Demyx woke the next morning, a crick in his neck, as he guessed, and a minor headache. The sooner Axel's room was fixed, the better! Speaking of Axel… the water weaver looked over at his, (no wait, it wasn't his anymore) the bed. Axel was gone, obviously having already got up, and not laid the bed. Demyx lay his head to one side, hoping to rest five minutes more, at least till his stiff muscles loosened up, when something caught his attention. He hadn't noticed it before but a really nice smell was wafting under the closed door. Smelt like… eggs, bacon and…. Hash browns! …Breakfast! He was late! If he didn't rush, he'd miss it all! He stood up in a hurry, tripping once or twice over his own feet, then his cloak, and knocked his arm against the wall. Pain shot straight up and down it and he slowed down completely, remembering he should be letting the wound heal, as Vexen had said. He summoned a portal, hoping to still get the leftovers, if there were any. As the dark enveloped him, he pouted, the great smell being left behind in his room.

The kitchen came into view as Demyx rushed forwards, glancing round for any morsel that might be willingly given up. All to no avail though, the only member still in the kitchen being Xaldin.

"Hey, kid, where were you? All the food's gone and you left me to do the washing up. It's not like you to be up so late."

Demyx's slumped in disappointment as he dragged his feet to the sink, picking up a dish to help Xaldin clean up.

"Sorry, I had a hard time getting sleep last night."

Xaldin picked up a towel and began to dry his plates. It was no surprise to him that Demyx had trouble getting rest with the hothead sleeping in his room, but what did surprise him was that Demyx had lasted the night unscathed… he owed Luxord 50 munny. He rolled his eyes and snatched the plate off Demyx, who nearly dropped another one in shock.

"I'll finish up here, you get to the meeting, or Xemnas's going to start to think Axel's killed you off while we weren't looking."

Demyx looked like, if he hadn't controlled it, his jaw would have dropped right out of his skull. Xaldin rarely did any of the chores, even less so if Demyx was around to do them. Demyx put down the other plate he was holding. His face lit up briefly in a stupid grin as he summoned a dark gateway.

"Thanks Xaldin, I owe you!"

Xaldin chuckled to himself once Demyx had left. He was lucky Demyx wasn't too smart, or he might have figured out by now that with that ridiculous grin and a few 'thank you's Demyx could most likely get any of the other members to let him get away with anything (except Larxene, she couldn't be persuaded to do anything she didn't feel like doing. Missions were different. Torture could be involved) though this theory had never been tested out on Marluxia, Lexeus, Luxord, or Axel. It had worked once on Xemnas, when Demyx was begging him to let him have his sitar as a weapon. Xemnas warned him he'd look a little silly, but let him get away with it anyway. In fact, if nobody knew any better from the way he acted, they would have thought Demyx the newest 'baby' of the organisation and Roxas the maturing member.

Demyx materialised as discreetly as he could into his chair, hoping his absence hadn't been too obvious. Crap. Eleven pairs of eyes glared at him (Xaldin still in the kitchen), most likely having not been able to start the meeting without him. No wait, ten pairs of eyes. Axel wasn't looking at him, staring away with his 'I really can't be arsed' expression. Maybe he'd let Demyx sleep in as some sort of cruel joke. It would be just like him. Xemnas coughed and all heads swivelled round to look at him.

"Ahem, Now that Demyx has finally arrived," Demyx sank into his chair, wanting to just vanish off the face of the world, how embarrassing, "Let us begin with the matters at hand."

Demyx picked up one of his cloak chains and began to fiddle with it, not really paying attention to Xemnas or his speech.

"We've had some minor problems with snack food. You buy your own snacks, you don't take them off other members selves in the fridge. Is that understood? We can't afford to have any more petty fights that destroy the castle." A few glanced at Axel, who was obviously not paying attention, his eyes being closed, he could have been sleeping. Xemnas sighed. "Another thing, while on the subject of wrecked rooms, Axel, yours won't be fixed for another week or so." This shocked him out of his trance-like state and he almost toppled out of his seat.

"Whoa! A week! Hey, I'm not sharing a room for a week!" Demyx could almost see the hairs standing on the back of Axel's neck. Xemnas ignored the violence in Axel's tone of voice.

"It's either that or sleeping in your charcoal heap you've created." Axel pouted and sat back in his chair, slumping lower than Demyx. Xemnas opened his mouth to speak when a loud rumble broke the silence. Everyone turned to look at Axel, who simply glared back then raised an eyebrow when there was another growl. The rest of the organisation quickly realised it came from the seat beside him. Demyx flushed red in embarrassment and 'shushed' at his grumbling stomach. Xemnas sighed and knew that with all this going on, nobody would be able to keep their attention on him long enough to finish the meeting.

"Fine, you're all dismissed, try to behave yourselves."

Demyx left the room as quickly as he could, not wanting to draw any more attention to himself. Being quick, however, was quite hard when he had to keep slowing down for his arm and Larxene and Marluxia soon caught up with him. Halfway down to corridor, Marluxia grabbed Demyx's sore arm and slammed him into the wall.

"Hey, Demyx, so you're stuck with Axel, tell us all about it."

With Marluxia on one side and Larxene on the other, Demyx had nowhere to run. He knew what they wanted even though neither of them had said it. They wanted dirt on Axel, to get him into trouble for every time he'd won a fight against them in training. Demyx looked at his feet and set his jaw tight, refusing to speak. If he didn't speak, they couldn't get Axel into trouble. Marluxia tilted Demyx's chin up towards him.

"Demyx, If you don't tell us what's been going on, we'll get it out of you one way or another."

Demyx pulled away from Marluxia's touch and bit his bottom lip, visually defying him. Larxene leaned forwards, peeling her glove off her hand.

"Come on Marly, let me shock him, just once."

Lightning jumped between her fingers and Demyx's eyes widened. When he first joined the organisation he had learned that water conducted electricity the hard way, and now he feared Larxene more than any of the other members. He could feel the static on his skin as Larxene got closer. Marluxia squeezed on Demyx's arm hard.

"We can do this the easy way, or the hard way."

Demyx whimpered as the lightning got closer and closer.