So when I plan out my stories, I tend to have bulleted points of interest for each chapter. But sometimes I just need a filler chapter, which is incredibly relevant to the plot (just not yet), and usually the only point I put there is "DEMYX TIME!". This is one of those chapters. Enjoy.
Warnings: Demyx tries to kill Axel.
Hindsight being better than foresight, Axel should have known better than to try eating Demyx's favorite type of fried food.
"I'm really sorry about that," Demyx repeated as he handed Axel another bottle of water.
Firstly, because it was fried and covered in salt and generally not-good-stuffs when it came to new piercings.
Axel just shot him another look of contempt, drinking and trying not to choke. "I should kill you."
"Dude, I'm sorry!"
Secondly, because he was allergic to one of the main spices (which they both knew, but Axel hadn't realized it was used (and Demyx had apparently forgotten)).
"I'm going to kill you."
Demyx sighed, head in his hands, defeat in his voice as he requested, "Just make it quick and dignified."
"You're getting raped to death by a Moogle."
The very idea made Demyx snort and demand, "How is that dignified?"
"My tongue was just the size of your shoe," Axel answered, laughing in spite of himself, "You're due no dignity from me."
And just like that, all animosity vanished from their conversation in the emergency room. Life-threatening allergens aside, it had been an interesting day, and now that he seemed recovered, they were on their way out. Demyx initiated a conversation about Moogles in modern film, and Axel followed without much reservation.
He was pretty sure he was supposed to be somewhere at some point that day, but he'd called Xigbar and made Demyx explain why he was going to the hospital, so the shop wouldn't be left to its own devices; he couldn't remember making any appointments for consultations; and Roxas... Wait, what about Roxas?
"FOCUS." He was jarred from his thoughts as Demyx grabbed his head, shaking it to emphasize his order. "FOOOOOOOOOCUSSSSSS."
Rolling his eyes, Axel asked, "What am I focusing on?"
"Whatever it is, it isn't me, obviously," Demyx answered with a grin, releasing him. "I just explained your relationship with Naminé in explicit detail to that lamppost."
Axel glanced at the post and offered, "It's all true," before turning back to Demyx and asking, "Sorry, guess I got sidetracked."
Demyx didn't seem interested in shaming him, instead dismissing, "Eh, just as long as you come back to me. How's that lip feel?"
"Gritty and infected," Axel replied sarcastically, admonishing, "Next time, I'll give you a piercing and emergency room trip."
With a small chuckle, Demyx confessed, "I think if I ever get brave enough to get one, I'd want Zex to do it."
"That doesn't surprise me," The redhead decided. "I mean, stabbing each other is supposed to be a pretty good bonding experience."
Demyx rolled his eyes in response. "And you wonder why I enjoyed it so much."
"Sure, after your hands stopped shaking," Axel teased. When Demyx didn't have a snarky response, he asked more seriously, "You guys doing alright?"
Nodding easily, Demyx answered, "Yeah. Same old shit."
"Talk to me," Axel pleaded, catching the sea-green eyes and reiterating, "What's wrong? Fighting again?"
Sighing, Demyx replied, "Fighting still. I guess I should be happy, though, I mean, it's not like we're arguing over stupid shit."
Their pace had slowed to a mild stroll as they wandered through Radiant Garden. "What do you argue about?"
"Which bills to pay," Demyx muttered, adding to Axel's confused look, "We get to the end of the month, and all these notices are piled up on the table, and at least two of them are going to be late. Obviously rent has to get paid, and electricity. From that point, though, it's up in the air. My priorities are different from his, I guess."
"But you're both working," Axel presented.
With a small scoff, Demyx answered, "Yeah, we work, barely. The Organization is a good gig, I'm not gonna lie, but it only gets us so far. And my hours at that diner are minimal, at best. If we could set all accounts back to zero, we might be okay. But I've still got student loans to pay back. And he was in the hospital last fall with whatever infection that was, we're still paying on that."
"So what, you argue about what to let go and what to take care of?"
"Yup."
Axel considered this, wondering, "I still don't see how you should be happy about that."
"Because it matters that our priorities are different," Demyx explained. Another confused look, met with a smile. "More than Zexion wants to make me happy, more than he doesn't want to fight, he wants to make sure my student loans get paid off. And more than I want to keep the peace and just openly love him, I want his medical expenses cleared."
Which made sense to Axel, and he was glad Demyx could explain it that way. It didn't matter what they were fighting about; it was that they weren't willing to compromise themselves just for the sake of having a quiet evening. It was about wanting to be real, even if that meant they were really angry. It was about not being afraid to stand their ground.
Demyx finally just shrugged it off, adding, "It's nothing new, you know, working and paying bills and somehow managing to stay in love. That's life in a nutshell."
"...Hey, can I ask you something?"
This earned him a sardonic, "Kinda late to start caring now, isn't it?"
"Alright, you asshat," Axel chided with a shove, asking differently, "Can I ask you a personal question?"
Shrugging, Demyx answered, "Sure. You know I've got no secrets."
The redhead started, instantly drawing a serious stare, "You guys have only ever known each other, right? Like, as far as-"
Demyx nodded, cutting him off with, "Yeah, I'd say so. I mean, I never dated anyone before him. You remember, we used to joke about this, how I was asexual and all that."
Axel grinned at the memory, "You were a precious honey bee, practicing parthenogenesis for all eternity-"
"Shut it," Demyx laughed, rubbing the back of his neck, still easily teased. He continued after a moment, "Honestly, it's never come up between us, I guess. I've never sat Zex down and asked him if he ever dated or had sex with anyone besides me. But I... I guess I think I would know, right? I mean, we've been friends since middle school, so unless it happened before that..."
With a sideways glance, Axel suddenly asked over-dramatically, "I haven't planted a seed of doubt in your mind, have I?"
Another laugh; "Nah, not likely. I just never thought about it that way before. I mean, if something happens and we split up, I'm not gonna know what I'm doing. I have literally no experience."
"You've been with him for ten years, Dem," Axel argued, and when his friend made to shrug this off as well, he reiterated, "That's a whole fucking decade, man."
Though he conceded to this, Demyx presented, "Marriages can fail after fifty years of trying, though. Age isn't wisdom, experience isn't skill, and time is meaningless."
"...Wow. That's got to be the corniest thing you've ever said to me," Axel decided. After they exchanged grins and shoves, he mused, "I just don't see you guys splitting up, though. I mean, do you?"
Demyx sighed with a tender smile. "Nope. I mean, we've spent ten years fighting and screaming, always to the point of 'one more and I leave'. But it never happens. There's no running away when we're fighting, we get it over with in one go. Don't take days to cool off and say we're good. Don't go to bed angry. I can't think of anything to make him or I want to leave."
"...Well, you snore," Axel suggested, continuing, "And can't make cake. Or anything, really. And you obviously don't give a fuck if you kill me, who's to say he isn't next-"
"DISHONOR!"
By the time he made it home, Demyx felt significantly better about almost killing his best friend.
He found Zexion all but passed out on the kitchen floor, which was not especially unusual. "You alright, baby?"
"Just resting," Was the sleepy response, as he rolled over enough to smile. "Heard you had an adventure today."
Demyx crumpled on the floor next to him and replied, "Jeez, is that going to be the gossip in the Organization for a while, me killing Axel?"
"It'd be nice if they stopped talking about all the weird things I apparently do to you," Zexion answered, reaching to brush his hand over Demyx's cheek.
His eyes drifted closed at the contact, loving the delicate pressure. "It'd be even nicer if I didn't come home to a pile of Zexy on the floor."
A small chuckle, with a somberly contrite, "You forget, Xemnas operates out of my store. It's exhausting."
He opened his eyes again, knowing this more than he liked. Not for the first time, he suggested, "Maybe you should look for a different job."
"I can't leave the Organization, you know that," Zexion replied dryly.
Demyx knew this was an old argument, and he understood where Zexion was coming from. Leaving wasn't just as simple as turning in two-weeks notice and moving on. It was abandoning the family.
But he couldn't live like this forever, coming home and collapsing on the kitchen floor, making it but barely. Demyx wanted more than this for them.
As if reading his mind, Zexion drew his hand away, rubbing his eyes and asking, "Can we not do this today? Please?"
"...Yeah. Okay."
He hadn't meant to sound like that, like he was going to hold on to it anyway and just stew over it. But he did, and they both knew he wasn't going to let it go.
Zexion sighed and gave him a chiding stare. But after a moment, he relented; "I'll see what's out there. But no promises."
Demyx reached and pulled him close, the smaller sliding easily across the laminate floor. The blonde was on his back, Zexion sprawled on his chest, staring down at him.
"Just promise me," Demyx murmured softly, "No matter what happens, you keep the doors unlocked."
Zexion replied in kind, "Never even crossed my mind."
The exchanging of such a promise had started when they'd first started dating, which had caused something of a serious meltdown in Zexion's family. With Demyx's mother, it had been easy (she'd assumed they had been dating for years); Zexion's family had tried to reasonably convince him that he was just confused.
When he assured them that he wasn't, they began to less reasonably threaten all manner of unsavory things, the least of which was removing him from the residence.
"They're kicking you out?"
With a small shrug, Zexion replied, "That's what they're saying, anyway, unless I come to my senses and leave you."
Demyx rubbed the back of his neck, angry and scared and ashamed. "Damn, I don't want to come between you and your-"
"Shut up." The smaller leaned over and pressed a quick kiss to Demyx's lips, murmuring, "They're not even family, Demyx. They're like... they're just people I live with. My real family's down at the Organization, and you know they couldn't give two flying fucks about whether we're together or not, even if they really wanted to. You're more important than living with those people in that house."
A shiver ran down his spine. "You shouldn't say shit like that to me, Zex. I might believe you."
"That's my plan," Zexion answered with a chuckle, adding, "Because I'm going back over there to tell them the same thing." Alarm must have flashed in Demyx's face as Zexion stood, because he gave him another kiss, slowly, lingering this time, before comforting, "I'll be fine. They're all talk, the worst thing that could happen is I have to stay somewhere else for a while, okay?"
Demyx nodded, wanting nothing more than to pull him back down onto the bed and just hold him, just for a little longer. "Okay, baby. Okay."
"I've told you about calling me that," Came the tender scolding, but then he was leaving.
He'd made it to the front door by the time Demyx had formed a response, following him, grabbing his hand. Slate eyes turned back to him, patient, waiting.
"Just... I'll leave the doors unlocked, okay?" Confusion, another soft kiss. "In case you need to come home."
"...Promise?"
"I promise."
Over the years, it had turned into their way of saying Don't give up. On what, they never really specified. But usually, it was Don't give up on me.
"I love you, Zex."
Pressing their lips together before settling against the steady heartbeat, Zexion murmured, "I love you too, Demyx."
I realize this chapter and the last were both kind of short, and I'm sorry, but they should pick up soon. However, I will be starting school in the fall (going into the 'real' world, as they say), and at that point, I may have to spread updates to three weeks instead of two. More on that later, though. Thanks for reading!
