ONE:

Deadly Little Secrets

Marluxia walked out of the gate and started to look for his boyfriend. He found him, asleep, lying across several seats. Instead of waking him gently, the pink-haired man decided to go over and kiss Vexen. The blonde jolted awake and instinctively kneed him in the balls.

"Vexen!" Marluxia wailed. "I thought you loved me!"

Coming to, and looking around, Vexen saw his boyfriend clutching his tenders in pain. Vexen's eyes widened as he realized his mistake. "Ohmygosh! I'm so sorry, Marly." He stood up and hugged the pink-haired man. "I promise I'll make it up to you tonight. In my hotel room. When we're all alone."

Marly smiled; thinking about Vexen naked always made him happy. "Okay." He whispered, before kissing the blonde again. "Do you always knee people like that? What if I'd been Axel? Can you imagine what he would have done to you?"

"Axel would not have kissed me like that. He would save that kind of thing for Roxy." Vexen replied.

Axel and Roxas walked up then. Axel wore a sly smirk on his face. "Are you guys talking about us?"

Marly smiled. "Vexen was just contemplating the consequences of him kneeing you in the balls."

Axel frowned. "One, I don't think Vexen would ever be stupid enough to do that. Two: If he was, I'd melt him into a puddle and throw him down a drain."

Vexen was speechless.

Thankfully, Roxas filled the silence with discussions of their plans for later. "So which beach are we going to? And who's driving?"

"I was thinking we could go to Clearwater Beach." Vexen suggested. "And I'm driving there. I don't know who will be driving back. Probably you, Roxas since you can't legally drink."

Roxas frowned. "Aw-w-w-w, why do you guys get to have all the fun?"

Marly smiled. "Because if we get arrested here, it will delay our arrivals back to college. Therefore, we are trying to be as legal as possible. That's why Vexen's driving. He's probably the safest driver out of all of us…"

Roxas crossed his arms over his chest and pouted. His pouty face soon vanished when he saw Vexen's hair slowly starting to defy gravity. The rest of the group noticed and started to laugh. Vexen noticed to and started looking around the airport for Larxene. She had to be somewhere close by.

"Larxene!" Vexen exclaimed. "I know you're here somewhere. And stop playing with my hair. I'm gay. I don't like girls."

The Savage Nymph approached the circle of friends, smiling. "Oh, Vexen. Don't flatter yourself. I don't like you like that. I just like vexing you is all." Larxene looked around. "Where's Xiggy, Demy, Lexy, and Zexy? I want to go to the beach now. I've been waiting all month." She whined.

Vexen rolled his eyes. "We've all been waiting all month for this. They should arrive shortly. Demyx lands at 10:15, while Lexaeus and Zexion land at 10:20." Vexen glanced at his watch. "It is 10:13 right now."

Larxene narrowed her eyes. "That sounds a little stalker-ish. How do you know that?"

"I am certainly not a stalker." Vexen huffed. "I know everyone's flight information because I planned this trip and its events." The Chilly Academic smiled smugly. "At approximately 11:00 we will begin our drive out to Clearwater Beach. Even though it is always crowded, it is one of the nicest beaches on the West Coast of the East Coast."

Before Larxene could respond with a cynical comment, Roxas was tackled to the ground by his best friend, Demyx. "Hi, Roxy!"

"Hey there, Dem-Dem." Roxas murmured while trying to push the over-excited blonde off of him.

Demyx rolled off of his friend and stood up. "Hey, where's Xiggy?" Demyx asked looking around the airport. "Shouldn't he be here by now?"

"Yeah, where is Xigbar, Vexen. I don't seem to recall you mentioning what time his flight would be landing." Larxene added unhelpfully.

Vexen let his eyes wander to anywhere but Demyx and Larxene's faces. Neither would understand why Xigbar hadn't been invited. The Chilly Academic barely understood himself. What he did understand was the Xemnas, Xigbar, and Xaldin were planning something sinister.

Vexen had been clearly instructed not to invite either of them. He had also been instructed to do other things. Things that he would probably regret and that he couldn't talk about. But before he could depress himself any further, his best friend, Lexaeus made his presence known. "Vexen!" He squealed. "We're finally in Florida!" The Silent Hero ran up behind the Chilly Academic and hugged him.

"Hopefully the temperatures will not rise too high." Vexen frowned. "I despise the heat."

"Oh don't be such a downer, Vexy." Lexaeus giggled. "We're going to have lots of fun."

"But not as much fun as we're going to have." Zexion whispered seductively into his boyfriend's ear.

Vexen rolled his eyes. "Now that we're all here, let's go get our luggage and head to the beach."

"But, Vexen," Demyx whined. "You didn't answer my question. Where's Xiggy at? Is he hurt?"

Vexen stared off into the distance. "Something came up at work. Xigbar could not make it to Florida for our vacation."

Demyx frowned. "But Xiggy promised he'd be here. So we could celebrate my twenty-first birthday by getting drunk on the beach."

"It was a last minute thing. He told me to tell you that he told me to tell you that he really wished he could be here."

"You're lying." Demyx accused angrily. "You know something and you're not telling me. Where's. Xiggy?" He demanded.

"I am not lying; I am merely withholding pieces of the truth. I am not on trial; therefore I am not required to tell the whole truth." Vexen explained calmly. "Now let's go get our luggage so we can head off to the beach."

*XXX*XXX*XXX*XXX*XXX*XXX*XXX*XXX*XXX*XXX*XXX*XXX*XXX*XXX*

Once inside of a black Honda Pilot with all of their colorful luggage, the eight friends started their trek to the beach. Vexen drove with Marluxia in the passenger seat. Lexaeus, Zexion, and Larxene sat in the middle row. Axel, Roxas, and Demyx sat in the back. The ginger's tongue explored Roxas' mouth.

Demyx stuck out his lip. A light drizzle began to fall outside. "Vexen, can you please tell me why Xiggy's not here? The rest of you are being all couple-y and I have no one to cuddle with."

"You're not the only one who's alone here." Lexaeus pointed out. "Larxene's alone, too."

This didn't cheer Demyx up at all. "But Larxene doesn't count. No one wants her so she's always alone."

"Hey!" Larxene shouted. "I choose to be alone."

The sky darkened and lightning flashed between the clouds.

Marluxia turned around in his seat. "Hey, guys, chill out. You're ruining our perfect beach day."

"And you're kind of making it a bit hard to drive." Vexen added as he slowed to a safe speed.

Despite their reasoning, the sky darkened further and the rain came harder.

"I want to know why Xiggy's not here!" Demyx wailed.

"And I told you that something came up at work." Vexen yelled. The rain turned to hail.

"Guys, hey!" Zexion shouted. "Relax. The Somebodies are going to notice something's up. Storms like this just don't appear out of nowhere and certainly not just around one car." He tried to delude the Somebodies into thinking that the storm covered more than just their car, which wasn't hard since the anger levels in the car were rising considerably.

"Vexen, stop making it so cold. You're giving Roxas goose-bumps." Axel snarled in disgust.

"Turn up the heat back there then, or deal with it yourself. You're a pyrokinetic, for Pete's sake." Vexen shot back angrily. Why was the Superior making him do this? He hated what he was about to do. He unbuckled his seatbelt and pulled the keys from the ignition. The car propelled him forward through the windshield. Vexen landed in the soft grass while the car skidded on ice, rolled into the ditch, and burst into flames.