Adventurous
Another rainy day. It had been three in a row now, and Demyx was starting to go insane.
He loved rain. He did not love this much rain, or how sick it was making everyone, especially because he was the one who had to take care of them.
The first day or two of relaxing and sleeping in had been nice, felt good. But after so long of not being lazy, being still was making him a bit stir crazy. He and Ienzo both.
"Demyx, please find something to do. I'm trying to study."
He'd seen everything there was to see on Kingstagram and then some. Obsessing over his compositions was just making him frazzled. "You could go somewhere else," Demyx said.
"I could. I do not want to."
"Why not?"
Ienzo looked up at him blearily. "Because this room has good light and I cannot see otherwise. I'm waiting for new light bulbs to come in the market. The ones in the library blew."
"Because the lamps are old and you use them too much."
Ienzo turned back to his book and stared at it for a time. Demyx tied a worn-out bandage to the fire poker and waved it around over Beans for a while, who seemed to get some amusement out of it for a time. After that, she got tired, stretched, and curled in front of the fire. Demyx took a picture of her. He had more photos of Beans than he did of himself and Ienzo. She was a captive audience.
He looked back over at his husband. Ienzo had his face in his hands. "... You okay?"
"My eyes are getting worse," he said. "It is quite frustrating."
"I can heal them."
"Even's printing new lenses for me, but it's taking a while." He took off the offending glasses.
"Mm. Well, your choice." Demyx picked up the cat, who complained, and sat her in his lap.
"She's trying to sleep. Leave her alone."
"Well, I'm bored."
"Then go find something to do."
"Why don't you?"
"Keep it up and perhaps I will."
A few minutes of silence. They didn't fight often; if they did, it was usually over something stupid. Demyx exhaled. "I'm sorry. I'm being obnoxious."
"It's alright. I'm… just frustrated. Not with you."
"With what?"
"With…" He sighed. "With my studies. I feel as though I don't know what to work towards. I feel increasingly repulsed by hard sciences. I keep trying to pique my own interest, but… I'm bored, Demyx. I'm so bored."
"You say that like it's a bad thing."
He pressed his face in his hands again.
"I'm sorry," he said. He rested his hands on Ienzo's shoulders and rubbed gently. "I know it's gotta feel weird."
"I feel a failure," he mumbled.
"You don't have to force yourself to do it. Nobody's going to come after you if you change fields."
"I know." He scoffed a little, to himself. "It's… what was expected of me, since I was very small. Ansem himself suggested a change, yet I feel as though I'm letting him down."
Demyx snorted. "He thinks the sun shines out your ass. I think he'd be proud of you, so long as you were happy."
A sigh. "I suppose."
"What are you still interested in?"
"Psychology. Neuroscience. History. Anthropology, linguistics-"
"Enough to keep anybody busy for a lifetime."
He smiled. "I curse your insightfulness, sometimes. It makes it very hard to feel sorry for myself."
"You get too stuck in your own head, I think."
"...I know."
Demyx kissed him once. "Let's go somewhere."
"It's raining like mad."
"There's a whole castle here. Why don't we go exploring?"
Ienzo brightened a little. "That doesn't sound half bad. They never used to let me sneak around on my own."
They packed a bag with some snacks, water, and some drawing things to make a map. Fed the cat. This gathered, they started walking.
"Where did you want to go, when you were a kid?" Demyx asked.
"The upper floors. Always. There must be something in the towers."
"Secret passages?"
"Something. "
They went up and up and up, beyond the clumps of residential space, beyond the offices that were once for the ruler of the city. Everything that they did not use on a regular basis was choked with dust, decay, and water damage; the places that had paint or wallpaper were peeling; the soft wood floors had chipped up, revealing the stone beneath. Every now and again, they came across gouges in the walls and floors; remnants left behind by Heartless.
"I knew all of this was in disrepair, but I didn't think it was this bad," Ienzo said. He nudged a piece of curled carpeting with his foot.
"Yeah, me neither. But I'm not surprised." The windows were dingy. Demyx rubbed a hole clean with his sleeve. "Look. We're pretty high up."
Town spread below them, smaller than they had ever seen it. It was like looking at models, at toys. Demyx wasn't sure how he felt about the sense of impermanence it gave him.
"We're near the clocktower," Ienzo said. "Let's see if we could find it."
The reconnaissance part of Demyx's brain, long dormant, began to wake up and take it all in. The architecture of the castle was all over the place; it must have been constantly added on-to, rather than build and completed all at once. "Why is this all here? What's the point of it?"
Ienzo considered this. "There's a reason this place was once called Hollow Bastion. Many, many years ago, the weather was much harsher. More flooding, battering winds, temperatures that flopped from boiling to freezing on a dime. I mean centuries ago, probably shortly after the Fracture. The whole town was here; it was safe, from the elements, and what have you."
"...Huh."
"I agree there's no need for such excess anymore, but what are we to do? Knock it down? What purpose would it serve?"
"It's just… sad."
"I agree."
It took more poking around to find the staircase that led into the tower. The whole place was dark; they had to use their phones to penetrate the gloom. The actual door leading into the tower proper was locked; Ienzo gave it a kick. "All this time I've wanted to come up here, only to be held back by something so paltry as a door. Even if there were copies of the key-well. I'm sure it's lost to the sands of time."
Demyx snorted; as smart as Ienzo was, he could be so oblivious.
"Something amuse you?" he asked coolly.
"You're yammering on about keys ," Demyx said. "Did you forget?"
Ienzo blinked. The lighting was dim, but Demyx swore he saw him blush. "I know of your… distaste of it."
"But I'm also lazy, and I'd hate to have come all the way up here for nothing." He summoned the Keyblade and used it to crack the lock. "Haven't had to do this in a while."
"I admit, it is still… bizarre to see you with that thing."
"You're telling me." It disappeared with a flash. He had to really muscle the door to make a space wide enough for them to squeeze through. It protested with a deafening creak . He shone the light on his phone around, illuminating the wooden staircases and struts leading all the way up. He was hit with the smell of mildew and decay, and coughed. "The wood's probably rotten. Be careful."
"I'm small. I should be fine."
"Rotting wood doesn't care how heavy you are."
The place was smoggy with dust, as well as other things he was sure they shouldn't be breathing in. He watched Ienzo's flashlight dart forward, up and up. He should've brought rope. Why didn't he think of that? God forbid he fall- Demyx inhaled sharply. He may be a healer, but healing can't fix dead .
"Come up here," Ienzo said. "There's another door. I think it leads to the roof."
Demyx followed him, tentatively. He wasn't much heavier than Ienzo, but the wood groaned unpleasantly, and planks were missing in places. He tried to climb quickly, to get it over with, to get back on solid(ish) ground.
He was right; though thankfully this door was already open, hanging off the jamb. It was a balcony, of a sort. They'd been climbing and poking around for so long that the rain had stopped, and the sun was setting, casting everything in pinks and reds. Demyx gasped, tasting fresh air for the first time in hours.
The balcony creaked, and there was a sharp snap . He grabbed Ienzo by both wrists, finding him suddenly dangling, one foot planted on the stone wall. The whole bottom of the balcony had fallen out. "You say "I told you so," and I'll divorce you," he said, panting with adrenaline.
"You alright?"
"Oh, lovely."
"You can probably walk right up."
Ienzo glanced down. "Let go of me."
"Over my dead body!"
"No, really. It's okay. It's not even a three meter drop. There's a… it looks like some kind of garden."
Demyx peeked around the hole in the floor, and saw he was right. "On three." He heard a soft thud, and then Ienzo swore. "You alright?"
"Out of practice with this all," he called breathlessly. "I'm… bruised, but I'll be fine."
Carefully, Demyx dropped down as well. He healed Ienzo's twisted ankle, and they surveyed the place.
It was clear it had once been beautiful. The stone paths were choked with cracks and weeds; the marble statues had had heads and arms ripped off. The flowers were so overgrown it was impossible to tell what they had once been; most of the greenspace had been taken over by grass that was waist high. A fountain in the center was cracked, its naked spigots showing. It was here they sat, for a moment. The sun was setting quickly.
"I'd say let's head back before it gets dark, but it seems too late for that," Ienzo said.
"Well, I've camped in worse places."
"As have I."
Demyx took the blanket out of the bag and laid it in a drier patch that wasn't overgrown. They had some sandwiches, tried to ration their water. They probably could make it down alright in the dark, but after seeing that fall, Demyx wasn't sure how much he trusted the wood. At least all this was solid. "So, is your curiosity satisfied?" Demyx asked.
"Not quite," he admitted. "I had thought this was all… mysterious, magical. But it's just-"
"A crumbling building?"
"...Well. Yes."
He sighed. "I'm sorry."
Ienzo smiled. "You do apologize too much. But, I suppose, it's alright. Part of me hoped this would be the saving grace of my childhood. Well. It is beautiful, in its own right. Don't you think?"
"It must've been great in its heyday."
"Who knows? It might be once more. Someday." He stuffed the cloth that had held their food back in their bag and lay back. "The stars will be out soon. I wouldn't mind watching them. If it's all the same."
Demyx lay down next to him and kicked his shoes off his aching feet. The sky slowly darkened, from violet to navy to a blue so dark it was almost black.
"There are even more now," Ienzo said.
It was true; it might be night, but the sky was full of brightness.
"Did you ever study the constellations?" Ienzo asked him.
"Well, yeah. It was part of our basic survival thing." He lifted his palm and began gesturing. "That one's Cancer. Like a crab. Can you see it? And then… the Big Dipper. That star at the end was the North Star, the one closest to Daybreak Town. You were born in April, right? So you would've been born under… Taurus. The bull."
"I am stubborn," Ienzo admitted. "I find this all fascinating. The ones I learned are completely different." He leaned against him but kept his gaze upwards. "So, what's yours?"
"Libra. The scales. Balance."
"I do recall you mentioning that to me, once long ago. I used to think astrology was all tosh, but so many things affect a heart. Why wouldn't the stars?"
"That's deep." He felt Ienzo nudge him hard. "Ow."
"Inevitably this makes me think of the night you first kissed me."
"Does it?"
He hummed in response. "You know, that was sort of the moment that changed everything for me. I was human, but it was the first time I chose something that I wanted. That made me realize I had worth. It was such a haze, you know, before that. Only seeking what was in front of me, nothing more. After that, well, I started seeing… more. Allowed myself to want. To open." He turned on his side a little.
Demyx felt the air between them spark. He touched Ienzo's face, the dustiness of his cheek, and kissed him again.
"What was it like for you?" Ienzo asked for a moment. "In the beginning?"
"Well… I wasn't going to. But I didn't want to be a coward. I guess by then I'd decided to change, too. But it was like… don't move." He pressed their lips together, not really kissing him at all. "Like that."
"Not much of anything, was it?"
"It was your first. You weren't going to be an instant expert." He shifted a little, onto his side.
"My memory is… hazier now. But I feel as if that's been burned into my skin."
His heart stuttered. "Mine too."
Ienzo kissed him, more softly this time, catching his bottom lip. Demyx could remember a time when he had to think hard about this, but now everything felt so easy, so natural. He pulled a hand through Ienzo's hair, which was a bit scratchy with dust. Demyx heard his breath catch. Ienzo pulled at his shoulder, guiding him down on top of him, and kissed at throat. "You taste like dust," he said thickly.
Demyx laughed. "So do you. We're filthy." He returned to him, slipping an arm under his back, tugging the shirt away from Ienzo's overwarm were both breathing hard, the night air fresh and needed.
A slight pause. "So," he said.
"So."
Ienzo kissed him more fiercely now, and the sudden wave of want almost made him fall. Ienzo curved his leg up around his waist. Demyx felt his own hands trembling, the hard ground making his elbow hurt, but most of his focus was on the person he was holding and the tongue in his mouth (really, where did Ienzo learn to do that?). He slid his hand down between his legs, over the fabric, and Ienzo pulled away with a gasp.
Demyx could barely get enough breath to form words. "Did you… did you want me to stop?"
"No," he said hoarsely. "I-we're outside."
"Do you really think someone's going to find us all the way up here? If that balcony couldn't hold you, I doubt it'll hold Aeleus." Demyx couldn't see his face; it was too dark. "Plus it's kind of dark."
"You're right." Then, in a different tone of voice, "You're right." He pulled Demyx close, and then he was doing that thing again, with his mouth, and Demyx was actually a little dizzy. He let his hand slip below the waistband of Ienzo's slacks, unbuttoning them but leaving them on (it was just a little too cold to justify being naked, regardless of how turned on they were). He could feel it, the hardness of him, steady and vital. Demyx heard Ienzo's breathing pick up, soft and excited, and felt him fumbling at his jeans as well. It was a little weird, to be touched through the fabric, but muffled in a way that only aroused him more.
He slipped Ienzo's dick out of his underwear, into the open space between them, running his thumb gently along the underside, gratifying in the small sound he heard. Ienzo seemed to be struggling with the buttons. "Need help?"
"This always happens," he said. "I become so-"
"It's okay. I like it." He took his dick out so Ienzo could touch him too. It did feel a bit strange like this, but he was at the point where he didn't care.
For a moment they were just hands and breath and touch, slow at first but then with more urgency, until the tension inside him was wound so tightly it almost hurt. He heard Ienzo gasp again, out of surprise almost, and feeling the heat of him was too much. He caved, the shock of endorphins replacing the dust and the strangeness of the whole thing.
"That was… that was it," Ienzo said breathlessly. He kissed him once. "Did you…?"
"Yeah, I just did." He shifted his weight a little, feeling more acutely the sweat and the dust and the weight of his clothing. He tucked it back in and thought he heard Ienzo do the same.
"Lay down," Ienzo said. "Relax. We are going to be here for a while."
Demyx lay down against him, listening to the soft thump of his heart. Ienzo ran his hands through his hair. "Pull the… the blanket over us. It'll be too cold."
"I don't anticipate sleeping well. I'd almost rather wait for it to get light." He sighed. "I admit, I can't wait to take a nice warm bath."
"Me too."
"I'm… glad we did this," he said. "You're right, I do get stuck in my head too much. It doesn't hurt to find some adventure. Even small ones."
"That's what I'm here for."
"...We do balance one another out."
Demyx took a deep breath. "I am not looking forward to finding a way down."
"I'm sure we'll figure something out. We always do."
He smiled, feeling more and more exhausted.
"Sleep, love," Ienzo said. "I know you're tired."
"You wore me out."
"I'm getting better at that."
He felt filled with such love. Sometimes it struck him more than others. He gave Ienzo a squeeze, so grateful for all the pieces that had allowed them to be together.
And then he slept.
