"What did you do?"

"Nothing! I swear! One minute he was fine, the next he was out! And now…"

"Demyx. What -- did -- you -- do?"

"I told you! Nothing!"

"Then what happened?"

"Man, seriously, when did I give you the impression that I knew what in the world was going on?"

"Number IX, if you refuse to try and contribute now, then just go to your quarters."

Demyx had a hard look on his face -- something rarely seen in the musician. He did as he was told, heading towards his room.

Saïx turned back towards the window, looking like he would have loved to sigh.

Nalax watched with a strange expression as Demyx left, and when he had disappeared down the hallway, she turned back to Axel.

He easily read her expression. "I don't really think he did anything to Roxas." Then he reread her expression, remembering that she had been out on her first solo mission when Demyx and Roxas had returned. "Oh, right. Demyx brought Roxas back from their last mission with him unconscious. Should have seen Xemnas' face when Saïx called him to come and see. He was furious -- kept ranting about how it could ruin everything. But they looked him over and he should be fine… they're just trying to figure out what happened."

Nalax took it all in. She had seemed to become more and more unsettled with the new addition as his first week rolled on; even though he had been the one to get her to keep her hood down, they just had some kind of bad chemistry. "Maybe nothing happened. Maybe he had just been exhausted from stress. You know… since it's his first week and all…."

Axel raised an eyebrow. "Stressed?"

She blinked. "Oh. Right. Well… he still could have just been tired."

Axel dropped his brow but twisted his mouth. "Maybe…" he said, but he didn't buy it at all, as probable as it was. Something just made the whole thing feel like it couldn't just be a normal occurrence. I mean, Nobodies don't really get tired. We just lose energy -- but never enough to make us pass out from it, he thought.

"Axel?" said Nalax, breaking him out of his small thoughts.

"Yeah?"

"Do you think he'll be alright?" she said, but her tone made the question sound simpler than it should have been. He knew she wasn't worried -- merely curious.

He looked over her face, taking it in again for the hundredth time that week. Almost distractedly, he replied, "Once Zexion gets back from his mission, they'll get him to run some experiments. We won't really know until he tells us."

She nodded. After a moment, she asked, "And… what about Demyx?" Her tone wasn't so simple this time; here, she was worried.

Axel wanted to say "Eh, he'll be fine. You know how he is, hahaha," but, yet again, something just didn't feel normal. And yet, he couldn't say he was so worried about the guy either -- he may have been a kind of friend to him, but….

In the end, he found he couldn't answer her. He looked her in the eyes before turning away, arms crossed, head bowed, and eyes closed. He just didn't know.