Laughing a little, Marluxia folloed Vexen off of the bed, coming to lie onto of him, his hips pressed to Vexen's. "My, what are you doing down here?"
"I was going to get up and get some water," said Vexen, "but now you're on top of me so you'll have to get it."
"I'm rather comfortable." Marluxia said, settling a little more on top of the blond. "ANd still very tired, after being woken up last night."
"Well, I have a hangover. I need water," said Vexen.
"Then you'll have to make me move." Marluxia looked up at Vexen, smiling as innocently as he could muster.
Vexen put a hand on Marluxia's stomach and rapidly cooled the latter's skin. "Get off me and get me some water," he growled.
Marluxia yelped, sitting up quickly. "That's not fair." He growled back, finally standing. "Get your own water, I'm having a shower."
Vexen trodded off to the kitchen and poured a glass of water. Well, Marluxia /had/ told Vexen to /make/ him move. Fair had never entered the equation. Vexen frowned. If this was friendship, it was a lot like a fucked-up roller coaster ride.
Marluxia only had a quick shower, focusing all of his anger/fraustration on scrubbing himself down thoroughly rather then yelling and thumping around the house like a child having a temper tantrum. He said nothing to Vexen as he came into the kitchen, digging around for something to eat.
Vexen had finished off five glasses of water and his headache was subsiding. "What do you want to do today?" he asked, oblivious to Marluxia's anger.
"Eat, sleep and clean up around here." Marluxia said, eying the few dirty dishes that sat patiently by the sink.
Vexen smiled wanly. "Can I help?" he asked.
Marluxia glanced over at him. "It helps me relax if I can do it alone with my music up loud."
"Oh," said Vexen softly. "I should go, then." He hunted down the clothes Marluxia had gotten for him yesterday, plus the leftover Chinese food and his vest, and was out the door within twenty minutes.
Marluxia sighed when his house was empty once more- he wasn't sure if he was relieved to have things 'back to normal', or a little saddened, but nonetheless after breakfast, he turned on his music and started the thorough job of clean every single room in his house from ceiling to floor.
Vexen took his clothes and things back to his apartment, then tried everything on in front of his closet's full-length mirror. Marluxia had really good taste. He hung up the clothes in the "tame" section of his closet, stripped out of what he was wearing, put it in the laundry and went for a shower. He wasn't sure if Zexion was home and found himself hoping for some company.
The sound of Vexen returning home woke Zexion, so grumpy and still exhausted and without his boyfriend for once, Zexion emerged from his room. He could hear the shower running, so he went to the kitchen and made coffee rather than hunt the blond down.
When Vexen emerged from the shower and got dressed, he was almost surprised to see Zexion in the kitchen. "Morning," he said.
"Mornin'." Zexion said over the top of his mug. He didn't look up from the newspaper spread out over the table. "Where were you last night?"
"At Marluxia's," said Vexen. "I went to the club to retrieve the vest you gave me. He came with me and- and I got it back and spent the night with him." He didn't mention their fight, or almost sleeping with Xigbar, or downing an entire bottle of wine in the middle of the night.
Zexion smirked a little, sipped his coffee, and finally put it down. "Oh. Did you have fun with him?"
Vexen looked away. "S-sure," he said, trying to sound chipper and failing hard.
Zexion frowned- he had lived with Vexen long enough to know when something did not add up. "What happened? Did you not pay him enough?"
"Nothing like that," said Vexen, shaking his head. "In fact, I did offer to pay him for... for oral sex," he blushed, "the other day. He got offended and left. Yesterday we went shopping, got something to eat, and went to get my vest, which I'd left there the other night when I-" Here he dropped his voice to a mumble and confessed to almost sleeping with Xigbar.
Zexion simply raised his eyebrows at the blond picking up is coffee again. "A whore getting offended at being offered money, how strange." He mused aloud. "And what an exciting week you've had so far."
"I suppose. There are videos all over Youtube of the other night if you were interested. Marluxia convinced me not to do it, took me back to his place, then yesterday we went shopping, out to eat, then back to the club for my vest. Xigbar was there and he tried to... to... anyway, Marluxia stopped him. We got into a fight later. I don't remember what it's about, but I think he's still angry with me."
"Oh, I know there are videos." Zexion smirked over at Vexen. "And I know he talked you out of it; I told him to. And from what I've heard, that boy has quite the temper. He probably is still mad with you." Zexion was amused at this, laughing quietly to himself as he read his paper.
Vexen had momentarily forgotten that Zexion had talked Marluxia into rescuing him, but now he scowled. "How many times did he tell you to fuck off before you bribed him?" he asked suspiciously
"Hmm..." Zexion looked thought, bringing a finger up to his bottom lip and tapping it as he thought. "Well, first I offered him money, but he said he wasn't interested in that, then he asked me to justify -why- he should help you, then I offered him a weeks worth of free drinks, which he went for." He said, nodding sagely. "Saved me quite a bit of cash, choosing the drinks."
Vexen was not amused. "Then he only did it for the drinks. As I suspected. Listen, I'm going out. I probably won't be back tonight. I'm going to finish what /you/ interrupted the other night, and if you interfere this time, I will burn every single one of your books."
Zexion frowned. "You're going back to the club? For... Xigbar?"
"Why the hell not," said Vexen defensively. "No one would ever sleep with me for the right reasons, so does it matter if a couple of people will for the wrong ones? Before you and Marluxia intervened I actually felt good about myself for once. Granted, I was drunk. Which reminds me." He crossed the room and took a little baggie of pills from the end table by his chemistry set. "I'll be needing these. I don't want to remember tonight in case I end up regretting it tomorrow."
Zexion only frowned deeper, feeling the confusing and odd sensation of concern for his flatmate he watched him get ready to go out. "I'm going to call Lex, then, and tell him to watch you."
"Don't you dare!" Vexen snapped. "I'm a grown man, older than you I might add, and I can take care of myself!" He stormed out of the apartment in a huff, slamming the door behind him.
Zexion had barely gotten to choke out a reply before Vexen was left. Sighing, he grabbed his cellphone and keyed in Lexaeus' number. It was a relief to hear his deep voice. "Vexen is coming to the club... He's acting weird, I want you to keep a close eye on him. he's gonna do something stupid."
Lexaeus was, as usual, only mildly surprised at the odd phone call from Zexion, but he agreed to do as he was told, promising to put his shift onto someone else so he could watch Vexen all the better. Zexion's concern rubbed off on him a little- he knew Vexen, Vexen didn't do stupid things.
The walk to the club was a blur for Vexen. He'd brought a change of clothing- he'd anticipated a confrontation- and changed at the gas station next door. The outfit was from the "S&M" section of his closet and featured lots of black leather and little chains hanging from the belt loop of his skintight jeans. He also wore shoulder-length fingerless gloves. Everything was... shiny.
Vexen was surprised that the bouncer who let him in wasn't Lexaeus. Surprise then gave way to suspicion. He ordered three shots of amaretto and used each one to down a pill.
Oddly enough, discretion was something Lexaeus was very good at. He knew the club well, an was careful to postion himself somewhere where he could see all, but he would not be noticed easily. Already Vexen was dealing himself damage, and he'd just arrived.
When Vexen was properly inebriated, he sought out Xigbar. "Sorry about yesterday," he murmured. "I was a little too much myself. I'm better now." He led the older man to the back room, stripped with a little difficulty, and proceeded to make what was quite possibly the biggest mistake of his life.
Although a small part of Lexaeus felt as though he should try to stop Vexen, the large part of him decided against it- he was to look out for the blond discreetly not step in. Instead, he called Zexion. On reporting back on what he saw, there was a mass amount of cursing on Zexion's side of the line, but he agreed. Let Vexen learn his lesson the hard way.
When Xigbar was done, he casually zipped up his pants (Vexen had been naked; Xigbar had not), slapped Vexen on the ass, and casually wished him luck. Vexen, who had barely been conscious when it began, now slumped onto the vibrating foldaway with a groan and fell asleep.
Seeing Xigbar leave- he was the second to last person left in the club, which was shutting down for the night, Lexaeus made his way into the back room. He did his best to ignore the fact that Vexen was naked, shaking his shoulder in attempt to wake him.
Vexen mumbled unintelligibly and rolled over, falling off the foldaway and onto the ground. That woke him up. He blinked, taking in his surroundings. The back room. When had he gotten here? Why was he naked? And... why was Lexaeus standing over him. "Oh God," he cried out. "Tell me it wasn't you!"
"Don't be ridiculous." Lexaeus said, perfectly calm as he handed Vexen his clothing. "The club is closed, Vexen. I'll take you home."
Vexen struggled to get dressed. He rarely wore clothes like this and felt mildly self-conscious. "Then...?" His brain wasn't working well enough to let him formulate the question. What had happened?
Lexaues silently escorted him out of the back room, hailing a cab as they stood outside of the club. "Give yourself time to remember. If you don't, it maybe better that way."
Vexen murmured a thank you, closed his eyes, and leaned against the window. His head didn't hurt, but there was a bittersweet taste in his mouth and a strange scent on him that he knew wasn't Lexaeus's, Zexion's, Marluxia's, or his own. Yet it seemed familiar.
Lexaeus helped Vexen into his apartment, where Zexion stood waiting for him like a disapproving mother. "Well, you should be happy with yourself. You finally got to do what you wanted, with no interferance." He said, snarky and cruel.
Vexen blinked at Zexion. He understood the individual words but to him, the shorter man was just speaking gibberish.
Zexion simply sighed at the blank look that Vexen gave him. How would he react to find that he had called Marluxia, who was waiting in Vexen's room for him? Probably just as confused to find himself as Vexen was?
"What are you talking about?" Vexen finally asked. Somehow his drugs had also wiped his memory of the past few days.
"N-nothing, Vexen. You should go and get some rest." Zexion said, gesturing for Lexaeus to help him to his room, which he did.
When Vexen got to his room, a strange-looking person with pink hair was there. "What are you doing here?" he asked, a little curtly. He didn't particularly like people, especially when they were in his room.
"Good question. Zexion invited me over, told me you had done something stupid." Marluxia shrugged. "I don't see why it has anything to do with me."
"Nor do I," said Vexen. "You know my roommate?"
"Wha- Of course I do, Vexen. He's the only reason I know you." Marluxia frowned, getting up off of the bed he had been sitting on. "Gods, how much have you had to drink?"
"But I don't know you," protested Vexen. "And that's a good question. Zexion!" he called, his shrill voice echoing through the apartment. "Would you get my breathalyzer, please?"
Zexion called back a 'get it yourself'- he was going to bed, Vexen could take care of himself, while Marluxia just stared dumbfoundly at the blond. "What do you mean you don't -know- me? We've known each other for atleast four days."
"Four days ago, I was developing a new pharmaceutical! I certainly hadn't been anywhere I might meet a person with pink hair and... that sort of ensemble," said Vexen, not trying to be impolite. "I'm sorry, but you must be mistaken."
He went out of the room to grab the breathalyzer, bringing it back quickly.
Of course, Marluxia had come straight from work, so he was still done up in glitter and extrememly tight clothes- he hadn't thought the normal Vexen had minded, but it wasn't the normal Vexen he had gotten. "No, there hasn't been a mistake." Marluxia started when Vexen returned. "We went shopping yesturday, I got you a heap of new clothes and we-..." He wasn't sure if he should bring up the changing room sex, so he bit his tongue.
Vexen frowned and went to his closet, peeking his head in. Yes, there were definitely at least ten outfits he hadn't had before. He took the breathalyzer. It was clean- he'd slept long enough that the alcohol was no longer on his breath.
"I woke up in a small room done up in red," Vexen said, and proceeded to describe back room #2 to the best of his ability
"That's the back room I've had to pull you out of twice in the short time that I've known you." Marluxia said, sounding rather dismayed at the fact that somehow Vexen had ended up in it once again- and he suspected that he hadn't gone in alone.
Vexen shook his head. He wasn't sure whether to believe this person or not. Somehow he'd known about the new clothes, but how could Vexen know that the guy wasn't just making stuff up? He sat down and promptly jumped back up again. That was painful!
"What's wrong?" Marluxia asked, although he knew already. He sighed, leaning against the wall and watching Vexen closely.
"I'm...sore," said Vexen. He checked his pockets, withdrawing a small baggie of pills. "The... the pills I was working on. But I left them on my lab table," he said.
"Apparently not." Marluxia frowned. "What are those for, Vexen?"
"They're an advanced version of the notorious Roofalin," said Vexen. "Meant to displace the victim's memory for up to a week prior to the actual date of consumption. I was planning to use it on some of my more annoying colleagues."
Marluxia let out a long sigh, finally piecing everything together. "Well, now I understand why you don't remember me, you idiot."
Vexen narrowed his eyes. "Don't call me an idiot," he snapped.
"You are one!" Marluixa snapped back. "You took some of these, didn't you? And now look at the mess you're in! You don't remember tonight, or me, or what we did together! /You are an idiot/!"
"What we did together? Look at me. Then look at you! I've got a doctorate degree and a degree in chemistry. Why the hell would I do /anything/ with a- a Vegas showperson or whatever it is that you are? Not to mention that you're probably young enough to be my son!"
Marluixa wanted nothing more then to strike out at Vexen, but decided it wasn't quite what the situation called for. he was confused, once again because of the blond in front of him, and didn't know what to do in this situation. "I'm going to let thatt slide because you are obviously not yourself right now." Marluxia all but growled through gritted teeth.
"You must know a different me than I do," said Vexen, confused by the younger man's reaction.
Just then, Xigbar burst through the closet door. "Yer window's broken," he informed Vexen.
So many questions were spinning through Vexen's head. "Who-what-how the /hell/ did you get in my closet! No one's allowed in there!"
"You've got some pretty interesting stuff in there. Cute little outfits like this one," he said, brandishing a lacy pink corset Marluxia had rejected the day they'd gone shopping. "Put it down," Vexen hissed. No one went through his closet. Instead of actually listening to Vexen, the man opened the closet door and began rifling through the clothes, taking them out of their special sections and tossing them out on the bedroom floor while making obnoxious comments.
Marluxia was extremely stunned. For a moment he just stared at Xigbar, and the clothing that covered the floor- and then he reacted. He was rather glad he had stored up all his anger, now, as he grabbed Xigbar by the scruff of the neck and dragged him away from the closet. He was so, so very sick of Xigbar's face. "I'm going to give you three seconds to get the hell out of here before I start adding to those scars of you."
Vexen suddenly remembered where he'd put the antidote to the pills he'd been developing. The experiment had started out as finding a "cure" for date rape drugs, and then derailed into making a newer one as an office prank. He wasn't sure how many he'd taken, but he took two antidote pills, which he expected would kick in in about ten minutes. Meanwhile, he raced to the kitchen and got a bottle of something he'd dosed with belladonna for troublesome intruders. He poured a glass of it and brought it into the room. "Put him down," he said, holding the drink in the scarred man's direction. "Give him this."
Marluxia decided not to ask questions. he took the glass from Vexen, forcing Xigbar's head back via his ponytail and pouring the liquid in the older man's mouth.
Vexen placed his hand over Xigbar's nose and mouth, forcing him to swallow. When he felt that the older man had swallowed, he ripped the sheet off his neatly made bed and tied Xigbar up. "Help me toss him in the closet," he said.
Marluixa raised an eyebrow at the odd instruction, but did as he was told, lugging him over to the closet and pushinh him in amoungst the clothing that remained on their hangers, he then shut the door, leaning agianst it to catch his breath. "Remind me never to get on your bad side."
"Never get on my bad side," said Vexen wryly. "I took the antidote. It should kick in in a few minutes. Who is that man and why was he in my house? Don't tell me he's a friend of yours and Zexion's?"
"I keep better company than /that/." Marluxia spat the last word, a lot of contempt sat in his tone. "But I do know him, and so do you."
"Well then, who is he?" Vexen asked, mildly amused that the glittering man was so contemptuous of Vexen's new pet test subject.
"He is the man that has repeatively tried to get in your pants- and I think he finally succeed tonight," Marluxia said, "Which means that when you recover your memory, I'm going to have to do my best to get the smell of him out of you."
Vexen took off his black leather vest and sniffed it. It did smell a little odd to him, now that he thought of it. "You know my name," Vexen said. "What's yours?"
"Oh-" It hadn't occured to Marluxia to give Vexen his name. "I'm Marluxia."
It was a pretty name, thought Vexen. Feminine, yet it suited the younger man. Vexen nodded and looked at Marluxia keenly. "You wear a lot of glitter for a man," he commented.
"Only for work." Marluxia said, doing what he had done the first night he had met Vexen, wiping away some of the glitter on his cheeks. "We've talked about this before."
Vexen wasn't sure he wanted to know what Marluxia did for a living. He sat down on his bed. "How well do you know me?" he asked.
Marluxia smiled a little at the question, although he wasn't sure he would mention /that/ to this Vexen. "Pretty well. We went shopping and you shouted me lunch a couple of times."
Vexen sorted through the clothed on the floor, putting them into piles resembling their original configuration. He looked long and hard at the unfamiliar outfits. "Did you choose these?" he asked, holding up a few of them.
"I did." Marluxia said with a wider smile than before. "Bought them for you, too. You look great in them."
Vexen pulled on a green turtleneck and admired himself in his mirror. "Hmm," he said thoughtfully. "You're right."
"Of course I am." Marluxia laughed, nudging some of the clothing with his foot. Some of it was rather interesting stuff, but he was hardly one to judge.
"Oh-" Vexen saw where Marluxia was toeing his clothing and his face flushed dark red. "Th-those were gifts," he stuttered.
"It's okay," Marluxia said with a grin. "I have embarassing stuff in my closet, too."
Vexen tugged off his turtleneck, put it in its rightful pile, and pulled on a glittering green contraption that looked like some sort of harness but was actually meant to be a top.
Marluxia laughed, gesturing Vexen to twirl. "It's funny- the you I know would never be so bold."
Vexen turned slowly. "Zexion got his friends to go on a shopping spree for me last Christmas and got me all these clothes. Sometimes when I feel down, I put them on and imagine I'm someone else."
That seemed to change Marluxia's mood a little, but he nodded in understanding nonetheless. "I was trying to help you become someone else... Then we got into this argument and I decided maybe I was doing something that benefitted me, but only me."
"I don't understand," said Vexen, taking off the glittery contraption and swapping it for a shirt with a powder blue silk under-bit covered in black lace, in a sort of leopard-spot pattern.
Marluxia only smiled, seating himself on Vexen's bed again. "You're fine the way you are. Sure, you're cheap and prudish as hell, but..." He shrugged, not sure where he was going with this.
Vexen scowled. "That is not what I meant," he said sourly. "What do you mean, something that benefitted only you?"
"I was making you into someone like me, someone I could get along with without fights and hitches along the way." Marluxia laughed a little. "It was like brain-washing, although not very succesful, you're stubborn as hell."
"But Marluxia," said Vexen. "People are bound to be different from each other. True, I don't like most people because most people aren't like me, but would you really like me better if I were exactly like you?"
Marluxia shrugged. "I've only ever been around people like me. I've liked them well enough, we never fought." Although they never stuck around, but he wasn't going to mention that.
Vexen laughed. "I fight with everyone, especially my roommate, but he and I are great friends. In fact, he's probably my only-" Vexen blinked and clutched his head, suddenly overwhelmed by a montage-like bombardment of images from the past four days.
Marluxia stood up, caustiously going over to Vexen and touching his shoulder. "Vexen? Are you okay?" Stupid question, but what else could he say?
"M-Marluxia?" Vexen felt vaguely dizzy, but he did remember what had happened for the last four days. "Are you still mad at me?" he asked tentatively.
Sighing with relief, Marluxia shook his head. "No, I'm not mad- well, I'm a little mad, but that's easily fixed."
Vexen stood up from the pile of clothes and walked over to Marluxia, kissing his forehead gently, then smacking him upside the head. "That was for trying to change me," he said, "and the kiss is because I like you."
"That's hardly a kiss." Marluxia grinned, and he wrapped his arms around Vexen's neck, puling him down for a /real/ kiss. "And I like you, too." He was surprised at how easily the words came out. He'd never said them before.
Vexen kissed Marluxia again after he said he liked him, slipping his tongue between the younger's lips tentatively and grinding against him. He didn't know why. It just felt like the thing to do
Marluxia laughed, nipped at Vexen's tongue, sucked at it, and grinded back- he was so happy, and it seemed to be coming from nowhere but the fact that Vexen was there and himself.
Vexen blinked at the sensation of having his tongue sucked at but rubbed his tongue against Marluxia's anyway. The younger man tasted good.
Marluxia broke the kiss, eventually, sticking out his tongue. "You don't taste like you." He complained, leaning up to kiss the bridge of his nose.
"What do you mean I don't taste like- oh my God, what is that repulsive smell?" Vexen cut himself off, gagging.
"The man you slept with." Marluxia said, bluntly. No point in being gentle about it, Vexen had to know.
Vexen blinked and was assaulted by another montage of memories. Leading Xigbar into the back room. Kissing his way down his body before- "I need a bucket," Vexen warned before throwing up over the side of the bed.
Marluxia pulled a face, averting his eyes from the scene. "Yes, I feel rather the same way."
When Vexen was done throwing up, he got a towel from the bathroom and mopped most of it up, tossing the towel in the hamper and the hamper's contents down the laundry chute, which led to an oversized washing machine. Then he mopped up the rest and put baking soda over the stain
By the time Vexen was done cleaning, Marluxia had stretched hiself out on Vexen's bed, trying not to fall asleep- after all, he had came straight from his last client to Vexen's, he was exhausted.
Vexen brushed his teeth and washed out his mouth thoroughly. More memories of his night with Xigbar assaulted him. They were quite graphic. Things Vexen had never even done in his dreams. He was apparently much more flexible than he thought. Though that would explain why his entire body seemed to ache. He lay down next to Marluxia. "You can stay the night if you want to sleep," he said. "I'm going to take a short nap myself, then go for a bath.
"I want to get changed, though. I'm all sticky." Marluxia mummbled, sitting up a little and rubbing at his tired eyes- he didn't care how that sounded, it Vexen liked him, he was going to have to get used to his profession.
Vexen frowned and rolled over. He felt oddly jealous and pained to hear this, but he knew he had to accept the realities of Marluxia's profession. It didn't mean he had to like it, though.
"Unless you want to lend me some clothing and bathe with me." Marluxia asked, all grins and batting eyelashes once again.