Note: Replies will be at the bottom of the chapter. FF is kinda hard to format, I have to say, I get confused and it doesn't set the right mood I want it to, but oh well- nothing is perfect. For everyone, I change the summary everytime I update.


White and Red

Chapter 02 The Ride

"I just want to die…and die…and die- over and over and over again" The blond heaved a heavy sigh of defeat. Well that was nice, he thought, as if that would come true. He needed a new hobby, that's what he'd been telling himself, other than just lying down everywhere and whispering the same words about freedom and well, ever since he gave up about him being set free again- words about death.

This was a routine that has been getting too old to be even called a routine; it would probably pass for a 'tradition' by now.

Demyx turned over to his side, satisfying his body's craving for ice cold temperatures. Fortunately or unfortunately for him (whichever may be, take your pick), the bed provided by the institute had no use for him at all. Since day one, that lumpy old mattress has never been used, well maybe for sitting and jumping around on when he was bored, but other than that- useless.

He didn't like how warm the bed sheets and mattress were; the floor was so much better. Yes, he preferred to sleep like a surf board in the middle of a freezing ocean, in this case on his floor middle and center, than to lie on a heater. The cement was indeed much more satisfying than the bed; it was like snow during winter and ice cream on a hot summer's day. Demyx loved the feeling of it; it reminded him of home- if he'd even remember how that felt and looked like.

"Just like floating on water" He closed his eyes and smiled contentedly in his current position, arms and legs open wide, like making a snow angel during Christmas. Although it was fun to feel the cold bite at his skin, the musician would've preferred to have been in dream land during this time of hour, except something or "someone" was making such a thing impossible for him.

"Dem-dem! Where joooooo? Deeemmmmm-deeemmmm" The voice whined incessantly. It was starting to creep the blond out, what with the voice mixed with bits of sobbing and choking. Demyx would rather not feed the kid's problem about being too dependent on people, but then again…

Sora started to wail in hysterics, banging on the locked door asking to be let out while repeating Demyx's name twenty times over.

"Ughhh, I'm going to die real soon now…" Both hands covering his face in utter embarrassment from having his name being called out too many times in a night. "Might as well…" He whispered

"Soraaa, dear cou-"

"DEM DEM?! DEM DEM?! Is that you?! Demmyyyyyy! Sora misses youuuu, come playyy- I want play!" The kid wailed out yet again, Demyx mentally slapped himself for that one. He should've known Sora would be expecting more from him under such conditions. It would've been easier during the day…okay well not exactly. Probably if the doors were somehow magically unlocked or better yet- delocked, it would be easier but

"Hey come on Sora, have some respect, people are sleeping in other rooms." The wailing just grew louder, already noting that Demyx couldn't go over to his room to play with him, the boy started pounding on his door even harder to be let out.

"Tsk! Curse these walls" He clicked his tongue in annoyance. One very bad thing about this place, the walls, they're not soundproofed. Every single thing a person says just a notch higher than normal would be heard in the whole corridor. This, the doctors say, would help them be notified faster if someone were to have problems- break downs is more like it. Sadly though, during the night, the workers taking their shifts don't exactly give a damn about anything else aside from their coffee and donuts or their game of poker.

"Look Sora, I'd love to keep you company right now, but this is the best that I can do. Please understand, I like you a lot, okay? I'm not pushing you away." The sentence was rather intimate, but Demyx carefully chose his words to calm his friend down. Apparently Sora had a dissociative disorder, if provoked that would seriously lead to more noise and unrest. It's a good thing his neighboring room was rather deaf, or Demyx would seriously loose his head. Kairi's scream was a killer, in a very horrible way, it wasn't even considered a voice in his book, it was more like a high pitched tone gone wrong and could seriously break glass at the instant.

The crying ceased, though several sobs were still heard. "But Sora misses Dem dem, and sora scared. Sora weird, doctor said, and transfer." This wasn't good; the kid was getting restless yet again, if Sora kept this up, even the coffee donut lovers would surely bother to shut him up.

Sighing, Demyx got up from his position and crawled his way over to his door, hoping that somehow Xigbar got careless in locking his door. He placed his hand on the door's surface, carefully adding pressure to it, but still, no such luck today. He gave up and decided to just lean against his entry way, at least it was a bit nearer than his previous position.

Sora started humming a random tune out of boredom; it was some song that was even unrecognizable for the musician.

"Uhh…Hey"

"Hmm?" The immediate reply gave Demyx the idea that he was probably not going to have any sleep tonight.

"Why are you up? Isn't it passed your bedtime?" The grin was unavoidable as it graced his lips quite fittingly. The kid only gave him a disgusted groan; Demyx chuckled. Although sixteen years old, Sora still had a mindset of a six year old. Demyx doesn't exactly know the whole story of the teen, but he does know that the boy was traumatized enough to forget and reinvent his whole identity- hence, the result of kid Sora.

"I don't want to sleep, I hear footsteps." The boy whimpered slightly, trying to remember his own uneasiness during the said situation.

"We're in a hospital, course people would move around checking on us during this time of night. It's not surprising dearyyy." He purred out the last word, trying his best to sound reassuring for the boy.

"But still, me don't wantttt. Dem dem, come here, I'm really scared he'll get me" The blond sighed yet again; it amazed him how he kept sighing for the past few hours, he made a mental note to never do that again. A slapping sound echoed through the hall as he resorted to his last effort in keeping himself upright. "God that hurt." He rubbed his cheek, feeling the sting of pain, sure that his face probably had his own red hand mark.

"Normal people slap themselves?" The voice came out shocked and rather amused. Course anything amused a child at such an age- mental age anyway.

"I'm not normal remember? We're not normal, remember?"

"No, that's not what people say." Demyx didn't know if by people he meant the people who run this joint or the people who were locked up in it. He doubted the first and decided to go for the latter.

"Everyone says Dem dem is normal, that he doesn't have problems" A soft shifting sound occurred, moving of crumpled paper and somehow bits of plastic? And here the musician thought no one was supposed to have anything else in their room, he shrugged, not like he cared anyone broke the rules. Sora's voice came again "Dem dem is not sick, that's what Hayner said"

Demyx laughed, not because of what Sora was telling him, but because the source was Hayner. "Sora, Hayner's a delusional, he sees unicorns and fairy princesses for crying out loud. If I'm normal to him, then I'm even more positive that I'm weird."

"Noooooo" A soft pound on the door was heard, which Sora meant to say that Demyx should listen to what him than just talk back. "Everyone says you're normalll, Xiggy said so too-"

"He's Xiggy" Trying hard not to laugh at the nick name, the blond covered his mouth with both hands.

"But stillll, I envy Dem dem." The voice sounded hoarse, like he was about to cry that very moment. Demyx stayed quiet, it wasn't the first time he heard the boy tell him that. Actually, everyone told him that- they envied him, were jealous of him and everything related to that matter.

"Dem dem is normal and I'm not. I'm not normal and I'm scared. Demmy I'm scared what will they do to me?" The crying started, his voice covered with thick wheezing and coughing.

"Something's wrong." It wasn't a question, it was a statement; the boy in reply, could only cry even louder. The blond waited for the poor boy to calm down, but he was guessing it wasn't going to be any time soon.

"Sora" He prodded on gently. "What did the big men in white tell you earlier?" No reply came, just crying.

"Sora, big men and white said?"

Silence

"…Gurney"

And as if the word had triggered something horrible, Demyx's eyes began to leak.


"Axel not again!" Xigbar ran through the halls of class B, trying to pass through the patients who were currently let out to enjoy a bit of their freedom before their daily check-up. Mornings were usually a relaxing time for most people in the facility, since most of the patients (in class B anyway) weren't that active in the destructive department. Though sad to say, class C was always available for fresh worries and problems for the personnel around the institute.

Demyx walked out of his room, looking around his side of the corridor, carefully stretching his limbs and rotating his neck to get the stiffness out of his system. He didn't really get that much sleep the night before, actually he had none. But something else was troubling him more than that. His eyes gazed over to Xigbar's retreating back, pissed off that whenever he needed to talk to him he wasn't always available- Demyx blamed the goddamn red head. "Tch, attention hogger" He frowned in disgust, but nevertheless shoved it to the back of his mind.

"Dem demm" A soft tug on his white robe made him turn around towards the speaker. It was Sora. Judging from the way he looked Demyx could tell that he didn't sleep at all last night either. His hair was a mess, eyes bloodshot red from all the crying he had been doing, and then

The blond remembered.

"Hey Sora!" Demyx smiled most enthusiastically over to his friend, patting his head like a mother would, he tried to make it look like nothing had happened last night. Freaking out the boy before him would solve no problems, only worsen things. "How was your sleep?" He ruffled Sora's hair affectionately, only to receive avoidance in communication from the kid.

"It was fine." Came the meek reply, the moogle stuffed toy noticeably held tighter than when the conversation had started. But the boy soon loosened up and looked at him with the most earnest of eyes. Demyx knew what was then being asked, he sighed (clearly the promise to himself was broken).

"I can't bust you out." Although blunt, there was no use in sugar coating words of pain. The boy only averted his gaze onto the floor, letting go of Demyx's robe. In a way it hurt for him to see Sora like that, because it wasn't normal.

"What the fuck- HAYNER!" Demyx yelled, startling Sora a bit from the sudden outburst. Hayner, apparently, pulled Demyx's hair, murmuring something about the golden mane of the almighty unicorn. "Goddamnit, leggo of my hair you ass!" He slapped Hayner's hand away from his very well crafted mullet. "I.AM.NOT.THE.ALMIGHTY.UNICORN." He yelled making sure each word were carefully enunciated for his delusional floormate. Hayner just pouted, still muttering about how evil the almighty unicorn can be, which was the cue for Demyx to slap him upside the head. "Call me almighty unicorn one more time and I'll really almighty unicorn your sorry ass"

"I WAS KIDDING!" Hayner held both his hands before his face in defense. Pfft yeah right, Demyx thought.

"Anyway, sup Sora my man!" Noticing the brown haired boy, Hayner slapped Sora's back (having the moogle hugger to flinch a little) in a gesture that actually meant 'talk to me for distraction before Demyx kicks my behind'.

However, Demyx had other matters to look into, he turned his attention back towards Sora, bending a bit (the kid wasn't exactly gifted with height) and held Sora's chin in between his fingers, just so the little boy could look him directly in the eyes.

"Everything will be fine, I assure you, okay? Don't worry about it, I may not be able to bust you out, but you know I'm here for you twenty four seven." A soft smile graced along his lips. Sora couldn't look away from his elder's eyes, the color was just far too distracting, it reminded him of the ocean blue, calmness flowed through his system right after. Sora nodded and hugged Demyx tightly.

"Thank you Demmy, you're the best." He smiled up at his motherly figure and ran off into the opposite direction, with a very confused Hayner trailing right behind him.

"I just hope…that what I said wasn't a lie"


"Sora, what were you and mommy Demyx talking about?" Hayner had both of his arms behind his head, casually striding along the empty corridors that lead to the entertainment room. It was funny how Demyx's new nickname spread fast over their area: "Mommy" is what everyone called him, some meant it, others used it to make fun of him. First few days it was used, Demyx used to grit his teeth and hit anyone with his sitar, aside from Sora of course. But eventually the musician got used to it, and apparently takes care of most who live with him on the same floor. Sora was of course, the starter of that nickname.

The brown haired boy merely shrugged in reply, he didn't understand it himself- the gurney. For him, it was a ride that he wanted to go on at first, but the moment his mommy Demyx told him about how dangerous it was, even for adults- he never wanted to ride on it again. The reason was not explained, but whatever mommy Demyx says, little Sora must follow.

After a few minutes of not getting a reply, Hayner just blew off the topic he's been left out of and started whistling the nursery rhyme Jack and Jill.

When the two got to the supposedly public area, they were both surprised to see a pissed off Xigbar and a scary looking red head that was waving his lighter in the air, while walking on the table as if he were on a trapeze.

Both boys didn't know whether to help their personnel friend or just run away, it was answered when the red head himself noticed the two of them standing in the doorway.

"Hey look Xiggy! I think they're your friends" Xigbar attempted to hit Axel, but missed when the red head jumped before he could. There were a few patients on the side, some coming from A, others from B, obviously frightened of the stage show they were seeing.

"Axel, the condition was you don't do anything funny-"

"I'm not" He pouted.

Xigbar only laughed. "Yeah, and this isn't funny flame man?"

"Fineeee" The red head slumped back down on the table in a careful Indian sitting position and closed the lid of his lighter whilst tucking it away into his pocket, after which casually waving towards Hayner and Sora's direction. The two boys just stood there motionlessly, Sora hugging his stuffed moogle tightly to cover most of his face.

"I give up" Both hands rose up in the air; Xigbar was losing it he had to admit. Not like he'd get fired anyway, might as well just join the crowd. "Sometimes I wonder why I have to babysit you, Demyx is way better than this." He shook his head from side to side at his current predicament. Axel only looked at him, confused at what Xigbar was talking about.

"Who the hell is Demyx?" At the mention of his mom's name, Sora immediately looked up towards the speaker and decided to start joining in the subject. No less than a few seconds, a huge moogle stuffed toy hit Axel directly on the face.

"Whmmf thse mmck"

"NO SWEARING IN THE SAME SENTENCE WITH MOMMY DEMYX'S NAME!" The sixteen year old boy scolded the red head. Hayner ran behind Sora and was attempting to stop the brown haired boy from smothering the pyromaniac with the moogle, to no avail. Xigbar on the other hand, just looked on with complete amusement on his face; somehow thinking that Sora was making his work much easier in taming the pyro.

"Sora stop it! You're being crazy!" Hayner lifted the boy before him and set him down on the side.

"GOD! WHAT THE HELL!" Deep breaths entered through the red head's mouth and nose, trying as hard as he can to fill his deprived lungs with air. "What the fuck is your problem kid?!" The rest of the patients in the room froze, one by one, slowly making their way out of the entertainment room and into their respective cells- they feared that the pyro, by some miracle, would burst into flames in front of their eyes and roast them alive.

"You swore! Mommy Demyx said swearing is bad! No swearing! No swearing! No swearing!!" Through each repetition of the words no swearing, Axel is once again graced upon by the presence of the moogle on his head. Xigbar started laughing, Hayner was getting frantic and Axel well, he attempted to communicate with Xigbar by giving him the bored look, complete with the expression of 'What the hell is wrong with this kid?'- to show his obvious displeasure.

"This is nice isn't it? You kiddos go play for awhile; I'll go take my break." The eye patched man left with a huge smile on his face, happy that he was going to be carefree even for a few minutes of his life. Axel scowled at the retreating figure of Xigbar, making a vow to get revenge on him real soon.

"Okay kid, I'll give you five seconds to lay off the moogle hitting, or moogle says bye bye to Ashbel" The hitting ceased.

"Ashbel?" Both boys looked at each other for awhile before turning back to the pyro. Axel merely sighed; everyone seemed to do that when he mentions Ashbel to anyone.

Digging deep into his pocket, the lighter from earlier emerged "This, is Ashbel" He opened the lid and made fire. "Now don't tempt me before I fucking kill that thing-" But before he could say anything else, the moogle once again hit him directly on the face. Hayner gasped out loud and started inching away, fearing for his life.

"Mommy Demyx said swearing is bad, don't swear."

"mmgfdd"

"What?" Sora tilted his head sideways in question to what the older man was attempting to say. Short few moments later, Axel grabbed the moogle and removed it from his face.

"I said fine" He repeated, closing the lid of Ashbel once again. "Anyway, so who the hell is this Demyx anyway?" He raised both hands in front of his face to quickly block the attacks that were coming his way.

"STOP SWEARING! YOU'RE MAKING ME MAD!"

"You! Blondie! Secure your friend!" Hayner did as told, he was kind of getting tired of Sora hitting people constantly, the moogle was about to break too anyway.

"Okay, so explain to me who this Demyx person is."

"HE'S MY MOMMY!" Sora exclaimed, hugging his stuffed moogle tightly.

"Eh? But Demyx doesn't sound like a woman's name." The red head scratched his head in bewilderment.

Course Hayner knew he'd say that, since that was also his first reaction back when Sora first called Demyx mommy. "Yeah well, he's a boy, about your age I'm guessing- if you're 18" The pyro nodded to confirm the age, but still had questions written all over his face.

"He isn't gay in case you're wondering." Hayner sighed

"Ohhhh, okay, I get it. This kid is just messed up- so what are your names?" Quickly changing the subject before Sora gets the chance to do his hitting frenzy. Hayner introduced them both for all of their sakes, while Sora busied himself nuzzling his moogle.

"Is he usually like this?" Axel asked, relaxing his position by placing both hands behind his back to support his weight. Hayner merely shook his head.

"Something was up between him and Demyx earlier, didn't know what they were talking about." The frown the red head gave off made chills run down Hayner's spine. But somehow, Hayner got the impression that even the pyro kne what was going on.

"Hey, moogle kid" Sora looked up even if he wasn't addressed by the proper name. "What's up with you, something the matter?" The boy shook his head to say that there was none.

"Hmm…Really? Your eyes seem to look like they've had their fair share of shedding tears last night. So, watsup?"

Hayner looked at his friend questioningly, not being able to notice little things, since after all- he was pretty much a delusional, so he didn't trust himself. Sora bit his lower lip in fear of something he didn't even know, in a way he wanted to tell Axel to get answers but didn't want to. In the end, curiosity wins over anything else, and the desire to know the reason behind everything was great.

"Gurney…" He mumbled.

Axel flicked the strand of hair that was blocking his right eye. "Ahh…" Was all that left him. "Anyway, you kids have fun, I'm going back to my cell, even if I'd regret it lat-"

"Tell me" He tugged on Axel's messy gray shirt. The red head froze in place, he didn't think it was his responsibility to say anything.

"Psh, ask your mommy ab-"

"He won't say" Sora looked down on the floor, clutching onto his moogle, about to cry yet again.

He didn't know if it was pity or if it was his sadistic side, but whatever it was, Axel stopped struggling and decided to tell both the boys what they didn't understand. Sora seemed satisfied enough to let go of the older man's shirt.

"Have you two been in an amusement park before?" Both boys nodded regarding the question. "Hmm, I expected that. Know how when you line up for rides?" The two jus kept nodding at whatever he was saying. "Well, this one has those too, except it takes days, weeks or even months for it to be your turn." He smiled at them, trying to ease the tension building in the atmosphere. "When you ride something in the amusement park, you want to make sure you don't miss out on the other rides right?" They nodded yet again. "And so you line up for a different one" Axel stopped, his face darkening. "To put it simply, here, when you ride on the gurney, you can only get on it once, and you can never get off even if you wanted to."

"Never…get..off?" The confused reply came.

Axel merely nodded his head, watching as one of the boys started getting nervous. He looked away, and just played with his lighter. Hayner looked at Sora with fear or for fear of but still-

"I'll…never be able to…get off." The tears came.


Replies:

A-dizzle

The moment I read your comment I instantly laughed, in a way I kind of pictured Riku rampaging with Saix but anyhow, so true, now that you mention it hahaha! The title white and red, would most probably be revealed as you go on through the story, whichever your interpretation is- there really is no wrong answer. However, I would appreciate it if you do tell me what you think it meant, who knows- might be the exact answer I'm going for.

Thank you also for the fav )

I don't normally update this fast, then again I guess this was sort of fun after awhile, even if I hated it when I started it. But why not right? Might as well. Thank you to those who read, I do hope you drop me a line.