Why I Smile

We were excused after that for the day, but we had to do the same thing again tomorrow. As the guards headed us back into the castle I saw Demyx alone, he wasn't smiling anymore in fact, he looked terrified.

I walked over to him through the crowd of men and put a hand on his shoulder, "Hey man, are you okay?"

He jolted a little and looked at me with big eyes. "Oh yeah…Xion?" He asked, almost as if he was afraid he'd get it wrong.

"Yeah yeah, are you okay?" I asked.

Demyx started to have trouble walking, I quickly grabbed his side and wrapped his arm around my neck, he looked at me and gave me the friendly smile he did when I met him. "Thank you, Xion."

I smiled back, "Anytime."

We made our way back into a room that looked like a small run down café. But it was basically just a bunch of tables in an old wooden room. I sat Demyx down and sat next to him, I tried to look around the room to see the Zexion guy, I couldn't find him anywhere. The guards came by the isles and handed us all a bowel soup. It felt weird eating shitty food again, right after I was treated to a huge feast with the royal dicks. I slurped up the soup that tasted like horse shit, I couldn't get that guy out of my mind, was he hurt? And now the most terrifying guy has a daughter that could probably kick everyone's ass.

"Are you going to finish that?" Demyx asked, I looked at his bowl which was empty.

"No, here you can have it." I handed him the bowel and he ate it as soon as it got into his hands. I looked around, in a matter of seconds everyone's bowels were empty. "Hey Demyx?" He looked at me with soup going down his mouth to his chin. "When was the last time you ate?"

"I can't remember to be honest." He looked down at his bowl.

I rubbed his back, "So where you from? What's your story?" I asked. Demyx was a good guy, I could tell by his approach when I met him. I'm surprised he was here in the first place, a guy this good doesn't do bad things, and if he does, he doesn't get caught.

"Well I used to be a musician, I went all over the world, playing my sitar." He paused for a moment and chucked. "Man those were good times, anyways, I used to tour around everywhere, I became a very well-known musician. One night I had finished my show and we went to a small bar, I got really drunk, one of my close friends, Zexion, told me that we needed to go, and I refused, he kept saying we need to go, we need to go, but I never listened. He decided to grab me and pull me out of the bar, I still had a bottle of whiskey in my hand. He dragged me to the point where I started fighting back, he still wouldn't let go of me. I broke the whiskey bottle and threatened him, he let me go but I kept getting closer and closer. I stopped when he was up against the wall, he was trying to reason with me, but before he could get a word out." He paused. "I stabbed him." Demyx went silent. I looked at him with big eyes. "And you want to know why I always smile?" He asked, Demyx wasn't even looking at me anymore, he was having a staring competition with the ground. "Zexion and I used to do everything together, and we'd always try to make each other laugh, he was kinda a downer but I'd always try to make him smile. Now, he's gone, so I have to smile without him. It's just hard to." I rubbed Demyxs back.

"Demyx… I'm sorry." I said, god that must be hard. Having the one person that makes you happy gone, especially when you know you did it. But Demyx never shed one tear.

"What about you?" He asked smiling.

"Dissmised!" Sir Lexaeus yelled. He must have just come back because he wasn't here when we arrived.

Everyone stood up so fast I lost Demyx in the crowd. I followed where everyone else was going, I stopped when I realized they were going into little houses. It looked like that was where they lived.

"Where are you going, Xion?" I heard a voice from behind, dear god don't let it be here.

I turned to see Queen Aqua looking at me with a "sweet" smile. The queen had guards on both sides of her, they all looked like they would kill me in an instant, can't blame them, I'd kill the queen if I had the chance.

"Are we done for the day?" I paused for a second. "Your majesty?" I asked as if it was a question, I still wasn't used to the whole 'yes sir no sir' kind of stuff. It felt weird seeing the queen again, after… the incident.

She smiled gently, "Yes, you are done for the day, but your room is in the castle."

"Uh yeah, why is that? If it's because I'm a girl I don't mind sleeping outside." I asked, why did I get this luxury? Does Axel have this? Or am I just the only one

Aqua's smile went away and she looked quiet nervous. "Well, you show great strength Xion, you are very very useful, and with that kind of strength you show can have its rewards" She said.

Something was going on, "Really? Cause when I first came here you were threating my life." I trapped her she had to tell me what's going on.

Aqua looked around her, "Oh, I think I hear the king calling me, excuse me Xion, or should I say Knight Xion." She took a small bow and left. Don't call me a knight, I'm only here to fight and leave, be free again with Axel.

At that moment I remembered Namines words, 'Xion you don't understand, you have no idea what's going on do you? ...You really don't remember me do you?' What the hell was that supposed to mean? I've never seen that blonde haired beauty in my life until now. I headed back into the castle walking down the halls trying to remember which room I was in. Hopefully it won't go as bad as last time I tried to find something in the castle…

As I was walking down the tall and long hallways I admired just about everything in there. To the white glossy floors to the tall ceilings above this place was truly beautiful, but its rulers are not. All except Namine of course.

"You know I was going to pick you." A voice said from behind me. I turned to see the blonde haired devil staring at me. "I know what you are now, your story." She said walking closer towards me seductively.

"You have no idea who I am." I tried to sound as intense as possible without yelling, these damn guards were everywhere.

Larxene giggled and walked closer, "Oh I know who you are, I was going to pick you, but you looked like you weren't ready to die yet. Not like I have sympathy for you."

"Did you kill that man?" I asked. She had me angry now, I just wanted to hit her. She got closer to me, I didn't show fear, if I wanted to kill her I would.

"Then kill me right here right now." I said, I put both my arms out. Larxene was close enough that if she put her arm out she'd hit me in the chest.

I left my arms out and closed my eyes expecting the worse. Instead I had a heavy small sack thrown on my chest, I grabbed it but almost dropped it.

Larxene put one hand on my shoulder and whispered in my ear, "Here's a little something for you." She got off me and winked as she bumped into my shoulder walking past me.

I opened the sack quickly, gold, real gold coins, a lot, enough for a new sword, not just a cheap shitty one a high priced one! One the knights would use! I looked back but she had vanished out of thin air.

I shook my head. "Thank you." I whispered.