Sorry about the lateness of this chapter. It's been a busy summer. We have a lot planned for this fic and can't wait to finish it. Next chapter shouldn't be as late as this one :D

Sorry if we portray something wrong about college, as both of us are in high school.

Disclaimer: We don't own Kingdom Hearts, but if we did, the Organization would still be alive.

The clock taunted me as it ticked. Each sound it made equaled one less second I had to complete the exam in front of me. My pencil hovered over the work space for the first problem while my brain panicked. How was I supposed to know the difference between Goldbach's conjecture from Fermat's last theorem? Quickly glancing to my right, I noticed Axel had just completed number seven out of fifty.

Zexion's words replayed through my head. All of his criticism of how I spent my time finally made sense. I knew I should have studied, but that was the last thing on my mind for the past two weeks. Instead of reading my textbook and taking notes, I filled an empty notebook with angsty songs worthy of a teenage girl. Seeing I only had forty-five minutes remaining, I made up something about a correlation with even numbers. Number two through ten addressed algebraic theory. I let out a cheer due to the fact I paid attention during those lectures.

Mrs. Jane shot me a glare warning me to shut-up.

Far to my left, Zexion raced through his exam and was already half way done. I glared at the back of his head for at least a minute. Six days ago, he returned to our dorm. At first, I thought he came to apologize and tell me how much he missed me and beg for us to be together still. In reality, he needed to pack up the clothes and books he had left behind. He acted like I wasn't even in the same room as he shoved his belongings into a suitcase.

"Mr. Demyx, concentrate on your own exam." Mrs. Jane threw a wadded up sheet of paper at my head.

I did as she said and struggled through the next ten problems. What did a musician need math for anyways?

Unable to help myself, I shifted to see Axel burning through the exam. Apparently being a Chemistry major required more knowledge of numbers than one would think.

He and Saix never liked Zexion, but they put up with him for my sake. My boyfriend, well, ex-boyfriend, was in a completely opposite friend circle from me. While I ran around with a stargazer and a pyro, he hung out with an asshole scientist named Vexen and a silent jock named Lexaeus. After hearing Vexen and Axel shout death threats at each other when the two met, I was determined to keep the two groups as separate as possible. Saix was the only one who tried to talk me out of my relationship with Zexion, but I simply ignored him. Back in high school, I thought he hated Zexion because he took the Valedictorian slot from him, but I now know that Saix somehow saw this large break-up mess coming three years ago.

Tick

The clock reminded me of the task at hand. Fortunately the next set of questions was simply defining terms. This I knew from hovering over Zexion and occasionally looking at the book below him. Of course he would always shoo me away so he could study in peace. Damn it. I was irritating myself. How could I possibly expect to move on when he was in every thought that crossed my mind?

"You have five minutes to complete your exam." A variety of curse words raced through my mind. I still had seven questions remaining and they were all equations. Failure was imminent. Axel and Zexion had long since turned in their papers.

Quickly, I scribbled random numbers to look like I had shown work for each remaining problem. I honestly had no idea what I was doing and answered each question with -2 and circled it.

"Put down your pencils and turn in your papers."

I left nothing blank and understood a decent amount of the questions, yet it still felt as if I was walking the green mile as I approached Mrs. Jane's desk. Axel gave me a sympathetic glance.

"Good bye students, I shall hope to never see some of you again as you have completed my class. I hope you did well on the exam considering that determines if you pass basic number theory or not." Despite already knowing this, my gut dropped. "Enjoy your Winter Break."

"So how do ya think ya did?" Axel met me on the outside of the classroom.

"Honestly?" Axel nodded. "Absolutely shitty. I couldn't hold up my concentration for more than ten minutes. I didn't study at all and having Zexion in the same room didn't exactly help. All of my other exams felt the exact same. Mrs. Jane is going to fail me and I'll have my swimming scholarship taken away and have to move back with Dad and…"

"Whoa, slow down there Demyx. It's Christmas break now. You are supposed to be happy."

"Yeah, everything is just against me at the moment. I'll be better soon, so don't worry. Speaking of the holidays, what are our plans for the break?"

"Let's see. We have an entire month off, correct?" He paused. "I shall be spending these two days before they lock up the dorms with Larxene no matter how much Saix will hate it. I promised Larxene some 'us time,'" he made air quotes with his fingers. "So if Saix could stay with you in the mean time, that would be lovely."

"You're still going out with that witch?" Axel and Larxene got together in the beginning of the semester and every second they spend with one another was spent arguing and whining about every little thing. "I thought that after the last fight, which if I remember correctly ended quite violently, you two finally split up."

"Hey, that's my girlfriend you're talking about. And for your information, we did, but the make-up sex was just too good to ignore."

"Perv."

Axel chuckled. "And you wouldn't like me any other way."

"True, so what else are we doing?"

"Well, in three days, Saix and I are going to my parent's house and hanging out there for the break."

"And what about me?" Rarely did Axel leave me out of his plans.

"You shall be going to your Dad's for the break." Reaching into his bag, he pulled out a large paper ticket. "Here is your train pass and you leave at 6:30 in the afternoon tomorrow."

Shock swept my face; Axel knew how much I hated my dad. "You didn't."

"But I did. This ticket was expensive and you don't want to be wasting Saix's and my good money, do you? Besides, you get to spend time with your little brother. You don't hate him at least. It's been like two years since you've visited him."

"Oh come on, Tidus can drive now so if he really wants to see me he can just come up here." I was furious to say the least.

"Demyx, its Christmas. You know, that holiday all about family joy? You're being a bit selfish."

"Then tell me why the hell Saix gets to go with you?" Axel promptly punched me in the face and I came crashing down on the ground. "What the fuck was that for?"

"Don't even try to compare your family to Saix's. You know damn well why he's coming with me. Jecht isn't the worst parent in the world. A few weeks with him won't kill you."

"Whatever." I growled and tended to my now bruised face.

"Now get up, I promised Saix that the three of us would go hang out or something before we take you to the train station tomorrow." Reaching an outstretched hand towards me, he bended down and helped me up. "Sorry about that, I really shouldn't have punched you."

I grabbed his hand and stood up. Man, I hung out with the most bi-polar people I knew. "Don't worry about it. I kinda deserved that I guess. I just need a break from all this crap I've dealt with."

"Yeah, you haven't been acting very much like Demyx lately. We miss the old non-angsty version of you." We started towards Axel and Saix's dorm. "Not being in the same town as Zexion for a while should help tremendously."

A single tear fell from my eye. "I… I suppose." My voice cracked.

Axel took notice of this. "Aww, come on. Don't be like that. If you choke up every time anyone mentions the word Zexion, some serious therapy is called for."

"Easy for you to say. The longest relationship you've ever had lasted a little less than a year and you were the one who broke that off because you got bored with her. Saix is virtually asexual so any advice from him is meaningless. I was with Zexion for three years. You wouldn't know anything about how that feels."

"Exactly why I think going to your Dad's will do you some good. If your two best friends can't help you out, your family should intervene."

"Oh, how is that supposed to work? Do I just walk up to Dad and tell him that my boyfriend broke up with me and ask him to make everything better? That's a terrible idea! You know how completely anti gay rights he is. He doesn't even know I'm gay and would kill me on the spot if he found out I was."

"That isn't what I meant. Tidus is cool for a little brother. Just talk to him." We weren't much farther from the dorm building. "In the mean time, let's just have one awesome night considering we won't get to see much of each other for the next month. No worrying about class, family, or relationships ok?" I smiled in agreement. "Good. Now that we have that understanding, we should pick up our third amigo." A guy couldn't have a better best friend.

Axel knocked on his door. "Who is it?" Saix called from the other side.

"Axel and Demyx are here to pick up our third musketeer." After a few moments of waiting, the door opened and Saix walked out.

"What took you guys so long?"

"Oh come on. We didn't take that long. In fact, we came over right after we took our exam. It's not like I have a car to magically transport me across campus like you do."

"Excuses, excuses."

My face had started to swell from where Axel punched me. "Hey Saix."

"Hello Demyx. Um, why does your face resemble a grapefruit?"

"Axel sucker punched me. May I please have some ice?"

"You probably deserved it." Holding the door open wider, he invited us in. "What did he do, Axel?" He moved to a mini fridge/freezer and pulled out an ice tray.

"He was letting off way too much unnecessary angst after I told him the plan to dump him off at his dad's."

"I see. I told you he wouldn't like it. Anyways, this is our last day together until the break ends. Do tell where I am taking you two." Saix had this strange kind of sixth sense. Whenever anyone needed him to do something, he was on top of it before he or she knew what they needed from him. Because of this, he's become our personal lackey. Out of our little group, he was the only one with a sense of organization.

Axel crossed his arms in thought. "Hm. Going clubbing again is a horrible idea seeing as how it turned out last time." He shot a glare of mock anger at me. "We can't exactly hold a band practice considering a certain emo bastard decided to quit." I returned his glare. "Ya know, considering how Demyx still gets all choked up when he hears someone say Zexion, I think we should continue to refer to him as that emo bastard from now on."

"I'm right here you know! And he isn't even emo!" The two jerks knew how to get on my nerves the most.

"That does sound like a good idea. We might even be able to avoid some unnecessary face punching that way." He filled a Ziploc bag with some cubes and handed it to me. I gratefully accepted and held it to my swelled cheek.

"Hmmm, we could always go to that cheap ass flea market just outside town. Those are always fun."

"Damn you Axel and your abilities to find easy entertainment for me." Curse my ADHD.

Saix groaned. "That is a terrible idea. Knowing you two, you'll find hundreds of dollars in worthless cheap knockoffs and expect me to pay for them." Saix was not getting a chance to ruin Christmas break for me anymore than it has been.

"You didn't seem to have much of an issue for paying for a hundred dollar train ticket for me when I didn't want it."

Just as Saix opened his mouth in protest, Axel interrupted him. "Yeah Saix, it's about time we got Dem something nice and cheap for a change."

"Ugh, fine, but don't expect me to pay for you." Saix has never had the ability to say no to Axel, something the red head and I use to our full advantage.

"Yay," I crushed Saix in a large hug. "You won't regret it."

We drove up to a large building and stopped. A cheap neon sign reading "Ag_a_bah" was on the front of the building. There were tacky palm trees and piles of sand littering the front. Cracked plastic towers with chipped paint were bolted to the roof to attempt to give the market a royal look.

"This place looks like a dump." Saix scoffed.

I however, looked at the place like a kid in a candy store. "And that's exactly what makes it amazing."

To my right, Axel grinned. "That's the spirit Demyx." He pushed Saix as we walked towards the entrance.

"Ah! Welcome!" A short Arab man ran up to us as we walked inside. "I welcome you to Agrabah Discounted Goods!" The man held his arms out in a grand manner as if he was showing us an extravagant display. In reality, there were several shelves full of random junk. Axel and I stared in awe.

"Go," Saix shoved us forward. "Go shop. Get this over with. I'll stay back here so you can't talk me into buying things for you."

"Beautiful man is right." The tiny man looked at Saix as he said this and I let loose a snicker. "Things won't get bought if you just stare at them all day. Now go. Enjoy. I shall keep your beautiful friend company." He inched toward a very uncomfortable looking Saix.

"On second thought," Before the tiny man got too close, he ran over to Axel and me. "I think I'll go monitor your purchases before you decide to buy anything." Axel and I struggled to hold in our laughter.

"Suit yourself." We began walking to the rows of merchandise. As we passed through the shelves, I pointed out the random junk I thought was cool. There was everything one could imagine just lying unorganized on these shelves, from creepy dolls to broken furniture. Not one item in the store was left without a price tag.

"Who would pay twenty dollars for a keyboard with the vowels missing?"

"Oh stop complaining Saix. What do you even have against flea markets?" To my right, it was as if a divine light highlighted a box in the otherwise dark junk pile.

"A warehouse that sells nothing but cheap Chinese knockoffs that break as soon as you take them home. What's not to hate?"

"Oh, stop being such a rich product elitist. You can sometimes find the coolest things in places like this." I pulled out a milk crate full of old 1970s vinyl records. Some of these looked as if they had never been taken out of their slip case. "Saix, this is like a crate of some of my favorite music ever. I have got to get this!"

"You don't even own a record player. How would you expect to listen to them?"

"I'm sure I can find one here. Where did Axel go? He can help me look since you're being unhelpful." My red headed friend had disappeared. I tried shouting to get his attention. "Axel, Axel. Where are you? I need your help."

"He's probably off causing mischief somewhere."

Suddenly, I was practically tackled into the ground. "Oh my god, Demyx! You will never guess what I just found." Axel found it to be a good idea to violently shake me as he explained this to me. With a beaming smile, he paused, staring at me waiting for an answer. Knowing him, it could be anything so I just returned his stare. "Oh you'll never get it. A blow torch! And not just one of those tiny kitchen lighters, I mean like a fucking mini flamethrower! I neeeeeed!" My crazy friend was being absolutely insane and I couldn't help but crack up laughing. "Fine, laugh all you want, but I doubt you have found anything close to being that awesome."

"Well actually…" I showed him the box filled with records beside me. Immediately he got off me and started flipping through the records.

"Ok, I stand corrected. They are equally awesome."

"Thought so. Now help me find a record player."

Axel actually stood up straight and saluted me. "Aye Aye Captain! Don't just stand there First Mate Blue. You heard the captain." Without warning, he yanked Saix's arm making him help. I decided to start searching in the opposite direction they ran off in.

Thirty minutes later, the two found me hopelessly digging through a pile of junk. I really wanted to find a record player. Back when I was still in Elementary school and Mom still lived with my family, we owned an old record player Mom had when she was a teenager. I was such a momma's boy growing up. In fact, I think she and her old record player were what made me fall in love with music. Unfortunately when Mom left, Dad despised anything that reminded him of her and either sold or destroyed everything that belonged to her. I remember crying like a baby at the age of thirteen when he smashed the record player to bits in his rage.

"Hey, Dem." Axel startled me, causing me to nearly knock over a shelf full of stuff. "Guess what we found!" Axel was clinging on to his now precious blow torch, which I must say, was a lot larger than what I thought it would be. Saix however lugged around a slightly beat up record player.

I could barely contain my excitement. "Thank you so much guys!"

"Are we ready to go yet?" Saix did not share my enthusiasm.

"Yeah, I think we've gotten enough." I picked up the crate of records. "Let's go."

Right before we reached the front counter, Axel spoke up. "Damn… I left my wallet at home!" I took this as an opportunity to check my pocket for my wallet as well.

"Shit. Me too. Saix, can you please pay for us? I swear we'll pay you back!" Saix rolled his eyes. "Pretty please with a cherry on top?" I flashed the most adorable look I could muster.

"Fine! If it will just allow us to leave sooner!"

We piled everything on the cashier's counter so he could ring everything up. "Ah! Beautiful man and friends are back. I hope everything was satisfactory."

Just before I was about to compliment his store, Saix spoke up, "No, everything was not all right. You have a store full of nothing but useless shit. How you and your kind remain open, I have no idea. It's an absolute insult to the economy! Besides, I'm sure even these things my friends decided to purchase will most likely fall apart as soon as we get back to our dorms with no chance of getting a refund." The shop keeper remarkably ignored all these comments and rang up the items with no delay. Once again, before I could speak up to apologize, Saix interrupted. "And most of all, stop calling me beautiful man! It's disgusting." This time the tiny cashier paused.

"That will be three hundred dollars."

"What! I added up all the prices, based on the sticker on them, and came up with only one hundred twenty, including tax!" Saix was absolutely livid.

"Oh, I see what you did wrong." The cashier pointed to a price sticker reading 20$ on the crate holding the vinyl. "This is the price for each individual disk. Not for the entire crate."

"That's insane! Demyx, I'm afraid you'll have to put those back." I opened my mouth to complain, yet Saix interrupted me for a third time. "We can find others on EBAY."

"Wait, hold on a second!" The shop keeper obviously didn't want to lose possible money. "I think we can haggle the price to something much more reasonable."

"Ok, how about two hundred dollars for the whole thing."

"I was thinking something more along the line of your original one hundred twenty…" Saix looked confused but was about to accept it. "And in addition to that, beautiful man kisses me. On the mouth." Axel laughed his ass off and I followed suit. Saix, on the other hand, was completely frozen. To make matters worse, the tiny cashier started making weird kissy noises. "Come on. Pucker up or three hundred dollars."

"You heard him! Pucker up Saix!" I admit I was being a little bit cruel, but seeing as how I was to be alone at my dad's for the next month, I didn't really care.

"Demyx. Please don't make me do this… please."

"Hey. I need something to entertain myself for the next month and a record player with no records is boring. Either waste another hundred dollars like you did on my train ticket or spend one second in agony."

"Axel?"

"You heard the man. Besides, you were bound to have your first kiss sometime before you left college. It's not that big of a deal. Just get it over with."

"It seems my two best friends have forsaken me." With a deep sigh, he cursed to himself. "Might as well do what they say." He leaned forward with his eyes smashed shut. With no warning, the creepy shop keeper grabbed the front of Saix's jacket and jammed their lips together. He did not stop there. I think I even saw the Arab man's tongue go between Saix's lips. At this point, Saix flipped out and shoved the small man off of him. In a speed I did not think was possible, Saix pulled out exact change from his wallet to pay for out things, ran as close to the exit as he could without leaving, and yelled at the two of us, "OK we are leaving NOW!"

Axel and I never stopped laughing. We gathered our things and followed our shaken friend to his car.

I was the first to break the silence that had overcome the car. "Um, thank you Saix. I really…"

"Never EVER ask me to do that again!"

Axel decided it was his turn to calm a nearly rabid Saix. "Aw. It couldn't have been as bad as you make it out to be. That guy was only on you for three seconds top. I mean my first kiss was with fuckin' Marluxia and you know how much I hate that asshole."

I hadn't heard that yet. "Wait? Really?"

"6th grade. Thought he was a girl and someone," he pointed at Saix, "dared me to do it. Not a moment I want to relive. Consider this payback bitch!" Axel playfully smiled.

"Ok, we're even now." Amazingly enough, Saix was laughing now.

"Good! Cause it would be bad if you killed Demyx in his sleep tonight while you stay with him while Larxene is in our room… oh wait, I forgot to tell you that. Oopsy."

Suddenly, Saix pulled over on the side of the road and slammed his breaks on. "AXEL YOU BASTARD!"

Whew! Another chapter written. As my partner in crime... i mean Dnite said, we are sorry about the late update. We want you to review and just let us know what you're thinking about the story. I have decided to give out cookies for reviews. So if you want a cookie, press the blue writing below! =D