath, not intending Demyx to hear.
"Why?"
"Eh? Oh… well, because you were doing all the talking, so…"
"Oh, sorry, do I talk too much?" Demyx laughed.
"Yes." Zexion said bluntly, not really thinking. Demyx stopped laughing and blinked in surprise.
"Oh…" Demyx trailed off and the two of them walked in silence. They made their way to the kitchens, passing another moogle at the entrance to the castle.
"Hi Linaly!" Demyx greeted the moogle, who nodded back. Zexion raised an eyebrow. Demyx knew the name of the moogles…? Linaly turned her big head at Zexion, looking him up and down, and then holding out her hand.
"Uh…" Zexion looked at Demyx, who smiled.
"She wants your shards and stones."
"Oh." Zexion rummaged through his pockets for a second, and when he looked up again, Linaly was giving Demyx two thumbs up. Zexion furrowed his eye brows and handed the moogle his miscellaneous shards and such. Why was everyone giving each other thumbs-up around him when he wasn't looking? It left as though everyone was conspiring against him.
"Thanks Linaly," Demyx smiled and patted the moogle on her head as she nodded again, "See you later!" The two nobodies started making their way to the kitchens, as they left, Zexion turned back again, and saw Linaly still staring at them. She stared back at him, and then suddenly gave him two thumbs-up as well.
Good Luck, kupo.
Zexion took in a sharp breath from shock, turning back around. The voice in his head laughed a little. He'd forgotten that moogles could speak to them in their heads, because the castle's moogles just didn't talk, so he'd assumed that they were mute, or just as antisocial as he was…
"You're probably wondering why I know that moogle," Demyx chuckled, "And you probably think that I know all the moogles here, am I right?"
He wasn't right, but Zexion wanted to know why anyway, so he nodded.
"I don't know all of them, just that one, Linaly, and the one closest to the Hall of Empty Melodies. His name is Benjamin. All the other ones are sort of… silent."
"I see." Zexion raised an eyebrow. Demyx had basically implied that he'd tried to talk to all of the moogles, but they'd all ignored him... which was sort of pathetic.
They walked into the kitchen and Demyx went over to the fridge.
"What did you want, again?"
"Nothing."
"Okay," Demyx whistled as he rummaged through the freezer compartment of the fridge. Zexion took a seat at the table, propping his head up on his hand, using the backs of his fingers to subtly block his nose. Sometimes he hated his sense of smell; the fridge always smelled like a massive cataphony of a hundred different smells, and it wasn't pleasant at all. He looked out the window to Kingdom Hearts again. Only 10:30?
"I bet when you see my waffles, you'll wish you'd asked for some."
"I doubt that." Zexion sighed with relief when Demyx closed the fridge again.
"I doubt you doubt it." Demyx replied without missing a beat. Zexion sighed, a little bored, he wished he'd brought a book with him.
"I doubt you doubt I doubt it." Zexion replied under his breath a little airily, as though half of him had flown away to lala-land. It was rather unbecoming, and he surprised himself when he said it, but somehow, with Demyx, he didn't mind sounding like an idiot…
… because he was in the presence of another idiot.
"What?" Demyx laughed, "I know that you know that I know you know that you're not making any sense." Demyx ripped the new pack of frozen waffles open and dropped two into the toaster. He pushed the button down and began rummaging for something else.
"What?" Zexion was about to say that Demyx wasn't making any sense either, but after he thought over it in his mind, he found that it did make sense… sort of, in a weird repetitive way. Demyx's waffles popped out just as said blonde pulled a bottle of syrup out of a pristine white cupboard. Zexion had to admit, they did smell pretty good. Demyx put the waffles on a plate and twisted the top of the syrup bottle and squeezed an enormous amount of the sweet substance onto it. He pulled out the silverware drawer and withdrew two forks than sat down next to Zexion.
"I said I didn't want any." Zexion repeated, though the smell was absolutely to die for, which was really saying something because Zexion rarely ate sweet food.
"When you're watching me eat it, you'll want it. They're waffles for God's sake, who doesn't want them?" Demyx cut off a piece with the side of his fork, stabbed it and put it in his mouth, moaning in ecstasy, "These are soooo good, Zexy—I mean, Zexion." Demyx corrected himself quickly with a blush. Zexion raised an eyebrow. It was true that he didn't like that nickname, but everyone called him that, so he'd given up correcting them.
"Err, it's okay if you call me that… everyone else does, so…" Zexion said sheepishly. He didn't mind Demyx calling him that, but he didn't really know why. He'd probably spoken to the blonde today more than he'd ever spoken to him in the past two years, and before today, he hadn't even known his name… his personality was annoying at times, but Zexion liked it… uh, wait no, he 'tolerated' it, because it was for the experiment… yes.
He'd forgotten all about the experiment.
"Really? I can call you that?" Demyx grinned yet again, "But every time I see someone call you that you your face, you get this disapproving face, so I thought maybe I shouldn't… 'cause you don't like it…"
"You noticed that…?" Zexion raised an eyebrow.
"Well, yeah, but… it's not like…" Demyx looked down at his waffles, taking another bite and avoiding eye contact. Zexion smirked a little, deciding to save the poor guy from his misery. He picked up the other fork.
"I've never had one of these before."
"Huh?"
"Waffles."
"WHAT?!" Demyx exclaimed, dropping his fork in shock. Zexion leaned away from Demyx, surprised by his sudden outburst. They'd been sitting too closely together anyway.
"You HAVE to try it! How can you—What was your childhood like without—What?!" Demyx blubbered, still unable to comprehend life without waffles.
"Well, I was born a nobody at the age of 18, and I don't remember being a somebody, so I don't really have a childhood."
"You're EIGHTEEN?!"
"… Uh… yes?"
"But you're so shor— I mean… you look so young! That's great! I thought I must be some kind of sick ped—err…" Demyx trailed off, "… Try some waffles." Zexion snorted. That had to be the number one rule IX stuck to; When things get awkward, change the subject.
"You put too much syrup on them though."
"Too much syrup?! Too much syrup?!" Demyx yanked the fork from Zexion, his expression resembling an outraged Mad Hatter, but perhaps not as crazy, "There is no such thing as 'too much' when it comes to waffles, not-as-young-as-I-thought Grasshopper." Demyx cut off a generous piece for Zexion, stuck it on a fork and gave it to him.
"That's too much—"
"What did I just say?!" Demyx glared. Zexion rolled his eyes and ate the piece of waffle.
It was amazing. It was probably the sweetest thing Zexion had ever tasted in his whole life, but damn, it was good. He could even go as far as to say it was the best thing he'd ever tasted in his whole life!
"Is it good? Huh?"
"… It's alright." Zexion replied. Demyx's eyes widened and his cheeks went a very slight pink.
"What?" Zexion wiped his mouth just in case.
"You just… smiled."
"What? No I didn't." Zexion frowned instantly, as if to prove a point.
"Yeah, you did. It was very very very very very very small, so maybe you didn't feel it." Demyx held up his thumb and index finger together, with half a centermetre's distance between the pads.
"I didn't smile."
"You did."
"I didn't."
"You—oh, nevermind," Demyx smiled slyly, "… Have some more waffles." Zexion made a face at Demyx's coy look.
"Uh, no. I've had enough, thank you."
"Awh, Zexy!" Demyx pouted, "One more bite?"
"… No."
"One more smile?" Demyx asked hopefully.
"No."
"Hmph. Fine. But the memory of your sweet smiling face is forever embedding in my memory… for blackmail." Demyx laughed evilly. Zexion's eye twitched.
"… You're crazy."
"Today you've talked to me more than I've ever seen you talk to anyone at all. Maybe you've gone crazy." Demyx accused, though he was grinning goofily.
"… I'm not an emo, I do talk, you know."
"You never talk to me, though!" Demyx said in a singsong voice.
"You're crazy and you're weird," Zexion sighed, "I'm going to bed. This has been the craziest night ever." He stood and pushed his chair in.
"'Kay, Night, Zexy!" Demyx waved, still grinning, "We should do this again some time, it's so much fun!"
"Uh… Okay. Tomorrow night. Good Night, IV." Zexion left the kitchen, heaving a great big sigh.
Tonight really was the craziest night he'd ever had at the castle, he had made him so tired, and he'd only spent about an hour with the other nobody! But it was sort of… interesting. Zexion remembered what the experiment had said. That he had to surround himself with someone like Demyx in order to learn and feel more emotions… he'd have to spend more time with him even if he didn't want to.
… not that he was 100 percent reluctant to spend more time with the blonde.
… maybe only 75 percent reluctant.
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Who can spot the Dissidia reference?