The alarm went off at 6:00am, sharp. Sighing deeply as he woke, Marluxia reached over and shut it off, then gently removed the arm around his waist and padded through the house down to the kitchen, his bare feet all but silent. Turning on the light and squinting because his eyes hadn't yet adjusted, he measured out some coffee grounds and water and put them both into the coffee maker before pressing the little button that brought the machine to life. As the coffee maker did its work, he went back upstairs and into the bathroom to begin getting ready for the day.
His pink hair was a mess, but he managed to tame it after a few minutes of careful brushing, then he clipped it back so he could brush his teeth and wash his face without it getting in his way. When he was finished with that, he let his hair fall back into place then left the bathroom, going back to the bed where his partner still lay sleeping. As carefully as he could, he climbed onto the bed and gently touched the face of the slumbering man.
"Luxord…wake up…time to get ready and go to work…"
"No…"
"Come on. Wakey, wakey." Smiling, Marluxia crawled to the foot of the bed and slowly pulled the blankets away, revealing Luxord's pajama-clad body inch by inch. The tall man shivered, curling up to protect himself from the cold air he'd been exposed to.
"You're evil, Marly," he grumbled accusingly, glaring at the smirking man sitting on the end of the bed.
"You love me anyway."
"Yeah, yeah." Sitting up, Luxord pulled Marluxia close and kissed him softly in the dim light coming from the cracked bathroom door. "Morning," he whispered into the kiss, and felt Marluxia smile.
"Morning. Coffee's mixing and I'm done in the bathroom. Now get moving."
Luxord rolled his eyes and fell back on the bed as Marluxia got up and went to the closet to get dressed. "Why are you always so awake this early? It's unnatural."
"Not all of us stay up until three in the morning drinking and playing card games with our old college buddies," Marluxia replied, turning to face his lover as he unbuttoned his pajama shirt.
"You know I haven't done that in months." Icy blue eyes tracked every movement of Marluxia's elegantly slim fingers, watching as each button was undone to reveal the thin, pale torso underneath the fabric. The pink-haired man could practically feel those eyes burning into him, devouring him, and he turned away as a slight blush heated his cheeks.
"And I've never done that, so I'm more used to getting up early than you are. Now get your butt out of bed and get dressed or you'll be late."
Luxord sighed then smirked, silently getting up and sneaking up behind the other man. He slipped his arms around Marluxia's waist, his hands lightly stroking the soft skin beneath the pajama shirt.
"Marly…" the blond purred, nuzzling his face into the spot between the shorter man's shoulder blades so that he gasped and arched.
"L-Luxord…!"
"Yes?" Talented hands pulling the pajama shirt in such a way that it trapped Marluxia's arms behind his back and revealed that special spot, Luxord ignored his lover's protests and licked up his spine, earning a keening whimper laced with need.
"Stop…we don't have time for this…"
"Yes we do. You don't have to be at work for almost two hours, and I can arrive at my office whenever I want. That's the point of being the boss. There's no one to yell at me if I'm late." He kissed the sensitive space, letting his breath caress the skin so that Marluxia shivered.
"Hng…please…"
"Please?" A smirk curved Luxord's lips and he pulled the smaller man closer, pressing their bodies together.
"Luxord, please stop. I mean it."
"Really?" the blond persisted, releasing the shirt and toying with the waistband of Marluxia's pajama pants. "You didn't sound like you wanted me to stop a moment ago."
Firmly but gently, Marluxia gripped Luxord's wrists and pulled the inquisitive hands away from himself, turning to face the taller man. "Yes, really. I have to finish getting ready for work, and I'd rather not be exhausted due to sex while working with children, especially children as sensitive as the ones I'm in charge of. Besides, then I'd have to shower, and after all that, I'd be late."
Luxord pouted but didn't argue. "Fine. I'll seduce you tonight, instead."
"And I'll happily let you." Smiling now, Marluxia placed a soft kiss on Luxord's cheek and went back to changing as a still-pouting Luxord ventured into the bathroom to start getting ready.
Breakfast was a quiet affair after Luxord and Marluxia had dressed, both men occupied with drinking their coffee as they sat at the small table in their kitchen, eating the whole grain cereal with soy milk that Marluxia always bought—he refused to buy "that sugary garbage," and regular milk was reserved for cooking. Hence, the healthy cereal they had for breakfast almost every day. Luxord was reading the newspaper as he ate, scanning the columns for any interesting articles that might be worth taking the time to read thoroughly rather than just skim over.
"Anything good today?" Marluxia asked between bites of cereal.
"No. Just some load of bull about a teacher getting fired for inappropriate behavior towards students."
His interest caught, Marluxia put down his spoon and leaned his elbows on the table. "What happened?"
Clearly not as fascinated by the story as Marluxia was, Luxord rolled his eyes but nevertheless read through the article more carefully. "It's a big scandal. One of her students had nude photos of her and hung up copies of them all over the school. She's claiming she never gave the pictures to any of her students and she doesn't know how he got a hold of them."
"Nude pictures?"
"It says "pornographic photos.'"
"That's terrible. She'll have to move halfway across the country just to get a job somewhere else."
"If she's lying and she's the one who gave the pictures to the kid, then she'll probably have her teaching license revoked."
Marluxia shook his head, sighing. "I don't understand how someone can dedicate years of his or her life to something, like teaching, and risk it all by taking nude photos and leaving them where a student might find them."
"What, you've never taken a nude photo and left it out by accident?" Luxord asked somewhat playfully.
"No," the pink-haired man replied flatly. "I've never taken a nude picture at all, and I don't think I ever will."
"What if I asked you to?"
"I'd slap you for being perverted and make you sleep on the couch for a week."
"What if I was on the other side of the country for work for weeks and weeks, and I missed you so much that I asked you to send me one through text?" Luxord wheedled, smiling slightly.
Marluxia went back to eating his cereal. "Then I would still say no."
"Aw, you're no fun, Marly."
"Then I guess you'd better never be gone for weeks and weeks. Who knows what sort of trouble you'd get into if you spent that much time away from home? Besides, I'd have to go with you just to make sure you got up on time," the doctor teased, sipping his coffee.
Luxord smirked. "Well in that case, I don't need a picture. I'd have the real thing, and you'd have nothing better to do but lounge around in the hotel room waiting for me to come back every night."
"Oh, please. If I traveled to the other side of the country with you, I'd have my own plans for while you were working, and don't think that having the real thing means you can do whatever you want, because the real thing can refuse a lot more easily than a picture can," Marluxia informed his over-confident lover as he stood, placing his now-empty bowl in the sink to be rinsed and loaded once he finished his coffee. When he turned back around to lean against the counter and sip his coffee, he found Luxord making puppy eyes at him.
"You would travel all that way with me just to deny me?"
Those stupid puppy eyes. Despite Luxord's angular features and facial hair, his ice blue eyes and sarcastic nature, he could pull off the puppy eyed look better than even some of the children Marluxia worked with. And it was completely unfair, because he himself couldn't manage to make that face even if it would save his life. Luxord looked like he might burst into tears at any second. Marluxia's puppy eyes looked like he was a murderous psychopath. It was ironic, really. Who'd have thought a man like Luxord could look so innocent?
Sighing, the pink-haired man finished his coffee then looked at Luxord affectionately. "No, I wouldn't do that. But I certainly wouldn't make it easy for you."
Luxord grinned and stood, moving to be mere inches away from pinning the other man against the counter. "Well, I would hope not. You know how I love a challenge."
"Yes, I know." He closed his eyes as Luxord leaned in for a kiss, thinking that perhaps going on a trip together wasn't such a bad idea.
XXX
The condo was silent, completely and utterly silent. But that was normal these days. There was a time when music would have been playing, any type of music. Or people were there, talking and laughing, relaxing together. That was how it used to be. Now, it would have been strange if there was sound.
Dressed in loose blue sweatpants with the legs rolled up to stop just below her knees and an oversized gray hoody, Larxene lounged on the couch in the living room of her condo, watching the muted TV without really paying attention to what was on. Some show about little girls in beauty pageants was playing, and even though the sound was off, Larxene thought it was one of the most ridiculous things she'd ever seen and couldn't imagine what it must be like to be one of those girls. If her mother had tried to put Larxene and Relena in beauty pageants like these, she'd have had another thing coming to her.
"These little girls are going to hate their mothers when they get older," the blonde woman commented to the otherwise empty room. "They'll look at pictures of how they were dressed and demand that all evidence of the pageants be destroyed."
I'm sure some of them do actually want to be there and will always love being in pageants.
Larxene laughed and picked up a glass of champagne from the end table, sipping it as if she was in an evening gown rather than old sweats.
"You've got to be kidding me. That one looks like a Las Vegas stripper. Who on earth dresses their daughter like that?"
Maybe it's supposed to be humorous and cute.
"There is nothing cute about a four-year-old wearing her body weight in makeup and dancing like a prostitute."
Don't be so harsh, Xe. What's the matter with you? You used to just laugh at these shows and change the channel. Since when have you been so judgmental of everyone else?
Since you died, Larxene thought, too afraid to say it out loud. It was bad enough she was talking to herself, but it was worse that she could hear Relena's voice talking back.
She quickly swallowed the rest of her champagne then refilled her glass.
This was ridiculous. Why was she sitting there having a conversation with her dead twin? Because ever since the murder, all Larxene had to do was sit in a quiet room for a while and eventually the voice would start having a conversation. If that didn't scream lunatic, nothing did, and Larxene knew it. But she didn't want to go see anyone about it. There was no reason to. She was fine. It was just because she was lonely and—today—had been drinking that her memories of Relena seemed more realistic than they really were. That was all. There was no voice. It was just her memories.
Real or not, the Relena she could hear in her head had a point. She hadn't been this judgmental of others before, and having it pointed out to her was unpleasant. Even though she'd never been quite as cheerful or carefree as her twin, she'd certainly never sat around watching a random show and judging everyone on it as if she was the Creator of All and she alone had to right to decide what was right and wrong. So she picked up the remote from where it rested beside her on the couch and began flipping through the channels, looking for something more interesting to watch than toddler beauty pageants.
Maybe then the voice would go away.
