(Ok here's where it gets better, and longer
thanks for reading ^_^)
FOUR: Attraction
Demyx sat on the couch, his arms crossed. What an ass Axel was. He was suppose to wake him up to go to school this morning.
He sat for a long moment before Lulu came storming out of Axel's room. "I knew you were being too nice to him yesterday. No wonder he is in such a foul mood."
"It's not like that Lulu!" Axel shot out after her, no shirt on, hair dripping wet, pants half undone.
"I'm calling Xigbar and telling him the kid has to leave ASAP."
Axel skid down the hall at the stairs as she was on the bottom set. "You really are over reacting about this! I was nothing. Just an innocent chat!"
Lulu turned on the last stair. "'Innocent chat' huh? Yeah, I'll take that one."
"No really!" Axel plead.
Demyx raised his eyebrows at the sight of Axel standing at the top of the stairs. His face was flushed with anger and embarrassment, his hair flattened out on his sharp face. His tanned skin
showed that he not only had the tattoos on his arms and face but a small chakram around his belly button, and a small one on his left shoulder blade of four green spikes around a dot in the
middle. Demyx's foul mood dropped away. He couldn't keep his eyes off Axel.
"I would be pissed if I spent all night with you too!"
Axel narrowed his eyes at her. "I get complements from that thank you."
"Yeah well, at the rate you are going you wont have anything to get 'complements' on, you rapist." Lulu picks up the phone.
"What's going on?" Sophie comes in and asks.
Axel looks at her. "Do you think I would rape a child?"
I'd rape you. Demyx thought with a devious smile on his face.
"Xigbar's office please." Lulu says into the phone.
She looked at him for a long moment. "Of course not Mr. Axel," Sophie said sincerely. "What is Miss Lulu worried about?"
"She thinks I raped Demyx."
Demyx snapped out of his gaze as his name was said. "What?" He asks loudly.
"Ask Demyx yourself!" Axel snaps pointing at the blonde on the couch.
Lulu turned to him, one hand on her hip, the other holding the phone in her hand. "I suppose the only reason I'd have sex with the guy would be for him to rape me." Demyx smirks standing
from the couch. "But no. We only had some cake last night." He chuckled. "He's going to take me shopping today, that's why we slept in."
Axel glared at him. "I'm going to go get dressed."
Lulu hung up the phone. She gave Demyx a hard look then went back to her room. When the door shut Demyx folded his arms in victory. He nipped up to his room and brought his sitar down
stairs while he waited for Axel. Sitting on the couch he strummed the strings with his fingers.
Axel muttered under his breath as he pulled a shirt on and stepped back into his bathroom to blow dry his hair (if he didn't it would fluff like no other). After he clicked the blow dryer off he
could music coming from down stairs. It was very beautiful, a sound Axel hadn't heard before.
He stepped out of his room, pushing his phone into his pocket. Lulu was leaning on the banner across the hall, looking down on the living room. She noticed him and put a finger to her lips,
then pointed down. Axel looked down at Demyx sitting, watching his fingers skitter across the strings. He was singing softly in a language Axel didn't know.
He made his way down the stairs. Demyx had finished his song and Axel cleared his throat as he stepped off the stairs.
"Oh, I didn't hear you." Demyx flushed a little. "Sorry, I was just…"
"That's okay. Come on, let's go." Axel said lightly. "It's okay if you wanna leave that on the couch or something, no one will touch it."
Demyx made sure it wouldn't fall off the couch, snatched his hoodie off the couch and followed Axel out the door.
___
Axel had become Demyx's chafer after ten minutes in the mall. He had gone into a single store and asked Axel right away if he could hold stuff. Apparently Xemnas had given Demyx a
thousand dollars for clothes alone, about four hundred for whatever else and a thousand for a lap top, then another two hundred for other school stuff.
Xigbar that morning had given Axel an early birthday present of three hundred to spend. That's what Xigbar had done every year. Given him money. It was, as it goes, only three days to his
birthday on Sunday. His twenty-first birthday.
Demyx paid for what he liked in the store and pulled Axel into an art store across from the store they were just in. He spent a hundred there for paints and canvas and brushes and an easel
he had ordered and sent to the house.
Then it was into a music store where he got some cleaner for his sitar, and some books of sheet music. Then he went to get some new shoes, and into another music store for an MP3 player
he had been wanting for a long time and about a hundred dollars in CDs.
Then, he just had to go into the pet store to see the puppies. Then around to another clothes store where he picked up two hundred dollars of clothes, in fifteen minutes flat.
"Would you like to go get some lunch?" Axel asks as they left another store with three more bags. "It's on me."
"Yeah, alright."
"How about the Chick-fil-a up by Hot Topic? I'd like to go in there next, if you don't mind."
"There is a Hot Topic in here?"
"Sure, it's right next to an incenses shop I would like to stop by in too."
Demyx smiled. "Wonderful. Is there a place here I can get my lap top?"
"Sure. There's an Apple store on the east wing and a Dell store on the north wing." Axel started to walk towards the place they would be sitting to have food.
"And a cell phone? I'd like one." Demyx says lightly.
Axel smiled. Xigbar talked to him about it this morning. "Yeah. Xigbar told me to have you pick out a phone. He gave me fifty for you to do so. He already has you on our plan. And as long as
you don't go over on anything, you don't have to pay for it."
Demyx's eyes lit up. "Really?!"
"Yeah." Axel smiled. "What would you like to eat?" He asked as they stepped up to the counter where a blonde girl was standing waiting for them to order.
Another two hours in the mall and Axel was not only carrying three bags of his own clothes (Hot Topic was having a clearance sale and Axel just couldn't resist himself), and two filled with
candles and incenses of his own, and one of some new CDs he wanted, but Lulu asked him a few days ago to get her the two new books in her science/fiction series. So he had her bags,
and a few of Demyx's because he was carrying six of his own and a laptop. It was a good thing it was just the two of them or he wouldn't have had room in his car for all their stuff.
It was just past 4:oo in the evening now and Demyx was jamming out next to him to a CD he thought looked cool. Axel's pocket stared to vibrate. He turned the music down.
"Hello?"
"Hey Axel." It was Xigbar. "Could you pick up groceries for me? I'll be late home tonight again and Lulu said she would but she got in an accident this morning so she had to take the bus."
"Is she okay?"
"She's fine, just shook up a little." Xigbar sighed. "I'll pay you back when I get home tonight okay? Do you have something to write this down on?"
"That's fine." Axel turned to Demyx. "Can you get the notebook from the glove box and write this down?"
"Yeah." He flipped to a page, found a pen and listened.
Axel listed things off as Xigbar said and Demyx wrote them down. "…Fond-it, milk and bread." He finished. "Alright. I'll get it. You're welcome."
"Damn." Demyx said looking down at the list. "Do you have room in your car for all of this?" he asks.
Axel sighed. "Well have to see wont we? We'll just put all our stuff in the back seat. How much stuff is there?"
"About thirty things."
Axel's phone rang again. "Hello."
"Hey Axel. Dad called you for groceries right?"
"Yeah. So?"
"He forgot the party list."
"What party?"
"Your 21st! Duh." Lulu giggled. "You didn't think we would let you off did you?"
"What do you need me to get?" Axel looked at Demyx. He looked back and nodded, pulling the cap off the pen again.
After another list of things, Axel flipped his phone shut. "I sure hope I can get everything. It's going to suck if it doesn't all fit."
"Why don't we go rent a truck or something for the day, then take it back tomorrow or something?" Demyx suggests.
"Maybe, let's get the regular groceries out of the way, and if we have enough room we will get the ones Lulu wants us to get."
"Is she throwing a party?" Demyx asks looking back over the two lists.
Axel sighed. "Yeah, for me."
"Is it your birthday?!" He aqua eyes lit up. "When? How old are you? No! Let me guess… um… nineteen? No, no, older… twenty…two?"
"One. Twenty one." Axel said lightly.
Demyx bobbed his head. "That's cool. You know, My seventeenth was…um, two and a half months ago."
"Yeah?" Axel looks at him lightly. "Well, happy late birthday then."
Demyx smiled. "Thank you." Then it was gone. The whole Demyx he was just talking to just vanished. He bowed his head. Axel could almost see the grey cloud above the boy's head.
"Are you okay?"
"I don't want to talk about it." He muttered. It sounded like he was crying.
Axel touched his knee. "Demyx, are you sure?"
"I'm fine!" He snapped. "Stop hitting on me." He shoved Axel's hand off his knee. The look in his light aqua eyes made Axel's skin crawl, and this time, not in a good way.
"Alright. I'm sorry." He said turning his eyes to the road. "I wasn't hitting on you." He added.
Demyx folded his arms and slumped down in his seat. "Whatever."
Okay, this boy had some serious issues. Axel hadn't ever seen a teenager this mood swing-y ever. His adolescence wasn't long ago and he didn't remember being even remotely like that.
The flame-ginger boy didn't look at the blonde, or talk to him, the whole way to the store. They got out of the car, got into the store and Demyx pranced over to get a cart. "Here you go
Axel." He smiled.
For a moment, Axel feared for his life. "Are you okay?"
"Fine and dandy." He smiled widely. "Are you okay?" He winked at Axel and turned. "First off, we need bread and onions, peppers, garlic, carrots, potatoes, mushrooms—yuck—apples,
raspberries, bananas and tomatoes." He chimed off evenly. "How about, I'll get the veggies and you can get the fruits?" He looked over his shoulder.
"Apples, raspberries, bananas and tomatoes right?" Axel asks.
"Yeah. And I'll get the bread too."
They split a little. Demyx danced over to the veggies and Axel walked over to get fruits. He was starting to wonder about Demyx's mental health now. He had to call up Luxord on this one.
"What do you mean?"
"One moment he will be hunky-dory, the next he's the Devil's spawn. In like a blink of the eye. That's not normal right?"
"You never know, with teens these days."
"I wasn't one that long ago and I never acted like that."
"True, but then again, you never really had friends your age. I mean, the only person who comes close to your age is Roxas, and he's still a year older then you. So I suppose you knew how
to act older."
"He's worse then a pregnant woman with twins."
"I don't know man, but um, I have to go, I'll call you later or something."
"Alright." Axel knew he wouldn't call later. He probably caught Luxord going out the door. Going to start drinking, rubbing up on people and gambling. Axel knew soon that Luxord would be
coming to live with them for a while again.
"Alright." Came Demyx's light voice. "I got all the veggies."
Axel looked at him. "What's next?"
__
With Demyx there to help out, shopping took less time then Axel had ever experienced. Yet, somehow they ended up with a few extra things, seeing as Demyx need breakfast food for
school, and wanted snack for after. That was three different kinds of oatmeal, and two different kinds of lunch meat and peanut butter and jelly, right there. Not to mention that Demyx
squeezed a pound of gummies out of him (which includes gummy worms, bears, sharks, raspberries, chocolate covered gummy dots, etc. etc.). As well, Axel figured, as they were going to get
409 for the kitchen that Demyx would need hangers, and a toothbrush, and toothpaste and his own shampoo and conditioner, and the rest of the toiletries.
Loading the car up, was surprisingly easy. Everything but the bead and eggs when into the trunk, then they had room to go to a store for the stuff for the party. After that store, the car was
nearly full. Demyx was sitting with a few of his bags and his lap top in the front seat but after that it was okay.
As Axel stepped from the car he was tackled by a pink blur. "Axel!!" Squealed a voice in his ear.
"Hello Marluxia."
"How's my favorite pyromaniac?" the pink haired man stepped back.
"Hello Zexion." Axel noticed him walking up behind Marluxia.
Zexion held up a hand. "Hey Axel."
"What are you guys doing here?" Axel asks.
Demyx smiled at Marluxia snatching Axel around the neck and pulling him down. The man was a good four inches off Axel's height, he was real skinny, but in his button-up short-sleeve light
pink business shirt, you could tell he had some muscle on his bones. His black pants made his legs look impossibly long and the black raised boots made his feet look small. To Demyx he
looked like a doll.
"Came to help out with the party, planed on crashing a few days here." Zexion shrugged. Demyx looked to him. His short messy purple hair suggested that he didn't need anything in the
shiny strands for it to stay the way it was. His grey eyes studied around him with an ease that made Demyx shift on his feet.
"Luxord's inside. Poor lad, found him laying passed out on the bar's steps." Zexion said lightly. Demyx didn't like listening to him talk, it had no emotion what-so-ever.
"Looked like he was beaten a good one this time." Marluxia said.
Demyx looked at Marluxia. Judging from the cake that he helped Xigbar make, he made a picture of the man in his head. He mostly fit. Except Demyx saw him more as small and dainty rather
than tall and…not dainty.
"Hello." Marluxia held out a hand to Demyx.
Demyx tried to hold out his hand and found he couldn't do so with his lap top and six bags in his arms. "Um. Hello," he said lightly.
"Let me get that for you." He said pulling the stuff from his arms. "I'm Marluxia. You must be the wonderful artist who helped do the master piece in the kitchen."
"Demyx." He gave a slight bow of his head.
Axel watched as Marluxia whistled at Zexion to go help the blonde boy get stuff from the car. He leaned on the car, his arms folded on the roof.
"Hey Axel, take some stuff in and get the dumb ass on your couch out here to help out." Marluxia said to him. "You sure can get a lot of stuff in this little thing."
Lulu and Sophie pitched in to get all the stuff from Axel's car. To Axel it felt like a numberless amount of walking back and fourth with four bags each time, each person. Lulu offered that she'd
put all the kitchen stuff away while he helped Demyx out.
Apparently, as Luxord sat and helped Demyx set up his new blue Dell laptop, the man was going to be staying here in the house for a little while, until he could get some money up to move
out again. Then Zexion and Marluxia would occupy the bottom rooms for a couple nights.
Luxord just beamed at the fact that he was able to stay in the house. He'd been going on about Xigbar for the longest time. He hadn't really met the man until Xigbar asked what he could do
about a few books of his that came unbound. Luxord, working at a binder on the weekends said he could get them fixed.
After that, Axel didn't hear the end of it.
Xigbar this…
Xigbar that…
Oh Xigbar…
Axel had told Luxord to just ask the man on a date. Because not only was he hearing it from Luxord, he was hearing it, in an indirect way from Xigbar too. He and Lulu were getting irritated
with the whole thing.
At about seven, Wakka showed up at the door to come and hang out with Lulu for the night, as he did occasionally. The both of them snatched some lemonade from the kitchen and sat out
back in the hot tub for a while, then swam, and around nine were laying in hammock near the right side of the yard.
Zexion and Luxord were chatting about some new computer program that they had wanted to get and pick apart. For, thanks to Zexion, Luxord had learned to hack into computer systems.
Zexion was once an agent for the government and knew how to hack into government files.
Marluxia was spread on the couch next to Axel, chatting to Demyx who was sitting on the floor downloading his twenty CDs onto his computer. Marluxia was the owner of the flower shop
next to where Axel's café was going to be set up. He was enthused and figured it would bring both of them more business having a café and a flower shop together. Not only that, but Axel
made vases, and what goes better with vases then flowers.
Around eleven, Axel woke Marluxia, Demyx, Luxord and Zexion up off the couches and floor and sent them all to bed, and went out and found Wakka and Lulu asleep in the hammock. He
woke Wakka up quietly and he took Lulu up to her bed.
Then Axel went up to his room, hung all his clothes up, put his candles and what-nots away and crawled into bed. Where what felt like ten minutes later he woke to his alarm buzzing around
the room.
He got up, showered, threw on some black pants and a red shirt, then put on his cloak and gloves. He strolled down the hall and woke Demyx up and went down to make some breakfast.
Xigbar was sitting in the kitchen with a cup of coffee. "Good morning." He said over a newspaper.
"'Morning."
"Sleep well?"
"Suppose so."
"Good. Happy Friday huh?"
Axel shrugged and pulled out stuff for the whole house to have eggs, bacon and pancakes. "Suppose that's good too."
"Ready for tomorrow?" He asked.
"No," Axel said flatly, whisking eggs in a bowl.
Xigbar smiled at him, "wonderful, because Lulu went all out for this year."
"How come she couldn't have taken me out to get so wasted off my ass that I would vow never to drink again?"
"She's doing that. She's got a keg, and a few boxes of wine, some bottles of Port and rum, and vodka. She might even have someone come and make drinks. And she wants a DJ."
Axel ran a hand through his hair after he poured half the eggs out into a pan. "Wonderful," he threw some bacon in another pan and started whisking up pancake batter.
"You're lucky that it's going to be real warm out tomorrow."
Axel rolled his eyes, added some salt and pepper into the eggs and pushed them around the pan, not letting them stick to the bottom.
Demyx came strutting into the room with his new backpack, new clothes, and his MP3 player headphones draped over his neck. "Good morning," he said lively, taking a seat at the table.
"Good morning Demyx, sleep good?" Xigbar asks folding the newspaper up.
"Oh yes," Demyx smiled. Axel set a plate of breakfast in front of him. "Thank you."
Xigbar folded his hands under his chin and leaned his elbows on the table. "Sense you did so good on Marluxia's cake, would you like to help me do Axel's?"
Demyx looked up at him, his cheeks filled with pancake and egg. "That would be fun!" he swallowed down the whole bite.
Marluxia was next to come into the kitchen. He was in a pair of pink pajama pants, his hair sticking up everywhere. Xigbar and Demyx said a lively 'good morning'. "'Morning," he yawned
back.
Axel stuck a plate in front of him and Xigbar.
"Food!" Marluxia said licking his lips at the plate. "I haven't had good food like this in so long!" And that was the last he said.
Then in came Zexion, fully dressed, neat in his suit, his purple hair whisked around his face. When Demyx and Xigbar said good morning to him he said lightly: "Good morning." Then took his
seat in font of a plate of food.
Luxord was the last who was to be up this early; and he drug himself into the kitchen, eyes pretty much closed, his pajama shirt unbuttoned all the way, his hair standing on ends, no
earrings in, no necklace, or bracelets.
Axel sat and lightly ate his food. Cutting each piece and chewing each bite. Demyx watched for a moment. He looked like a well mannered first-class gentleman. His long fingers curled around
the silverware, his thin red lips splitting only enough to get the bite into his mouth.
"You eat like a pansy Axel." Marluxia said leaning back in his chair after downing his glass of milk.
"Thank you for that information Marluxia. But unlike you I enjoy food and do not like to inhale it like a starving cow." Marluxia smiled, looked up to the ceiling and shrugged before wolfing
down the rest of his breakfast.
At seven Axel and Demyx left with Xigbar, Zexion and Marluxia. Axel and Demyx in Axel's car, the others in Xigbar's car.
"Thank you for breakfast by the way."
"Did'ya like it?"
"Oh yes."
Axel turned and the school came into sight. "Ready for school?" he asked pulling into the school unloading zone.
Demyx kind of shrunk. "No. I don't want to start again," then the storm cloud came back in over the blonde teen. "I don't like staring new. I mean," he sniffled. "It was easy with you guys,
you all are so nice to me, but this—"
"Don't worry I went here, they wont be mean to you."
"You went here years ago!" Demyx snapped.
Another mood change.
"Only two! It couldn't have changed that much. At least you will be fine with the teachers, they don't allow bullying in this school."
"Yeah, then I'll just be teacher's pet," he folded his arms and turned away from Axel.
Axel snatched his arm and turned him around. "Don't start with me kid. It's not going to be that bad, got it memorized?" Demyx's eyes were filled with fear. "Do you want me to take you in?"
He pushed out his bottom lip and smiled a little, "please?"
Axel pulled the key's out of the ignition and unhooked his seatbelt. "Come on then."
Inside the school Demyx was bright and bubbly again. Axel was kinda freaked about letting him in the school with his little mood swings. He did that to a teacher and they would beat him a
good one with the ruler.
After Demyx got his classes and said goodbye to Axel, Axel headed off to work. He was lucky tonight and didn't have to work at the club, this girl who works at the bar wanted some over
time so Axel had the night off.