Camp Friendship
by SetsuntaMew

I...I truly have no excuse for this. I got sick and way behind on homework, so I've had literally no free time until. Junior year is seriously a bitch. But this chapter is pretty long, so I hope that makes up for the long wait. I'm going to try to get updates out quicker from now on, since I have more free time. And I'm in a KH mood because omg Final Mix is making me spazz out like crazy.

-x-x-x-x-x-

Demyx was having the time of his life. It was even better than when he had filled the basement with water to try to make it into a pool. It had worked, surprisingly, and then his parents had come home. Their arrival caused had caused him to fear for his life and his home. They shipped him off to summer camp and told him to take newspaper clippings with him, because he definitely wasn't moving back into their house, so he'd better find an apartment. Damn him for being eighteen and therefore old enough for them to kick him out. But he could ignore all of that because what he had assumed would be a lame camp was so awesomely fun!

The fun had started when he had met his roommate, a pink haired young man named Marluxia. He had been coming to Camp Friendship since he was 12 and in the young half of the camp. Also, he had a love for flowers and had told Demyx that he would teach him how much water to give each of his many flowers. That sounded so awesome!

Then there was dinner. He had met Yuffie, this girl who claimed she was descended from a family of ninjas. She had been dragging along her roommate, a mousy girl named Anna with her nose perpetually in a book. Demyx would have sat with Marluxia, but he had spent dinner chatting it up with another girl from their cabin, who he believed was named Naminé. He hadn't wanted to butt in on his new friend, so he made even more new ones.

He couldn't help it; he just loved meeting new people and making friends. Also, he hated hurting people. Therefore, when he accidentally tripped someone at the campfire, he couldn't stop himself from apologizing over and over, and then inviting Roxas – the guy he had tripped – to sit with him.

Roxas was a bit quiet, but he listened well and seemed pretty friendly. His cousin was actually one of Demyx's cabin counselors, which was pretty cool. It had all been going well until Axel, Roxas's roommate, came over. That had ended as a bit of a disaster...

He wasn't going to think about that anymore because it was totally not fun. Demyx had instead come up with a project for the summer; befriend the quiet, yet somewhat of a spazz, counselor, Zexion. Demyx had been drawn to him as soon as he had set foot in the cabin; he always reached out to the quiet ones to encourage them to have friends. He had two of the least emotional people ever for his counselors, but he had decided that Tifa seemed to have Cloud covered. So it was his job to get Zexion to open up!

It would be much easier if Zexion would actually talk to him, as opposed to just reading the paper and eating his muffin.

Demyx had made the first move at breakfast by sitting with Zexion. He had been sitting by himself last night, and that just would not do. Unfortunately, Zexion hadn't really acknowledged Demyx's presence. He had simply continued what he had been doing before. So, Demyx knew what he had to do- strike up conversation.

"I'm Demyx!" he announced cheerfully, deciding that it was best to start with the basics.

The lilac-haired boy across from him raised an eyebrow. "Congratulations," he said sarcastically.

Demyx would not be put off by his cruel sarcasm! "Thanks!"

He grinned at the slightly surprised look on Zexion's face. Yay, he was getting somewhere! Now, if he could subtly get Zexion to talk about himself...

"Why are you here?" he asked Demyx.

"Because you needed a friend," he answered honestly. "And I love making friends, and you just looked so lonely and you needed one! And I think you'd be interesting and fun but you have to talk more and stuff."

Zexion looked really thrown at that, but instead saying anything, he went back to the paper. Demyx glared at the paper. It couldn't really be that interesting, so he took it from him and earned himself a glare.

"I was reading that."

"Yeah, and ignoring me! You have to learn to talk to people! It's what camp is all about: friendship!" Demyx exclaimed happily, enjoying giving his little friendship speech.

Zexion took this opportunity to retrieve his paper.

Demyx noticed and took it back.

Thus began game of "steal the paper" that lasted for the rest of breakfast. Demyx was laughing from the whole time, and he could have sworn he saw Zexion almost smile. Even if it was just a hint of a thought of a slight smile, it was better than before.

"What am I supposed to be doing today?" Demyx asked Zexion. "I wasn't paying attention this morning when we were told."

"You're in my group. We're swimming," he answered.

"Yay!" Demyx exclaimed, hugging the shorter boy, who immediately stiffened.

"Don't touch me," Zexion hissed.

Demyx frowned. Everyone loves hugs, right? Apparently Zexion didn't, so he released him unhappily.

"Thank you."

"Sorry, Zexy, I didn't know you disliked hugs," Demyx said apologetically.

"Just don't do it again," Zexion began, and then stopped. "Did you...did you just call me Zexy?"

"Yep! I think it's an appropriate nickname for you!"

"...why?"

"Because it's easier for me to say, duh. Zexion is just too...long. And difficult. So I made it easy!" Demyx answered.

"I don't like it."

Zexion may not like hugs, but Demyx was not going to give up his nickname for him. It was a good nickname! Besides, he had already promised not to hug him and that was pretty difficult for Demyx, so he reasoned that Zexion owed him this.

"But I do. Please? I won't even hug you if you say yes!"

"..." Zexion was ignoring him again. Silly Zexy, it wasn't like he was going to leave him alone. When he got an idea in his head, he would follow it through. That was just the Demyx way.

As they walked past their cabin, Demyx realized that he had to stop in and get his swimming trunks.

"Wait here Zexy, I'll be right back! I forgot my swimming stuff!" he called over his should, running inside.

By the time he got back out, Zexion had left. Demyx frowned. This was not going so well. It seemed that Zexion just didn't want to be friends, and that made Demyx sad. He'd just have to catch up with him at the lake.

-x-x-x-x-x-

Zexion was a bit freaked. This was his first summer as a counselor and he realized that he should have waited a year or so. He was only about a year older than a lot of the campers and looked younger than most of them. He couldn't help that he was shorter than them, which in turn made him look young.

Still, he had managed to survive the first day by locking himself in his room as soon as room assignments were over. He had tried to avoid the campfire, but apparently counselors were required to attend.

This morning, he had just wanted to read the paper in peace, but that wasn't going to happen. One of the campers in his cabin had decided to sit with him. Not wanting to argue, Zexion had tried to ignore the boy. Unfortunately for Zexion, since the boy had sat down, he had done nothing but talk and talk and then question him.

Instead of a calm and peaceful breakfast, he ended up playing "keep away" with his paper. Was it really so hard to get a moment to himself to read? He knew that counselors were supposed to be "hands on" and all that, but he just wanted to get some alone time.

The camper, Demyx, had insisted on following Zexion to the lake. Granted, they were going to the same place, but it still bugged him. When they were about to pass the cabin, Demyx stopped and went running towards it, saying something about forgetting his swimsuit or something like that.

Zexion took the opportunity to run.

'This is ridiculous,' he thought to himself. 'I told him to go away, he wouldn't listen, and now I'm hiding from him. I really shouldn't have been a counselor. Even that job at Bath and Body Works probably would have been better than this.'

When he arrived at the lake, he went looking for Tifa, who was supposedly in charge of all the swimming activities. He was fairly certain he could recognize her (she was a fellow cabin counselor) but he was horrible at finding people.

Apparently people weren't horrible at finding him, because Demyx came running over at that moment.

"Why'd you run off? I asked you to wait for me!" Demyx said unhappily.

"I had counselor things to do," he answered, the lie rolling easily off his tongue.

"Why didn't you just say so? I thought you had tried to lose me or something!"

At this, Zexion had a sinking feeling in his stomach, but he shook it off, reminding himself that he didn't care about this annoying camper. He just wanted to get rid of him.

"Are you gonna swim too?"

Zexion simply glared at the boy, shaking his head. He didn't swim. It just wasn't something he did. Besides, he was supposed to help Tifa and he couldn't do that while in the lake.

"Aw...are you sure? It'd be so fun!" Demyx exclaimed, and then added, "I love swimming."

"Yes. I have a job to do," Zexion stated before walking off, as he had finally spotted Tifa.

After listening to the list of things he had to do from Tifa, Zexion almost wished that he had just joined Demyx in the lake. Instead, he had to test the young campers (regardless of if they had been to camp before) and the older ones who had never come before to see who could swim past certain buoys and such. He was about halfway through with the young group when a familiar voice started rambling in his ear.

"Zexy! I found you again! Oh, are you doing the swim tests? Can I help? I just did mine a little ago and I passed! I can go out as far as I want! So can I help? Please?"

Demyx talked more than anyone he knew. Zexion just wanted to ignore him, but he just kept talking, going on and on about the most trivial things.

"Fine, just watch them and make sure they don't drown, okay? I'm going to time them," he said, giving in, and then called out to the campers waiting to be tested: "Everyone from Kinship Cabin, in the water!"

Happy screams of children greeted his ears, which was not something he enjoyed hearing. They were high-pitched and obnoxious, and he was still questioning why he had decided that being a camp counselor was a good summer job.

Then Zexion noticed that Demyx had jumped right in too. 'He's actually going to take helping out seriously...that's quite surprising,' he thought to himself.

"Does everyone in the water know how to tread water?" he asked.

He was met with a chorus of yeses, one of which came from Demyx. He sighed. This was going to be a long day.

"Good. This part of the test requires that you tread water in place for a minute. I'll tell you when to begin." Zexion fiddled with his timer, trying to get it to work again. Apparently they weren't too big on working technology there.

"Is everyone ready? Good. Start in three, two, one...go," he said unenthusiastically. As he looked over everyone to make sure they were treading water properly, Zexion noticed that Demyx was too.

"I thought you tested already," he said lightly.

"Yep! I just wanted to do it again for fun!" Demyx exclaimed happily. "I love being in the water. Though that's what got me sent here in the first place..."

He didn't want to know. He honestly didn't. But for some reason, he asked anyway. "What?"

"It's kinda a long story..." Demyx said. "Has it been a minute yet?"

"Huh? Oh! Yeah. Everyone! Time's up, you all passed," Zexion said, embarrassed at getting distracted by talking to Demyx. Anyone else, anyone at all, would have been better, but no. It just had to be Demyx.

"Just...swim laps up and down the dock or something unless Tifa tells you to do something else," he told the campers.

"Don't wander off or go out very far because then the 'lake monster' will get you," Demyx added in a creepy voice. "It likes young children..."

Small children were suddenly screaming and running and jumping in the water to escape the horrid 'lake monster' they were convinced was real, just because an older camper had told them so. Zexion sighed. Long day indeed.

Demyx plopped himself down in the grass and patted the spot next to him, motioning for Zexion to sit. Seeing as he really didn't have anything else to do (and he had asked him about how water had gotten him sent to camp), he sat down.

Zexion regretted it, because Demyx immediately started babbling about filling his basement with water or something like that. His mind began to wander until one little snippet of Demyx's rambling stuck out in his mind.

"...and so they sent me here and kicked me out, so I don't really have anywhere to live when camp ends..."

"Wait. They kicked you out?" Zexion asked.

"Yep. Told me that since I was eighteen, I had to take responsibility for my actions, and that included not having a home to come back to. I can get my stuff, but I have to find an apartment."

"Then why come to camp?"

"More punishment, I think. Either that or one last bit of kindness," Demyx answered.

"You can't find an apartment while you're at camp. What do they expect you to do?"

"I'm not quite sure, but I think I may be able to stay with a friend or something until I find one," he said.

Zexion couldn't believe he was sitting here, talking to Demyx, and now he was about to offer him advice. He sighed. How was it still only 10 o'clock?

"I'd suggest apologizing to them and asking if you can stay until you find an apartment. Have you tried making it up to them somehow?"

"Yeah...sort of. But my parents refused to even talk to me, so it was really difficult..." Demyx paused. "It's okay though, because now I get to have fun at summer camp and make new friends!"

How could one person be so positive? It was amazing. Zexion was about to say something in compassion, when Demyx enveloped him in a hug. He stiffened.

"Demyx. What did I say about hugging me?"

"Don't do it?"

"Exactly."

"But I wanted to! Really bad, because you're actually talking and listening for once! Before you just sat there and glared at me. But I think you're warming up now!" Demyx said happily.

Zexion could feel himself blushing slightly. This was a problem. He did not blush. Also, Demyx was still hugging him.

"Could you, uh, let me go?" he asked.

'Must stop blushing. Must stop blushing. Must stop blushing,' Zexion repeated over and over in his head.

Demyx finally let go of him and Zexion relaxed. He wasn't used to people touching him and Demyx...well, Demyx had been pushing him to the limit with the touching. He just wasn't comfortable around people.

-x-x-x-x-x-

Roxas was still pissed when he woke up. Yesterday had sucked. It had been going so marvelously until he had met his roommate, and it had truly gone downhill from that point onward.

Thankfully, Axel wasn't awake yet. Roxas quickly changed out his pajamas and almost sprinted to the room's door, hoping that he could get out of his room before he woke up and/or noticed him.

No such luck.

"Roxas?" Axel questioned, sitting up groggily.

"No, I'm Sora. Yes, it's me," Roxas snapped. "What do you want?"

"Nothing if you're going to be a whiny little bitch," he snapped back.

"Good."

Roxas was somewhat relieved and pleased that Axel was still angry. It was easier to be mad at someone who was mad at you, and Roxas wanted to dislike Axel. He knew he was being a bit unreasonable, but he had been so frustrated the day before and Axel had been the icing on the cake. Any other time, he may have given the guy a chance, but camp had just put him in a bad mood.

He was almost out of the room when Axel grabbed his wrist and pulled him back in, causing Roxas to squeak in surprise. He glared up at the much taller boy, cursing himself for being so short. Roxas wanted to yell and complain, but he just couldn't seem to think of the right thing to say.

"We're going to work this out now," Axel said firmly.

"No, we're going to go to breakfast now, and you're going to let go of me," Roxas answered in frustration.

Axel didn't let go, instead he pulled Roxas over to sit down next to him on one of the beds.

"You have some sort of problem with me or something. What is it?" he questioned. He began to answer, but was cut off. "And don't you dare say it has to do with me lighting your bag on fire, because it definitely seems to go deeper than that."

Roxas glared, but tried to gather his thoughts. "I don't know," he finally answered truthfully, running a hand through his hair in frustration. "I just...agh. I didn't want to be here, and I was trying to find anything that could possibly be wrong with it. And then I got the crazy roommate who lit my bag on fire, and that pissed me off a bit."

"It was an accident," Axel stressed. "I honestly didn't mean to. Sure, other times I've meant to light things on fire, but that time was purely accidental."

"Still..."

"Can we at least call a truce?" Axel pleaded. "We're going to be together for two months, so we may as well not fight."

"I guess," Roxas conceded. "But I just don't understand. I've been nothing but mean to you this entire time and you're still willing to put it behind us and call a truce? You're a much better person than I originally thought."

Axel was positively beaming. "Never judge a book by its cover, little Roxas. But I do have one condition: you have to forgive me."

"For lighting my bag on fire? Sure, just don't do it again," he said. Finally, something was going right. Camp would definitely be less stressful if he wasn't fighting with his roommate.

"No, for this," Axel answered, leaning over and kissing Roxas lightly on the lips.

Roxas blinked. It took him a second to register what had just happened. Then he punched Axel in the face.

"What the fuck was that?!" he yelled at Axel, who was holding a hand to his face in pain.

"A kiss?" he answered a bit fearfully. Roxas glared.

"What the...agh! You actually had me convinced that you were a halfway decent person for a moment there. You asshole, what the fuck were you thinking?!" He was pissed beyond belief. Who did Axel think he was, kissing him like that?! Now he knew that he had been right when he had called him flaming the day before, not like it was much consolation now.

"I did say you were the cute twin..." Axel trailed off, looking deep in thought.

"I don't care! Don't...just don't do it again," Roxas snapped and left, this time without being stopped.

By the time he arrived at breakfast, Roxas had calmed down slightly, though he was still quite angry. He plopped violently down next to Sora, who looked at him in shock.

"Are you...angry about something?" he questioned Roxas.

"No," he barked shortly.

Roxas noticed that Sora almost jumped away in fear. Good. He was in a really bad mood still, and he didn't want to talk about it. He started attacking his breakfast (a blueberry muffin) violently with his butter knife.

-x-x-x-x-x-

Kairi had been enjoying her breakfast (though she was wondering why all they had were muffins), talking and laughing with Riku and Sora. Then suddenly, Roxas came stomping in angrily and sat down across from her. When question as to what was wrong, he snapped a short 'no' to Sora and commenced attacking a muffin. Something had to have happened.

She looked across at Roxas with a knowing expression that she was sure that he really didn't like.

"Did it involve Axel?" she questioned softly, so as to not freak him out or make him even angrier. Kairi was fairly certain that it did, but she had to know for sure.

Roxas looked at her sharply, and then looked away. She now had no doubt that whatever had happened, Axel had been involved, and she had to know what it was.

"What did he do?" she prodded.

"Nothing. I don't want to talk about it," Roxas answered, returning to his food to signal that the conversation was over.

Kairi rolled her eyes. Boys were impossible. Thankfully, her two best friends were boys and therefore, they could help her. They'd already decided on that last night, but she was going to put her plan into motion.

"Riku. Psst, Riku," she leaned to the boy sitting next to her and whispered at him. "We need to figure out what happened."

"No, you need to figure out what happened," he whispered back. "I want no part in starting your gay love-fest."

She pouted at him and leaned even closer, hoping that she could rely on Riku being male to help her get her way.

"Please?" she begged, grinning as she saw a rare blush lightly color Riku's cheeks.

"Fine. Just, fine. I'm not doing any sort of weird spying things, but I will talk to Axel if you'd like," Riku finally consented.

"Yay! Thank you!" She hugged him for his troubles and returned to her breakfast.

Roxas had just finished eating and got up to leave, but Kairi stopped him, saying: "I'll fix things, okay?"

He just glared and walked off.

"Alright, something happened and it probably involves Axel," Kairi stated. "And our goal is to figure out just what that is."

Sora was squirming in his seat.

"Yes Sora?" she asked.

"Is Roxas gonna get mad at us?" he questioned.

"Probably for awhile," Riku answered.

"But it's for his own good!" she defended. "Didn't you say the same thing?"

"Well, yeah...but I was just checking. What's our 'master plan'?" Sora asked, stressing 'master plan' like it was a deep, dark, secret.

"First we need to find Axel, because I'm fairly certain that we're not getting anything more out of Roxas. Then we're gonna question him until he snaps!" Kairi announced.

"Or until he lights us on fire," Riku added, smirking.

"He is not going to light us on fire. He told Roxas he wouldn't," she said.

"And you believe it?"

"Yes. I don't think he'd purposely anger Roxas," Kairi answered.

Sora was looking a bit lost. "I feel like I missed something important here, guys. I thought we just wanted Roxas to have a friend."

'Crap crap crap' repeated in Kairi's head. She glared at Riku, who was silently laughing at her.

"Uh...I don't know what you're talking about?" she tried.

"I'm not that stupid," Sora began, but was interrupted by Axel sitting sadly down at the table next to him.

"I fucked up," he said into the table.

Kairi couldn't believe it. The drama had abounded and it was only breakfast. She felt bad for Axel though, as he looked absolutely miserable and rejected sitting there, staring forlornly at the half a muffin Roxas had left behind.

"How?" she asked, careful not to scare him off.

Axel mumbled something under his breath that she couldn't understand.

"What was that?"

"I dun wanna talk about it," he mumbled.

Sora started poking Axel's hair, completely amused by it. Axel didn't even notice.

"What are you doing?" Riku finally asked.

"It's bright red and pointy! It was amusing and I couldn't resist!" Sora exclaimed.

Riku snorted into his milk. Kairi slapped her forehead. Sora was a moron and sometimes had no idea what he was saying. This just happened to be one of those many times.

"Look, we're going to keep bugging you all day until you finally give in," she told Axel. "So just get it over with."

"Is Sora as keen on punching people in the face as his twin is?" Axel queried.

"I don't punch people! Violence is wrong," Sora answered solemnly.

Kairi was practically on the edge of the bench she wanted to know so badly. "So...?" she prodded.

"I'd just like to preface this by saying that it seemed like a good idea at the time..."

-x-x-x-x-x-

Review if you want, because it would make me smile! And improve my mood on this dreary Pittsburgh day.

Next time: Axel and Roxas are still fighting, which involves Roxas threatening Axel's life. And Sora is in serious denial about his brother's sexuality.