I'm re-writing this. I have no idea what I plan on doing with it or where it is going. I have an idea of where I want it to go, but I don't what randomness I'll run into along the way.

The idea of Xcat (pronounced "Scat") was my idea, but I do not claim him as my own, because, in essence, he is still Cheshire Cat. I own Xantara and Menixna. Ikaxiri and Minaxné are the Nobodies of Kairi and Naminé. (Yes, I do know that in the real KH universe, that would never work because Naminé is Kairi's Nobody, but this is an AU so it plays by alternate rules.) For some reason I don't feel right claiming them as my own. They are my idea, but Kairi and Naminé were not my idea, therefore I don't feel right in claiming Ikaxiri and Minaxné. That being said, I do not own Kingdom Hearts in any way, shape, or form. This is story is merely fanfiction.

Now on with the story!

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Chapter 1

Demyx couldn't sleep. It was seven-thirty AM. He grabbed his guitar and wandered around the castle a bit. He wandered into the den and found it empty. But of course he didn't look up. He sat down and started playing chords. There was no sense to what he was playing until he hit a few in succession and started humming along with the tune. Then he broke out into song. "Oh her eyes, her eyes/ Make the stars look like they're not shining/ Her hair, her hair/ Falls perfectly without her trying/ She's so beautiful/ And I tell her every day." Demyx sighed. "No I don't. I wish I did, but I can't."

"Stop being a scaredy-fish and just tell her how you feel, Demyx." Xigbar landed on the floor in front of Demyx, scaring the musician half to death. Said musician jumped backward and flung himself against the far wall.

"Xigbar, don't do that! What were you doing on the ceiling? I thought you were finally out of your 'sleeping like a bat' phase!"

"I am. I was reading. Zexion lent me this amazing book! You should read it when I'm done with it! I'd be in the library reading it but Luxord, Saix, Axel, and Roxas are playing strip poker there."

"And Zexion hasn't killed them yet? What are they doing up? Axel usually sleeps until ten. Roxas sleeps until noon."

"Zexion is on a mission so they're using their time to mess up his favorite spot. And they've been playing since last night."

"They haven't slept at all? Saix hasn't called it quits yet? Tell me he hasn't killed anybody yet?"

"Nope nope. He's ingested a lot of alcohol though," warned the Freeshooter.

"Thanks for the warning." Demyx shuddered at the memory of the last time Saix had too much to drink. He was all huggy and lovey. It was creepy. He insisted that Demyx was "his bestie best friend in the whole wide non-existent world." Afterword, when he had sobered up, he tried to eat Demyx. "He's drunk and they're all still with him in there?"

"They're fine. He won't leave Luxord alone. Everybody else is safe."

"Good. That means he'll leave me alone." Demyx shuddered again. "I hope Zexion tries to kill them all on his arrival. They deserve it."

Xigbar chuckled. "So what'cha gonna do about your lady-friend?"

Demyx shrugged. "I don't know. I wanted to have time alone to think so I wandered in here, but I guess that's not going to happen. I think I'm just gonna go down to the pool. Water always helps me think."

"Just tell her how you feel. Girls always like that. Ask Ikaxri, Menixna, or Minaxné."

Demyx pouted.

Xigbar sighed. "But if you want some alone time, I'll give you some alone time. Go to the pool; think, relax, clear your mind."

Demyx smiled and gave Xigbar a hug. "Thank you, Xig-Xig. You're the best!" And with that, the blond musician ran off to the pool.

Xigbar chuckled as a plot started forming in his head.

Xigbar wandered around the library until he stumbled upon the poker game. The sight he was met with wasn't very pretty: Roxas was stripped down to his boxers; Axel was clothed in his shirt, boxers, and socks; Saix was shirtless and his arm was draped around Luxord's shoulders; Luxord was the only one who was fully clothed—Huh. Imagine that. His Organization XIII coat was hanging on the back of his chair.

"Hey boys!" waved Xigbar as he stopped, standing behind Luxord's chair. He put his hands on Luxord's shoulders. "Mind if I take Lux?" he asked without waiting for an answer. "No? Okay then. See ya!" He and Luxord vanished into thin air.

"What the hell was that?" demanded the card shark when they had landed in the kitchen and Luxord regained his footing.

"What was what?" answered the sniper.

"That!" exclaimed Luxord, gesturing wildly to the ceiling. "You can't do that to person without a warning first! You may be used to it, but there are those of us how are not gifted with the art of teleportation! I, for one, would rather not do that again. I prefer our portals. And what was the big idea, stealing me away in the middle of the game? I was winning!"

"Correction my dear friend, you were cheating. You are quite clever with your time manipulation, I must say. But I guess you would have that kind of practice with time and cards and games since you used to be Mad."

Luxord narrowed his eyes. "Explain."

"Hatter."

Luxord gestured with his hand for the sniper to continue.

"Mad Hatter."

"Yes, and Axel's name used to be spelled just like a girl's name. Is this news to you, mate?"

"No, no. Not at all. This just means you knew Cat before he was Xcat."

"Yeah…" said Luxord.

Xigbar rolled his eyes. "Oh, come now. You know I'm not that thick. Animals can't be changed. Xcat is just neutral, but to fit in he anagrammed his name with an 'X' like the rest of us."

"No, he just put an 'X' in front of 'Cat' and now tells us to pronounce it like 'Scat,'" said Luxord. "He really is something, isn't he?"

"Right…Real visionary." The sniper rolled his eyes. "I had a point to this god awful conversation, but now I can't remember it." Xigbar sighed and disappeared into thin air with a small 'pop' sound.

"Well, that was odd. Even for Xigbar." The kitchen was silent for a moment while Luxord debated what to do next. "Now I want tea." He got up and looked in the cupboards. "Which we are out of. It doesn't matter. The tea around just is not right. Good old Wonderland tea is what I need right now." The card shark opened up a portal and stepped through it.

When Demyx arrived at the pool he was amazed to see that he was not the only person there. There was a girl already in the pool. She had ice blue hair that hung down by her shoulders.

"H-Hi Xantara," Demyx stuttered nervously. "What are you doing here? And what are you doing awake?"

"I should ask you the same question, Dem. Don't you wake up at nine-ish?"

"I couldn't sleep."

"I know what you mean. My room is right next to the library and Roxas and Axel were being loud. So was Saix actually. I don't think they left the library all night."

"Yeah, they're still playing strip poker. Luxord's playing too. He wasn't loud?"

"Luxord's always loud. I've learned to tune him out."

"Demyx has something he wanted to ask you, Xana," a voice stated from the ceiling.

Demyx looked up at Xigbar who was walking upside down in mid-air, ten feet above the pool. "What are you doing here?" the blond asked in an un-amused voice.

"Walking upside down, of course."

"No. I mean, how did you get here?"

"Well don't you know? When a mommy and a daddy love each other—"

"Yeah, I don't need the 'birds and bees talk' again. Thanks, Xigbar. No. How did you get here," Demyx said, gesturing around to the pool area.

"The same way you did, of course."

Demyx looked back at the door; he was sure he was the only person who walked through it.

"I died in my previous life and found myself here."

Demyx blanched. "Not 'here' as in the castle, 'here' as in the pool!" He threw his hands up in exasperation. "If I wanted my questions to be answered in riddles, I would have gone to Wonderland and had a chat with Chesh—Xcat!"

"Geez," said Xigbar. Still upside down, he walked toward Demyx. "You could have just said so." Then he did a flip to the ground. "I teleported here."

"You mean with a portal?" asked Xana.

"No, I can teleport through space. I prefer to keep it to a minimum if I can though, so I only do it in the castle."

"Oh that's so cool." Xantara looked at Demyx. "What is it that you wanted to ask me, Demyx?"

Demyx glared at Xigbar before flashing Xana his best smile. "I—uh—I mean—Oh heck…I don't know what I mean." The smile faded away. "Sorry. Forget it. It's nothing."

"Are you sure?" asked Xana. "It doesn't seem like nothing to me."

"For now, it's nothing. Can we just leave it?" snapped Demyx. He didn't do well under pressure unless he was on a stage.

"Oh…kay? Are you okay, Demyx?" asked the girl. She climbed out of the pool and checked her watch. "Oh no. I think I'm late. I was going to go with Axel on his mission. Xemnas assigned him to go grocery shopping in Radiant Garden. And Axel even offered to take me to Traverse Town if I went with him. I wanted to pick up a few things and there is only one shop in all the worlds that I know of that sells them. And it just happens to be in Traverse Town. Xemnas also asked me to go with him because if somebody doesn't, he usually just spends all the money on boxes upon boxes of sea-salt ice-cream."

"Oh!" exclaimed Xigbar. "I always wondered why we had so many boxes of ice cream. I knew Xemnas didn't buy them and Saix couldn't have because he hates anything…—Well, he just hates anything."

"Oh. Okay then." Demyx looked crest-fallen.

"But if you want me to stay, I can stay. I bet Xigbar wouldn't mind going in my place."

Xigbar nodded enthusiastically.

"Go. You have that stuff you want to get," urged Demyx. "What I want to tell you can wait."

"If you're sure," the girl said hesitantly. Demyx nodded and the girl opened a portal to the library. The sounds of the poker game echoed around in the darkness.

Demyx sighed as the portal closed behind her. "That's it! I'm hopeless. All I want to do is figure out a good way to ask her out. But all I can seem to do whenever I'm with her is: One—Stutter—and two—make myself look like a fool!" The boy turned to Xigbar and was only met with empty space. Demyx looked up toward the ceiling to see his ponytailed comrade somersaulting through the air. "Really?" snapped a very un-amused musician. Maybe he would just go chat with Xcat or Luxord or…someone. Demyx threw up his hands and made a sound of exasperation. "That's it! I'm done! I don't know what to do about anything! Nobody wants to listen to me!" Demyx opened his own portal and walked through it, not caring where it led him.

Once Xigbar was sure he was alone he stopped somersaulting and let gravity take its toll. He plunged headfirst into the pool in a perfect dive. He then swam to the edge and climbed out. He walked over to the towel closet and pulled out a towel to dry himself off. He didn't want to go see Larxene when he was soaking wet. There was no point in giving the electric cockroach the upper hand if he somehow angered her with his idea.

Once he was sure he was ready, he opened a portal outside Larxene's room. Xigbar knocked on her door and stepped back a few steps. Better safe than sorry. If he had been going to Lexaeus' room or Xaldin's room, he would have portaled right into their rooms, but the sniper was a bit more cautious around the electric cockroach. In other words, she scared him.

"What?" Larxene was annoyed when she opened her door. Never a good sign. Her hair was also a mess. "What is so important that you had to interrupt my beauty sleep?" she snapped.

Xigbar mentally kicked himself. In his rush of plotting he forgot it was still early in the morning. "It's only eight," he said, a smile on his face.

She raised her arms and the sniper flinched back.

"Pleasedontkillme," he said in a rush and jumble of words.

Larxene gasped playfully and covered her mouth in faux-surprise to cover her grin. "Is the great and powerful Xigbar scared of little ol' me?" She giggled.

"I-I wanted to talk to you about something, but…I kinda forgot how early it was. I'll come back later if you would prefer."

"How could you have forgotten that it was still early? Axel isn't wandering the castle, Roxas isn't on the loose in a half-asleep daze, Demyx is still in bed sleeping, Zexion is in the library reading, Vexen's in the basement doing his experiments, and Xemnas and Saix are still brooding over Kingdom Hearts."

"Yeah, no. Only two of those statements are true. Axel and Roxas are playing strip poker with Saix, Zexion is on a mission, Demyx is…somewhere, and I think Luxord is still in the kitchen where I left him. I'm pretty sure Vexen is in the basement doing experiments, and when is Xemnas not brooding over Kingdom Hearts?"

"Okay, wow. Yeah. Wake me up when things get normal and when Zexion returns and is kicking ass. I like when Zexion kicks ass. It's amusing. AND NORMAL!" Larxene shouted. She yawned and shut the door in Xigbar's face.

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