"Demyx?"
"Yeah?"
"...Are you all right?"
"...I'm not about to feed myself more cyanide, if that's what you mean."
"Well, that was a big part of it, yeah. So that is good to know."
"That's good. It's nice to know that I can brighten up your day in an instant just by not being actively suicidal."
"...What the hell?"
"Or, at least, by saying I'm not actively suicidal."
"...Demyx...is there something you're not telling me?"
"Axel...if I was genuinely suicidal, do you think I would tell you?"
"What do you -"
"Did I tell you?"
"...No."
"Exactly. Axel, so you know, I can lie just like any other human being ever born. Better, actually, because for some reason people seem to have the impression that I'm unfailingly honest. They believe anything I tell them, because I have such an honest face or something, even when it's complete bullshit."
"..."
"And don't flatter yourself that you're an exception or that you know me too well to ever be fooled. I can lie to you just as easily as anyone else."
"Demyx...why are you telling me this?"
"Don't you get it, Ax? I lied. I lied to you, I lied to Roxas, I lied to Vexen, I lied to my therapist, I lied to pretty much everyone who asked me how I was and if I was doing all right for a good month straight. And no one suspected a damn thing until I actually tried to kill myself."
"...I did get that part. Let me repeat the question - why are you telling me this?"
"...Because I need you to know. I need you to know that I can lie just like anyone else, even to you, and not just little white lies either. I need you to know that I can smile and say I'm fine and change the subject when I'm actually intending to kill myself later that night. I need you to know, because if you don't know that I can lie, if you just accept that everything I say is true...then the next time I start lying to you, you won't go looking for the truth until it's already too late."
"Demyx..."
"What."
"Thank you."
"...What? For what?"
"For telling me. It's no small thing to call yourself out for a liar. Granted, this is stuff that...probably should have been really obvious to me, but...it is good to know that you'd rather tell me yourself ahead of time that you're going to lie like a rug if you start feeling suicidal again and that I should be watching out for it, instead of just...keeping it all to yourself and letting us all just trust you blindly and leave you alone because you said you were okay."
"...I'm afraid, Axel. Gods help me, that's the only reason I'm doing this. I came way too close this last time, and I'm afraid that if I ever gave it another shot...I'd finally succeed."
"I'm afraid of that myself. I completely approve of any effort you might take to prevent it."
"I know, Ax. I'm sorry."
"Demyx, there's nothing to be sorry for, got it memorized? All you're doing is trying to save yourself."
AN: No specific prompt for this one. Just a need to clear the air between these two after the last chapter. I've published a few of these tag-free dialogues on deviantART; it's an interesting way to write a short story, as long as you keep it between two characters and offer some hint as to who those characters are.