I was glad that I gave Zexion the tape, and that he had decided to forgive Xigbar. After the meal, I called Lexaeus about giving a massage to a friend of mine who hurt his back and chest in a fight, and Lex agreed. I hung up and joined Zexion back in bed. Zexion was very tired after the fight, and hearing the tape that caused him to cry. He was already asleep. I crawled into bed and covered us with the sheets, wrapping my arms around his sleeping form gently, kissing him on the cheek goodnight.
It was just past midnight, and I could feel the cool air from outside filter in through layers and layers of systems of air vents. The night smelled good, but that wasn't my focus. Zexion and sleep was. My eyes drifted closed, and before I knew it, I had fallen asleep, only to feel like seconds passed before I woke and it was 7 in the morning. Zexion was still asleep, his body curled against my chest and my arms were still around him. Man, he seemed to be a heavy sleeper when it came after exercise. I released my hold upon him and I looked to the other side of the room where Axel had just fallen asleep less than three hours ago. His hair was no longer spiky, but smooth and silky, completely unstyled and freshly washed. I looked back to Zexion and brushed some hair away from his face as I kissed him on the cheek.
"Please don't tell me it's 7..." he moaned, misrebly.
"Unfortunately, it is, and our date is in 3 hours, and I still need to get my car and pick you up at your shop."
"It's not 'my shop'. It's Lexicon." he corrected.
"Still. We need to get up." I said, smiling.
"Make me."
I smirked at the challenge, and I wrapped my arms around him and I sat up, plopping him down on my lap. He was still curled up like a kitten, and I inwardly laughed. "Come on, Zexy. Don't make me beg." I told him.
"Unfortunately, no. I'm not a morning person."
"Too bad. Neither am I, but I've got three more nights to spend with you, and I'm not going to spend it sleeping, even if it is with you." I teased.
"Meh."
"I'll tickle you if you don't start waking up."
"I am awake. I just don't want to be. Besides, you don't know where I'm ticklish."
I smirked and I pulled his arms and legs away from his body so he uncurled. His eyes still wouldn't open, even with him seated on my lap with his back against my chest and my arms wrapped around his. "Come on, Sexy Zexy."
"No."
That was all the cue I needed to push the hair away from his neck with my nose and I licked his throat, feeling his skin prickle under my skin. "Come on."
"N-no."
Another lick. He still refused. Another, and I failed again.
Pouting, I went to my last resort. I put my mouth on his throat and I began licking ,sucking, and biting, and his eyes shot open while his head shot back and hit my shoulder, his mouth wide open in shock. "D-Demyx!" he whispered harshly, and I could tell that his face was turning bright red, but as I sucked harder, his breath came more raged, and I knew he was wide awake and enjoying this a lot because of the faint moan. "Fine! I'm awake! Just stop!" he whispered bitterly and I released him, smirking. I kissed him on the cheek before he got up off my lap, scowling and blushing darkly. Zexion went to his wardrobe and opened it, pushing around hangers until he pulled out a purple-tinted gray shirt that had white long sleeves sewn in, a white sleeveless-t-shirt, and pulled out two pairs of jeans, then reaching under the wardrobe for a pair of tennis shoes with blue stripes.
I don't think I have ever seen someone get dressed so fast in my entire life into the white shirt, jeans, and he carried his shoes by the laces with the other pair of clothing draped over his arm.
Zexion looked at me with a raised brow. "Well? You going to get dressed?" he asked and I nodded, pulling on my original clothing as quickly as I could before hopping after Zexion, trying to tie my shoe.
"You're in a grumpy mood today." I commented.
"As said before, I'm not a morning person, and I still need to finish fixing my ride. Since you were so determined to get me up, I'm going to work on my ride for an hour and then I will walk you home before going to the Lexicon." Zexion informed me, curtly as we walked through the halls. I pouted a bit, upset at myself for making Zexion grumpy by getting him up early.
"I'm sorry for making you get up so early, Zexion." I told him and he stopped to look at me, his expression softening.
He sighed. "I'm sorry for snapping at you, Demyx, but I'm still a vampire, and vampires do not like waking up when the sun is coming up, even if we are a mile under cement, steel, and pipes that separate us from it." he told me, smiling sadly before he turned and kept on walking. We made it to a single door, and Zexion typed in the key code before the door gave a click and Zexion opened the door. It was dark in there, but then, a light came on by Zexion's hand upon the switch, and I found myself in awe.
There were 13 motorcycles, at least, with four cars up on the platforms, and two motorcycles were off to the side and had parts scattered around them. One of them had gray-blue stripes, the other was fire red.
"The red one's Axels, and the blue-gray's mine. Axel's engine was severly fucked over when a stupid kid decided to put sugar in the gas tank and it completely destroyed the engine. I had to gut the entire thing, sell the engine and other damaged items to a junk yard, and I had just enough money left over so I could repaint the stripes and fix the entire fucking thing. I've only got to attatch the throttle, the shift, and re-attatch the microphone to Axel's helmet. Mine isn't quite as bad as Axel's, but he's paying me to do his first."
I stared at him. "You're a mechanic?" I asked, confused.
"Demyx, I've been around for thousands of years, I best bloody know how to fix a broken generator since our family lives underground, and Larxene refuses to fix anything that might chip her nails or spit oil on her, even though she's a bloody good electrician. She was the one who gave Benjamin Franklin the idea for the Key and the Kite in the lightning storm. Unforntunately, she will brag about the fact that he didn't get shocked to death like she wanted to see." Zexion said with a shrug as he put his shoes and extra clothing on a work bench, shoved a cloth into his back pocket, pulled some gloves on, and dragged a toolbox over to Axel's motorcycle, sitting down on the oily tarp, and he began to work silently.
I sat down, and trained my eyes on him, watching him before I looked for a clock. "You know that you're free to look around here. Just be careful around the ferrari, there's broken glass on the floor around it, and I'm still sanding and buffing it so I can properly paint it for Saix. And do not even think of touching Larxene's moped, the yellow one with pink stripes and lightning bolts. She just about killed Xaldin for bumping into it last month." Zexion told me and I nodded, standing as I started walking around, looking at the occational vehicle that caugh my interest. I soon realized that all the bikes that had stripes had them as indication for ownership in the family. White was Xemnas (and he had his name carved into the handles), Xaldin's was purple, Zexion's was gray-blue, Saix's was lunar blue (blue that has a pearly sheen), Axel's was Red, Marluxia's was pink, and Larxene's was yellow. However, when I reached the back of the room, I saw a brown cloth covering a bike, and I pulled it off slowly. Blue stripes.
"I made one because I always thought that Desmond would come back. That one was supposed to be his, but I guess it can be yours, if you want it." Zexion said and I hurriedly turned around.
"But- I've never driven a motorcycle, much less rode one." I told him, shock spouted in my voice.
"I'll teach you if you want it."
I frowned and looked back at the bike. Now that I bothered looking at the bike itself, I really wanted to try it out. It was quite a piece of work. "When did you make it?"
"Which version? That one, or the first one I built?"
"How many versions did you make of it?"
"9. I finished that one half a year ago, because the 8th one was out of date and it wasn't doing so hot when it came to the simplest factors of just rolling through the halls. The first one I built had so much power that as soon as I tapped the gas, it shot out from underneath me and ran into a wall while I was flat on my ass, staring at the damage. Xemnas was soooo pissed at the damage to the wall, more than the damage to the bike." he told me with a laugh, still working on Axel's motorcycle, now attatching something from the neck of the bike to the engine below. I saw him bite his lip and he stared at the paneling before he stuck the tip of a flat screwdriver in the side panel of the bike and popped it off to reveal the beautiful mess of metal underneath it. "Best do that, too. Axel hates it when people try to hijack his shit." he grumbled, moving his hands to the top of the bike and he attatched something next to the key spot, attatching the wires to a metal box I had never seen before on a motorcycle.
"What's that?" I asked.
"Fingerprint ID box. It has to be Axel's fingerprint, otherwise the engine won't start, no matter what. It's like how secret intelegence officers have several tests, such as retnal-iris scans, fingerprint scans, the like. I just need to put one on mine, and we'll all be up to date, besides the fact that mine needs to have the oil tank replaced, which is hard enough to get to from where I decided to bloody put it." he grumbled.
I looked back at Desmond's bike and within moments I heard the sharp snap of the side panel attatching itself back to the body. "Finished at last. Now Axel can finish paying me and stop bitching at me for taking so long. He knows that it's not easy to take the entire engine appart and put all brand new peices back together in the right places, as well as throw in a couple good nicnacks." he mumbled, standing as sighing with success and pride. He turned to his own bike and sat down before it, then popping off both side panels, the seat, and he began unscrewing a path of parts until he reached finally pulled out something that looked like an oily bucket with holes everywhere in it. He tossed it into a trashcan not far away and pulled the same item, this one fresh, new, and clean, out of a box, and put it in, putting oil in it, and he began putting his bike back together. I saw that with some pride, he took off his gloves, pushed the seat into place, then the side panels, and he stood, grinning proudly. "Now we're all fixed up." he said, satified with his work before he took the cloth out of his back pocket and began wiping down the panels on Axel's bike before his, then pouring something onto the cloth and rubbing the seats and handles down with it. They looked like brand new bikes, gleaming proudly in the light of Zexion's garage.
Zexion returned to the bench and pulled off his shirt and pants, replacing the oily ones with the fresh ones, and he deposited the dirty clothing in a cloth hamper. "Now we can go." Zexion said, smiling. He took out his cellphone as we walked and he started typing a text message to Axel. Your Bike Is Finished & I Added FIDL. was what I read. FIDL? Oh. Fingerprint ID Lock. Zexion smiled to me as he tucked his phone away and slipped his hand into mine, and together, we walked out from the hideout from a different path up many flights of stairs and one elevator before we exited a building that I found out was 4 blocks from my apartment, and 6 from Zexion's shop, though 9 from ICS. I lead Zexion to my apartment and up inside the building. I finally reached my room number and stopped in front of it to turn to Zexion. "I'm really glad that you let me stay the night with you." I told him and he smiled gently.
"I'm glad, too, Demyx. I wouldn't have been able to sleep very well if it wasn't for you, especially after the spar." Zexion told me, and I pressed my lips gently to him. "I'll see you in an hour, alright?" he asked and I smiled and nodded.
"Yeah. See you then." I told him, kissing him one more time before he left and I entered my room. I cleaned up the mess I had left the night before, and I even cleaned my entire apartment, save for vacuuming the carpet and swifering the kitchen and bathroom, which weren't all that dirty to begin with. I then sat down on my bed and pulled up my Sitar, plucking the strings lightly before I went into full song.
I began writing a song, and I would present it to Zexion when the right time came.
._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._.
It felt like forever, waiting for Demyx come to pick me up. I even bothered with putting books in shelves, filling half of the store before I heard him enter and I looked up from my work, smiling. He was wearing normal street clothing with a jacket, jeans, and tennis shoes.
"May I ask where we're going?" I inquired and he shook his head with a smile as he reached me, greeting me with a kiss.
"Come on. We want to be the first in." he told me and I locked up the shop, taking my seat in his car, and we began driving.
I don't know for how long we drove, but it felt like a long time in silence between Demyx and I, before we parked in a parking lot next to a large house that was painted white, with a big back yard with many playground items. Demyx opened my door and I left the car, looking around in question. "I used to work here, back when I was still in college. You said you liked kids, so here we are." Demyx said.
I was still confused. I couldn't see any children running around, but once we entered the white house, by god, I dont think I had ever seen an army of ten to twelve year olds quite as insane as the ones I saw there, fighting over a toy.
The instant I saw that, I shouted, "OI VEY! What are you guys? Humans or barbarians?"
All of them stopped and looked at me in shock, my hands on my hips, scowling fiercly at them. I strode towards them and took the toy they had been fighting over. "You all want this one toy why? Because it's the only one of it's kind here? It's just a toy, and there's no need for 10 of you, much less all 17 of you, fighting over something as stupid as this. It's just a toy, not a diamond."
I couldn't tell who was more shocked at my words, the children, the elderly couple and few mid-aged adults watching over the children, or Demyx.
"So, will you stop fighting now and go do something without bickering and fighting over a simple item?" I said with a raised brow, and the children scattered at a nice pace, laughter and chatter filling the room once more, without the shouting, yelling, and hitting. I looked at the toy in my hand. An action figure. I sighed and shook my head, walking over to a box of toys and I deposited it out of sight of the children. "There's so many cooler things than a plastic figure that can only move it's knees, elbows, hips, shoulders, and neck. Why people care about these things, I will never figure out." I grumbled as I stood.
Demyx was right next to me. "Oi vey?"
"It's Yiddish." I explained to him.
He nodded and turned to the people who had been watching the fight, and me yelling at the children, and he smiled to them. "Hello, Grandma Muti, Grandpa Vati." he greeted, the two elders who smiled at him.
"Demyx, it's so good to see you again. It's been so long." the old woman said, smiling as kindly as the sweetest old grandmother in the world.
The old man gave a bark of laughter. "Who's your friend? He does wonders with the children."
Demyx smiled and I stepped to his side as he rested a hand on my shoulder. I smiled meekly and I introduced myself by my human name. "I'm Ienzo Gaile. It's nice to meet you."
"He's my boyfriend." Demyx said proudly and the elderly couple burst out laughing. They aparently knew about Demyx's sexuality, long before I found out that Demyx existed.
"Oh, Demyx. That's wonderful. I take it that you are very happy with Ienzo?"
"Very much. I've got 3 more days off, and I'm spending as much of it as I can with Ienzo." He said, squeazing me a little bit at the shoulder and I blushed, smiling at the fact.
"Well then! We mustn't waste your time. You possibly couldn't have come all the way out here just to see us old farts, ja?" the man said, and I finally caught onto his watered down accent. German. I raised a brow, and I looked down to his left forearm, the sleeve rolled to cover half of it, but I saw the numbers. He was a surviver of the Holocaust. I looked at the woman's forearms, which were both in plain view, and saw none. She was an American.
"Actually, I'm taking Ienzo on a date, and this is the date site. He told me that he apsolutely loves children, and this was the first place I could think of." Demyx said.
The woman smiled. "Oh how kind of you, Demyx. Are you ever planning to adopt?" she asked both of us, and Demyx looked to me.
I smiled softly at the thought, adopting a little one. "Eventually, I will. It's just a matter of time before I find the right one." I admitted as I looked across the room to where a couple of toddlers sat infront of a TV, watching Barney.
"I take it you like the little ones? We have three new babies that were put under our care to be adopted."
"Three? The poor things!" I said. "I must have a look at them!" I commented, and the woman laughed, taking me by the hand.
"Come follow Grandma Muti. She will show you the little angels." she cackled and I laughed, good natured. I liked the elderly as much as I liked ten to twelve year olds. Some of them were sweet, and others just needed a time out. I liked Grandma Muti. She was like an sweet little six year old girl to me.
Up the stairs we went, her old bones creaking as she moved gingerly up the stairs, clinging to my arm as I supported her up the flights. On the second landing, we entered the baby room, which was perfect for both boy and girl babies. There were six cribs, but only four were filled. One of them was a little one still too young to walk, but she was here before the other three. I smiled softly and picked her up as she stood against the side of her crib, wanting attention, while the middle-aged woman who watched over the infants changed one of the three babies.
She cooed in my hold and I smiled to her before I held her gently in my arms. "Her name is Molly Nacole. Her parents were very poor, but she's not a permantent resident here. Once her parents have gotten a better life and can support themselves, they will take Molly home. They just can't take care of her right now."
"Molly Nacole. I knew someone who was named that, a long, long time ago." I murmured. Then again, I probably have met four different people all with the same name over the course of six hundred years. Molly Nacole was a girl I met in France, a little girl, who had been very sick, and I always visited her in the hospitals until she died. I didn't have the heart to turn her, because I knew she would be happier with the angels instead of the demons that I was a part of. Little Molly Nacole in my arms giggled and smiled up at me before she yawned big. "Looks like someone's tired." I mumbled with a loving smile touching my lips as I kissed her gently on the forehead and placed her to rest.
"You are very good with children, Ienzo." the old woman commented and I smiled.
"Years of practice help with that. My family says that it's natural talent, though, because I've been doing it since my little brother was born when I was seven, and after that, my entire family has never stopped making me babysit for anyone, even if it's going over to someones house because they've got a baby and they want me to see them. I love babies, but toddlers have been my big affection strike as of recent." I told her, smiling.
"You look so young, Ienzo. Surely you've done more than 10 years of babysitting your brother?"
"Ten years? It feels more like 8 thousand. He looks a lot older than me, and I'm not 17. I feel older than dirt." I said with a laugh.
"You have the motions and mind of someone far beyond my years in knowledge, Ienzo. I can tell that something about you is off, but it is a good off." she said.
"I'll tell you this much, I know I'm over the age of 30." I admitted and she laughed.
"Good genes will do that for you. You look like you should still be in high school."
"High school? Heck, I never even attended elementary school, let alone middle school and high school. My mom taught me everything from math to constilations to cooking to history. My dad was the tinker of the family, and he taught me how to build stuff, and he taught me when I was very young how to read and write. I own a book store, and I fix my friends' motorcycles." I said.
"Ah, I remember the grand ol' days of my youth when my Wolfi would take me on his ol' motorcycle. We had such fun until he broke his leg and we have never ridden again, that old thing. It's still in the garage, rusting away."
"I could make it look like it was brand new, as if he had just bought it from the store." I told her.
"Maybe we can surprise Wolfi for his birthday with that, Little Ienzo." she said, patting me on the shoulder as I picked up another baby who was starting to fuss. He was squirming and screaming.
"Can I get a bottle of formula? He's hungry, not in need of a diaper change." I commented, and I soon recieved the bottle, and I gave it to him. Instantly, his cries ended and he drank happily, nestling into the crook of my arm as I took a seat in an old rocking chair.
I didn't notice Demyx standing in the doorway, watching me. I probably looked completely in love as I watched the baby feed, taking the bottle away just for a moment to burp him without a mess, and then continue feeding him. The last baby I handled that day was almost a newborn, just a few days old. Dark blond hair with stripes of blue-gray, big blue eyes, and pale pale skin. He never got a name. His mother died when he was born, and she had no family, and the father was never known. Grandma Muti said that they just called him Baby.
"Could I name him?" I asked Grandma Muti, and she smiled, nodding.
"We recieved his name card when we got him, but we've been waiting for someone to suggest a decent name. There's a hundred Brians that have been here, I don't want to hear one more suggestion of it." she told me with a laugh.
I smiled gently, thinking. "Dexion." I whispered, smiling gently down to him as I held the quiet baby in my arms. He was so small, so fragile, so beautiful that I feared my heart would break if I ever let go of him.
"Dexion Gaile... It's a beautiful name." she said and I smiled up to her before I felt Demyx's arms wrapped around my shoulders as he looked down at the baby.
"Certainly is." Demyx said and I smiled gently, resting my head against his as we looked down at little Dexion. Demyx knew I was falling in love with Dexion already, and I hadn't even seen the rest of the children.
"You know, Ienzo, that you can take him with you as you walk around the house. I need to get my old bag of bones downstairs to mail in his birth certificate, finally with a name. I hope that someone who is as kind and loving as you will adopt him." Grandma Muti said as she left the room and so did the infant care-taker, leaving Demyx and I alone in the room.
I wiped my eyes, whispering, "Damn, I want to keep him so much."
"You know that you can adopt him."
"I can't. I lack a birth certificate, a driver's licence, and a Social Security number all together."
Demyx smiled gently. "Then we will just have to wait and pray that no one else takes him before we can." Demyx said to me, kissing me on the cheek before kissing Dexion on the forehead. "And I like the way you combined our names for him." Demyx said, tickling the little infant under the chin to cause him to giggle.
"Thanks." I told Demyx, smiling a bit as I stood up slowly with little Dexion still in my arms, and we walked downstairs together as the caretaker reentered the room, passing us without a second glance because she was too busy playing hot potato with the bottles of hot formula in her hands.
We reentered the room where the children had been fighting, and I was relieved to see none of it, but I noticed more toddlers had decided to join the TV crew, and a couple of them had laid down and fallen asleep, one of them with his butt in the air. I giggled at the sight, remembering all the toddlers I had taken care of over the past hundred years, and remembering just how many fell asleep in front of the tv like that. Vati saw us, and came over. "I hear that you named him, ja, little Gaile?" he asked me, and I nodded.
"I don't want to let go of him, he's so precious." I admitted.
The man laughed. "You're the first who's said it about him. Everyone else just looks at Molly and says Oh, how cute, not bothering to look at him for a moment. He's been so lonely, but he's taken to you very quickly. He did the same for Muti."
I just had to ask. "Is Muti her real name, or is that just a name taken off of the german word Mutter or Muti for Mother or Mom. Like how Vati is a form of Vater, and it means Father or Dad."
"You have a keen eye."
"German was the first of many languages I learned when I was a youngster. My family was very fluent in several. My favorite is German, and second favorite is Yiddish."
"I found that out when you said Oy Vey. Not many people say it any more."
"Oy Vey generally translates to Woe is Me." I explained.
Vati laughed. "You are very astute, young man."
I smiled. "Thank you."
Muti came back and started chattering again as she opened the door for the children to rush out to the playground, yelling and screaming and laughing. "Not a single fight since you two have arrived." Muti commented. "Let's just hope it stays that way until your next visit."
Demyx and I both laughed.
By the time we left the orphanage, it was almost 7 at night, and as I hesitantly put Dexion in his crib to rest, I stopped to gaze upon him. "I hope a good home and a loving family finds you soon, Dexion." I whispered to him as I kissed him on the forehead and turned to leave. It was hard for me to turn my back on him, but I had to. And as Demyx drove me away from the orphanage of Grandma Muti and Grandpa Vati, I couldn't help but cry, all the way home. I slept soundly that night, dreaming of Demyx and I, living in a house of our own, with Dexion growing up happy in our home, but I woke at 3 and I found myself crying. I wanted Dexion. I wanted My Dexion. I forced myself to lay back down, and once more, sleep overtook me.
