Chapter Eleven: Alektorophobia, Never Synonymous with Pride
Not too sure, but he knew she was avoiding him. She had to be, he hadn't seen her since- at least, only rarely but never on her own, Rixushin accompanying her like an overly pompous guard dog. They talked in low, whispered speech, her never once looking his way as they passed.
Axel stared off after his infatuation, her white tipped hair swaying slightly as she walked. How he longed to be the one walking with her, but how would that be possible if she wouldn't even look at him? The redhead sighed, continuing onto the sparring field, where he had promised Demyx that he would hang out with him today.
Six and Xenami also greeted him when he stepped onto the dark blue marble, though the four were not the only ones in the room, Zexion sulking not too far away. Ignoring him, Axel sat on the steps of the crystal staircase and looked at the wall past Demyx, rather than directly at him.
"I'm here, now what d'ya want, Demyx?"
"Oooo, someone's touchy today," Xenami commented, looking at him. Axel had noticed that Xenami was a lot more talkative around him than she was when they first met, along with the realization that she and Naminé were quite different, despite their similar appearances; apparently Xenami was quite offended that her 'twin' was a lame goody-two-shoes.
"I'm fine."
"Aww, is wittle Axel having big boy problems?" Six teased, balancing on the narrow railing that lined the stairs on either side; he cleared the five feet separating each rail with a catlike leap, landing nimbly on a single foot, his platform boots making only the softest of sounds. You just had to admire Six at a time like this, for he was capable of doing acrobatics that very few humans could manage, especially not while wearing long baggy pants and boots.
"At least I can have big boy problems," Axel retorted watching Six bend over backwards into a handstand, his cloak sagging down just slightly and claws making tiny clinks as he 'walked' over to face the older Nobody.
"So what? I was just suggesting that you finally hit puberty. Took you long enough." The demon smirked at him, Demyx and Xenami laughing.
"Oh yes, and when I hit my growth spurt, I'll still be taller than you'll ever be," Axel sneered, causing the laughing two to roar with their vocalized mirth. Six gave him that look that said he'd like nothing more than to rip Axel's arm off, before doing a graceful somersault and sat down on the floor next to Xenami.
"Are we getting on with this or what?" the female blonde asked, looking expectantly at Demyx. The uke sighed before smiling jubilantly at them.
"This," he espoused with a completely unnecessary flourish of the hand, "is The Secret Demyx's Idea to Figure Out What Everyone's Deepest, Darkest Secret Is, a.k.a. TSDIFOWEDDSI!" The other three stared at Demyx with blank looks on their faces, dumbfounded.
"You do know that's stupid, right?" Six sassed, the first to recover from their stupor.
"Shut up, Six," Demyx leered. "We all know how you hate being called short."
Six growled jumping up. "That's not much of a secret, now is it?" Demyx was easily a good eleven inches taller than him, standing doing absolutely nothing to better Six's retort. Suddenly the demon sniffed the air, a wolfish grin on his face. "Xayra! Axel and Demyx are calling me short again!"
Axel looked up, his mood brightening. Xayra?
She appeared out of a dark portal, looking slightly annoyed. "Yes, mistress?" she said exasperatedly, sarcasm heavy in her voice; those silvery eyes of hers had a piercing quality at the moment, a facial expression to match. Axel had never seen her so stressed out before, though he couldn't help but grin at the 'mistress' comment.
At least she still has a sense of humor.
"Those two!" Six was jumping up and down excitedly, apparently under the assumption that Xayra would deal out justice to the wrong doers. Xayra gave him a pained and pointed look, turning her glare next to Demyx, finally resting on Axel. Her expression was unreadable as she studied him, before returning her attention back to Six, no longer bouncing. Bending slightly in front of him, she cupped the young brunette's face almost maternally and smiled, and brought her hand back to slap him against the back of the head.
"I do not give a damn about your stupid height problems!" she screamed, slapping him again.
"You done?" Six still stood there in front of Xayra, a look of amusement on his face.
"Yes, yes I think so," she replied, regaining her composure as she shook back her ebony locks from her eyes, breathing somewhat heavy.
"Good," the demon answered. "I wanted to laugh so badly," he said with a smirk, glancing back to where the bewildered other three sat. "Go sit next to Axel, cause you might wanna be here when I get back. Axel, make sure she doesn't go anywhere."
"Yes, ma'am," Axel smirked, building on Xayra's earlier joke. Six narrowed his eyes at him before conjuring a dark corridor and disappearing inside of it. At the same time Xayra sat next to him on the same crystal stair, not too close nor too far away. A couple of moments passed and he stole a glance at her: she sat with a placid tranquility, propping her self up with her hands on the hard step, much more relaxed than before. It reminded him of how she was when he had talked with her that day a couple weeks earlier, before they had their... encounter...
Don't think about that! he mentally berated himself, tearing his eyes away from her face; that idle hand not too far away caught his attention again.
He cautiously extended his hand out towards hers, Xayra giving him a look of mingled surprise and interest. "He told me to make sure you don't go anywhere," he explained, enjoying the feeling of her small hand in his large one.
"Oh, Axel..."
"Oh, Axel..."
He was snapped back to reality by someone saying his name, and the uncomfortable feeling that Demyx was touching him inappropriately again. Turns out he was, the uke rubbing catlike against Axel's chest, arms around his waist.
"GAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" Axel yelled in horror, trying to push Demyx away. "WHAT THE FUCK DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING?" The two girls were laughing at his struggle to rid himself of the rapist situation, Axel finally succeeding by igniting his torso with blue flame.
"It took you long enough!" Xenami laughed. "You had this dreamy expression on your face like you were all enjoying it."
"I wasn't!" Axel said exasperatedly. "I didn't even notice he was doing it!"
"How could you not notice Demyx trying to crawl into your lap?" Xayra inquired, eyebrows raised. Axel looked at her.
I was too busy thinking about you...
"I don't know! You don't just expect for another man to start molesting you!" he said in defense, slapping away Demyx's hand as it tried to touch his hair through the railing of the staircase. At that moment a dark portal appeared, Six stepping out of it, but not closing it behind him just yet.
"What'd I miss?" he asked, looking from one face to another. Axel slapped away Demyx's hand again with a threat he would punch his lights out if he ever touched him again. "Axel, was Demyx molesting you again?" Axel nodded glaring out of the corner of his eye at the uke. Six laughed, retrieving something from his dark corridor.
"Demyx, I got you something..."
"Oooo! Present!" Demyx cheered, running up to Six like a hyper puppy.
"Here. Have fun." That could have been the worst thing Six could have said as Axel watched Demyx's eyes turn the size of saucer plates, but it wasn't in happiness- that was pure fear.
"Big... scary... feathery... CHICKEN!" Demyx screamed, getting louder and louder with each syllable as he threw the giant stuffed chicken up into the air and screamed in terror, trying to hide behind the stairs and every where else he could find, his friends providing no solstice, as they were all howling with laughter. Demyx's screams proved to be still louder and they began to draw attention in the forms of Vixid and Xilot.
"I thought we heard your dulcet cries, Demyx," Xilot said, striding ahead of his brother.
"You keep that up and Rixushin-sama will come and see who's being killed," Vixid chimed in.
"Along with everyone else."
"You wouldn't want that."
"They might bring more chickens."
This was the first time Axel had really been around the twin brothers, but he knew enough about them to be able to tell them apart. Though both had the same light blonde hair, brown eyes and tanned skin, Xilot preferred to wear his hair pulled back in a mullet, the top messy and spiky while the ponytail at the nape of his neck reached to just above his calves, a pendant in the shape of the Organization's insignia tied at the end; Vixid kept his hair free from restraint, letting it hand in a strait blonde mass down to his waist, his eyebrows were pierced on both sides of his face.
"Must you two always complete each other's sentences?" Xenami asked, looking up at them from where she sat on the floor. Next to her, Six was still roaring with laughter, his stuffed chicken dwarfing him from where it was positioned behind him.
"No, we don't," the mullet haired blonde snapped, sounding insulted.
"But it's always fun-" added his brother.
"To mess with your mind."
"Especially you, Xena-chan," Vixid grinned lecherously, waving his fingers in a suggestive manner. Axel, having lost all interest in watching Demyx, snickered as Xenami, looking abashed and traumatized in all her Naminéness, returned the wave.
"Is that who I think that is?" Xilot gasped theatrically, clapping his hands. "It's sexy Zexy!" Zexion, who Axel had all but forgotten about, looked up at the sound of his name echoing throughout the stadium-like arena; in the instant before the reverberations stopped Xilot was in front of the blue haired illusionist, however, no darkness lingered in his wake to suggest he had made the transition by teleporting. "I heard all about you and Roxanne," he said in a singsong voice, every syllable as audible to Axel as though the harasser and his harassee were entertaining no more than five feet away. The red-haired one stole another glance at Xayra who was gazing fixedly off into the distance with her hands now folded in her lap, visage expressionless aside from the twitching corners of her mouth, fighting a smile.
"You know that could be considered statutory rape!"
The smile won, accompanied by an amused sound escaping her for a single moment, silver optics meeting emerald for a flicker of an instant.
"Are they always like this?" Axel said in an undertone, attempting to forge conversation between them. The brunette gave him a side long glance, a tiny nod her answer.
That's all I get? A nod? But- last time...
Last time...
Don't think about that! he scolded himself nonverbally again, just as she began speaking in a soft and near inaudible tone, not looking at him.
"They do not care if they offend or embarrass you, as long as it is even somewhat amusing to them." Axel leaned closer to hear her, and saw that she was trying not to attract the attention of Vixid chatting with Six and Xenami nearby. "If you have a death wish, then feel free to irritate one of them, because they will gladly do it themselves, or inflame someone else for the job if they do not feel like dirtying their own hands."
"HOW FUCKING OLD ARE YOU?!" Axel heard the projection, a moment of silence following he assumed to be Zexion replying. Whatever that inaudible reply was, Xilot didn't seem to be satisfied. "Tupperware, how old are you?"
This awkward question brought Axel's attention to the short black-haired one with the chicken, who was still teasing a whimpering Demyx; he turned to face the blonde bishounen on the other side of the room, gave him the dirtiest look he could muster accompanied by the raising of one of his clawed middle fingers in an obscene hand gesture, and replied with a curt "Eighteen."
It might be hard to believe, but that was how it was in the Organization, or at least for Nobodies in general- Nobodies typically don't age and are immortal in that aspect, keeping their same physical appearance for the rest of their lives. However, at the same time, really young Nobodies do in fact age, though very slowly up until they 'mature' at the physical age of seventeen. Axel himself didn't have to worry about 'maturing', as he had been nineteen when his heart was taken and was now nearing twenty-four, though Six on the other hand couldn't have been physically older than thirteen or fourteen, so despite his actual age, he had to deal with it. Axel also remembered how Roxas, who had only been fourteen when he joined the Organization, had seemed to always grow a little bit older in that year or so that Axel had known him, though really he was younger than Six. It was a very complicated subject, and hard to observe in the Organization, since almost all of them had been older than seventeen by the time they had joined, Six and Roxas being the only exception.
The brothers' identical laughter rang throughout the room before stopping abruptly and simultaneously, Xilot continuing on with his well annunciated torment of Zexion.
"Aww, Tepie-kun, still the baby of the Organization, aren't you?" the other twin teased, flipping his long blonde hair, silver piercings glinting in the soft glow of the room. "Wait... what about that Rocksass kid? You're older than him, right?" he said thoughtfully, vocalizing Axel's thoughts.
"It's Roxas," Axel corrected; Vixid gave him a look of complete and utter surprise so thorough it would seem like he had been completely unaware of Axel's presence.
"Oh, Axel-san, you're here! How are you?" he said boisterously, playing it off while giving his hand a vigorous shaking. Before the redhead could reply, he continued, "That's good to hear! Oh, and Xayra-chan, you're here too! Lovely." He threw his arms awkwardly around the brunette, kissing her cheeks multiple times; Axel involuntarily loosed a threatening growl at the mass of blonde hair kissing Xayra, but it wasn't loud enough for either of them to take notice. "I heard Xuxu-sama was working you like a dog!"
Xayra looked down at her hands, cheeks slightly tinted red from the repeated contact. "Do not let Rixushin hear you call him Xuxu," she reprimanded, though Axel could see her smile.
Vixid folded his arms with a smirk, taking a step back. "You just make sure Xuxu-sama doesn't see you sitting that close to Axel."
Perplexed, Axel glanced downwards, surprise greeting him as he realized that their previous distance had been reduced to nil, what shocked him more was how he hadn't even been conscious of their proximity. Reacting before she could, the titian-haired Nobody shimmied himself to the end of the stair, cool crystal meeting burning flesh as turquoise emerald found darkness, closing his eyes, furious with himself. Unceasingly aware he was of her grey eyes upon him, that stare more than likely accusing if anything else.
What is wrong with me?
They had been alone together, so close he could count her every white-tipped eyelash, coated in a thin oil that made them glisten. He had been beyond nervous, stuck between a Xayra and a fall to his doom- he chose Xayra. It had been almost like a silent confession, their lips an absolute minuscule distance from being together, he had loved that tension that had grown between them, tension of all kinds, tension he wanted to relieve with a press of his lips to hers... and maybe more if luck prevailed. He held her hand in his, trusting she wouldn't push him over the edge, but what happened afterwards made him wish that she did. All the signs were there, they were screaming to him and he had been excited, until it all came crashing down as she pulled away, left him standing there. It had been pain beyond pain, a pain too intense, a pain he knew as a Nobody he shouldn't be feeling, he didn't even remember hurting that bad when Roxas had left. It gripped his nonexistent heart and ripped it to shreds... incapable of forming his own tears he had fled the castle to one of the far districts of Dark City, rain drenching him to the point where he could have caught pneumonia, but he hadn't cared, nothing had made sense to him then. Only two things had willed him to come back to the castle- it was bad enough that she had done this to him, but he knew in the long run it would hurt a lot worse to never see her again... on top of that a certain annoying blonde uke had sought him out and wouldn't leave him alone; the thing was, Demyx seemed to know exactly what to say to make him come back, and it made Axel worry if Demyx knew more about his 'feelings' for Xayra than he was letting on. Either way, he had come back to the castle, and though he never realized it at the time, but he looked for her, for some sign of her, and it hurt when she was no where to be found. His woe at times had been so great that he had shut himself up in his dorm for days at a time, Demyx occasionally coming and bringing him food and company... Still, it hurt...
"Axel, you alive in there?" A soft poking on his temple brought him back to awareness.
"Wha?" He blinked his eyes as Demyx focused into view before him, a worried look on his face.
"You've been like that for hours, man. Six tells me you've been having depressing dreams."
"Well doesn't Six always know everything?" Axel said defensively, though he knew he shouldn't snap at the kid, he was only trying to help.
Demyx laughed. "He does, doesn't he?" He sat down on his knees in front of Axel, summoning his sitar into existence. He strummed a few random cords as prelude to a moment of silence. "You should tell her how you feel, man."
So he does know...
"How I feel about who?" Axel tried to act as though he hadn't a clue what Demyx was talking about, but the blonde saw right through him.
"You know," he urged. "Xayra..." Demyx's voice trailed off, a dyad of aqueous figures moving gracefully before him; they took on the forms of two who were especially familiar, Axel frowned at them.
"I can't."
"Since when?" The uke sounded abashed, as though his great hero had just given up. "What ever happened to the Axel who was always happy, always smiling or laughing at someone? We miss that Axel." The water forms began to take on a more distinct shape, the formation of someone with spiky hair making itself prominent.
"We?"
"You know, me, Six, Xenami, Xayra... All of us," he smiled, looking more mature than Axel remembered him being.
"Oh, forget it. She doesn't like me," Axel bemoaned, becoming frustrated.
"I bet you she does."
"What do you know? It's not like it matters anymore. And, if she liked me so much, then why has she been avoiding me lately?" Axel snapped, his temper growing.
Demyx sighed, his water figures complete. "That, my friend, is something you'll have to ask her for yourself." Axel saw that these forms resembled the actual ones perfectly- one was of Axel himself, the other of Xayra in striking detail. His small watery self had its arms around her, it looked happy, happier than the real Axel had felt in a while. The red-haired Nobody smiled, mood lifted reasonably.
"Come on, my friend," Demyx said, standing up, his water forms becoming vapour. "Rixushin wants us all in the Auditorium for dinner. If we don't hurry, we'll be late."
Axel nodded in ascent, standing as well.
"Right."
–End Chapter 11–
ok, i got some explaining to do. lets go in order, shall we?
1- if you didn't know that alektorophobia is the irrational fear of chickens, hopefully now you understand and realize that Demyx is an alektorophobe (i just thought it would be funny)
2- You may have noticed I edited out what this little note was about, the whole language thing was pointless and it finally succeded in pissing me off to the point where I was like 'I HATE YOU GO AWAY!' Yus, so no more language!
3- random facts i decide i want to add about the organization and Nobodies (ie- the explanation about how Nobodies 'mature', the different parts of the castle, etc.) will be added, and try to pay attention to them, because i will be referring back to them in future chapters (the 'maturing' thing will also be prominent in the sequel, but thats a long way off)
4- Dark City the city of The World That Never Was. you don't really think im gonna call the damn city TWTNW the enitre fic, right? i doubt i'll even make the characters call it that long ass name. Dark City is perfectly acceptable (i don't know if i've given the city a name earlier in the fic already, but if i did, it was still Dark City
ok, no more explanations. i hope this cleared somethings up for you. Please review? i'll give you a cookie!
