Chapter 4: Bedtime Stories

When he got out, he took three weeks off of school. I...kind of insisted that I should be the one who brought him all his schoolwork and anything else he wanted. (Maybe now we were best friends). I snuggled into his casted arm and fell asleep there practically every night for those weeks. Sometimes, he'd fiddle with my hair and – for Christ's sake. Why him? Ugh!

So, um, yeah. Like a super prolonged sleepover. Some nights we'd watch movies with Mars, and some nights I'd play my Sitar for him if he asked. My Sitar? She's called Arpeggio (and she's stunner). I got her on my eleventh birthday. (Obviously she was like a giant to me then, but we've grown into each other).

He mostly asked me to play this one song by Belle and Sebastian. You probably don't know it though. Unless you're Wonder Woman and managed to keep up with music on this island of ours (and I doubt you are). Zexion told me one time that I had a really beautiful singing voice.

"Heh, you really think so?"

"Without a doubt, idiot. Why would I lie to you?" (Maybe I should have taken my chance and asked him why right then.)

And out of the blue he gives me a peck on the cheek and lies back down on his bare mattress (we made a fort in the hallway) like nothing even happened. He just drives me crazy, this boy does. He wasn't gonna say anything. Sure as hell I wasn't gonna say anything. I barely even knew what'd just happened. Unexpected kisses mean mind-mush.

"Are you comfy now, Demyx?"

"One sec!" Revamping the covers around one last time, I settled into the burrow I'd created myself at the bottom of Zexion's mattress. (FYI, Zexion's bed is just the mattress. He said there was no way he was gonna accept the four poster bed Mars was trying to buy for him. Curtains and all. And being closer to the ground made him feel safer).

This part of the story...is a story. A bit of a fairytale. Zexion had been told it by his late grandma a long time back. He said, "I'll tell it to you, because I might as well tell it to someone who cares, right?" (Do you think there was a deeper meaning behind that? Do you? Do you? I couldn't figure out why he had to say that).

"The story is about a princess."

I almost the urge to blurt out 'Like me?'. Urge successfully controlled.

The only light in the room radiating from my modest old torch, he started. "She was the bravest princess...ever. Her people admired her greatly for her courage. She rode horses through the forest at night. She saved people who'd fallen down wells. Some people even claimed they saw her, uh, abseiling down a cliff by herself."

"But her father, the King, did not think it was safe for her to be doing all of these dangerous things by herself; so he hired a servant boy to accompany her everywhere she went and protect her with his life. He ordered him to report back to him in secret about all of her actions."

"The boy and the brave princess quickly made friends with each other, and soon enough, he was right by her side every time she went horse riding in the dark of night or abseiling off a cliffside. ...And when she saved citizens from wells he held the ropes strong with all of his might."

"However, one day, in the early hours of the morning, the boy was reporting to the King about their previous day's activities, and the brave princess heard them speaking together. Needless to say, the princess felt betrayed. The princess...didn't feel so brave anymore."

"She spent the entire day walking though the towns, trying to cheer herself up. All the townspeople tried to help to, but they could do nothing. She returned to the castle late at night to find the servant boy pacing up and down the hallways. 'Where did you go?' he asked her. But she wouldn't- no, couldn't talk to him. She couldn't talk to someone who had betrayed her trust so badly."

"He begged her every day for week to speak to him again. He regretted telling her father anything. Now he'd realised that what their relationship used to be was more important than anything. Finally the princess agreed to speak with him. Dem?"

"Mmph?"

"There are two different endings to the story. One is...better than the other. One good ending and one sad ending. Which one would you like to hear first?"

"The...the sad one...please?"

I always take the depressing choice first. Shield the negative with the positive after.

"Okay. Sad ending. The princess talked to the servant boy, and he asked to be forgiven. She didn't want to be cruel to him. She was afraid of what would happen if she didn't forgive him. Her father might get angry at her, or the boy might try to get his revenge. So she said she forgave him."

"They started doing things together gain, but it was never the same, because now the princess was afraid. She lived in fear, always frightened that the boy might betray her again, although he never did. She could never trust anyone again... Hey, don't cry on me!"

"Can I know the happy ending now?"

"Naturally. So...the princess agreed to talk to the boy, who asked for her forgiveness. But the princess told him she couldn't forgive him. Not right then. She told him, 'Leave this place, and come back when you think you should be forgiven.' He left the castle as soon as he could"

"It took the princess no more than a month to find it in her heart to forgive him. She realised if her father had ordered him to do what he did, the boy hadn't had a choice. But the boy did not return."

"I thought you said...this was the happy ending..."

"Shh, Dem. We're getting there. The princess was alone again. She started taking adventures again to take her mind off it and she became even braver than before. Ten...almost fifteen years passed before a stranger came to the castle gates, asking for the princess. Of course, it was the servant boy. He had gone out into the world and made a name for himself. The boy had been working hard all those years, only to become worthy of the princess. The brave princess told him she had forgiven him long ago, and they were able to be together again. The princess could trust him with all of her heart and all of her soul. Their trust stood the test of time, and they stayed together for their entire lives. ...The end."

"I never knew you were one for sappy love stories."

"Oh, shut up."

"No, it was really...nice. Thank you...thank you for...telling me..."

"Are you tired?"

"Maybe...a bit..."

"Just go to sleep Demyx."

"Mmmkay...Zex...face...love you..."

"I...love you too, princess. Sleep tight," he mumbled after a few moments had passed. Of course, I couldn't see him with my eyelashes sticking together, but I could feel his dark gaze resting on my head.

That was the first time he ever called me princess.

With friends, it's like there's a level that everyone's on. Like, your closest friends are on the uppermost level – these are the people who you don't actually mind licking your face as a joke, or burrowing into your neck because it apparently smells 'delightful' today. These are the people who call you by the nicknames that are closest to your heart, and you feel comfortable with it. So only the people on this level are allowed to call me princess. Everyone else is allowed 'Dem' for convenience's sake.

On second thoughts, screw that crappy explanation. It isn't working.

(I wanted to be his princess. ...I feel like a teenage girl.)

The importance of life-changing decisions is absolutely ridiculous. I hate them I hate them I hate them. But with free will and all that shit, there's no way on earth to escape them. I wish I had a life simulator, where I could try out all of the different choices and then go with the best one. But then that would be like cheating. And I'd never win anything from an experience either.

...Screw that too.

(Can you feel that foreshadowing?)

A/N: So I woke up half an hour ago and I was all like 'What's the date today? 9th of June...hmm...ZOMG IT'S ZEMYX DAY! Hmm...I'm supposed to be getting on with that fanfiction...'

So here I am. Half-asleep. This chapter is like...wholly unnecessary, but I just wanted to write it anyway :) Originally this was only half of a chapter, but then I split it into two, for reasons I don't remember. But the second half/Chapter 5 should be up later today! Up to now, it is really all back-story. Because these people have issues. Back-story should end...relatively soon though. And thanks to all reviewers, favouriters and alerters!

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