"Uh, sure… Knock yourself out." Zexion said, slightly bemused. "I'll see ya then." And with that he hung up. Alrumia smiled at Vexen, then went back into the kitchen without another word. It wasn't for another fifteen minutes before Marluxia emerged from the shower, wrapped only in a towel and his hair messy and still wet.
Vexen sighed heavily. "Marluxia… there's something I have to tell you," he said.
"You're not allowed to break up with me. It's a rule." Marluxia replied with a grin, and then he pressed a kiss to Vexen's cheek and rubbed his wet hair against the blond's shirt.
"No, but you're still not going to like this. Your father is dead, and your mother wants you and Al to visit her. I've invited myself to come along," Vexen said in a rush, his voice pitching with nervousness.
Marluxia stepped back a little, staring in Vexen's direction, but clearly, he was somewhere else. "Oh…" He said quietly. "I guess we'll have to rent a car then…"
Vexen wasn't sure what to say. He reached out to touch Marluxia's arm.
Marluxia sighed, taking Vexen's hand in his and kissing it lightly. "Al wimped out of telling me, huh?" He was still speaking in a little, hushed tone.
"He said it'd be a load off him if I told you," said Vexen, squeezing Marluxia's hand.
"Typical." Marluxia tried a smile, shaking his head when it felt weird.
Vexen kissed the top of Marluxia's head. "So what is your mother like, that I may be prepared to meet her?" he asked.
Crazy." Marluxia said as he snuggled into Vexen's shoulder and sighed. "She really doesn't like me. She'll probably ignore you."
"She must be crazy if she doesn't like you," Vexen murmured, stroking Marluxia's hair.
"Hmm. I've a thought. Dress me as a woman, will you?"
"What?" Marluxia stood up straight again. "Why on earth would I do that?"
"So that we can pretend that I am one," said Vexen, as though it were the simplest thing in the world.
"Absolutely not." Marluxia frowned, edging on scowling. "We're not hiding from her. I refuse."
Vexen sighed. "She'll only hate you the more."
"I don't care." Marluxia said, kissing the tip of Vexen's nose. "If she thinks you're a woman, she'll think she's won."
"I'd actually had something in mind," said Vexen. "Pretend to be a woman, then reveal… otherwise.
"To cause more trouble?" Marluxia frowned and took a seat beside Vexen. "My father just died, Vexen. I don't want to make things more tense than what they already are."
"Then perhaps I shouldn't go at all," said Vexen petulantly.
"If you don't want to." Marluxia shrugged and rubbed his eyes. He sighed loudly. "Gods. I dunno. I might need you there, but it's up to you."
"You're impossible to please," Vexen accused with a sigh, taking a gulp of orange juice.
"Are you kidding me?" Marluxia said looking incredulously. "My father just died, and you are trying to pick a fight with me?" He stood up, shook his head and headed for the bedroom.
"See, what did I say?" Vexen asked, taking another gulp.
Marluxia slammed the door behind him, throwing himself onto his bed and sighing up at the ceiling. "Unbelievable."
"First he says not to disguise myself because he doesn't want her to think she's won, then he says not to stir up trouble, then he goes running off," recounted Vexen, finishing off his glass. "Absolutely unpleasable."
"Are you seriously picking a fight with me bro' at a time like this?" Al asked, peeking out from kitchen. "Cause that's seriously harsh, even if he is being a douche. And if you don't fix it, I'm gonna have to punch you in the face."
"I didn't do a fucking thing," snapped Vexen, the air cooling significantly.
"Wooooow," Al said, leaning back. "Calm down man. Go talk to him."
"What's the point? He's only going to get more worked up."
"Of course he is. Dad's dead and he has to see mom. He's fucked up at the moment. If you can't deal with him like this, then well…" Al shrugged and sighed. "Might as well get out now."
"If there's nothing I can do or say to cheer him up, then why try?" Vexen asked. "It's not as though I've known him for more than a few days. Hell, I haven't even known myself for more than a few days."
"Cry me a fuckin' river. Do you love him or not?"
"Looks like you've got that covered," said Vexen, the room growing colder in direct proportion to his anger.
"Whaddya mean by that?"
Vexen didn't respond. He concentrated in restraining himself from an act of violence as the room grew chillier and chillier.
Al was surprised to see that as he spoke, his breath came out in a puff of white. "What the fuck is wrong with the air conditioning…?" He asked, glancing around with a bemused look.
Vexen stayed silent, glaring at Al.
Slowly, Alrumia returned his gaze to Vexen, eyebrows raised. "What's with the face?"
Vexen closed his eyes and managed to compose his face into a pleasant blankness, the price being another few degrees.
Alrumira shuddered, his teeth chattering. "Uh, I'ma have a shower. Go and talk. To. Him. Seriously. It's that or get the hell out." And with that, he shivered and left for the bathroom.
By now the entire apartment was near freezing. Vexen stood on wooden legs and trudged to Marluxia's door.
"What do you want?" Marluxia yelled from beneath his bedcovers. He was quite sure there were icicles in his hair.
"What do YOU want?" Vexen responded.
"You to stop being a jerk!" Marluxia replied. "You're freezing me to death!"
"I'm being a jerk?" Vexen retorted. "I'm not the one who's refuting every damn thing I say!"
Marluxia growled into his pillow before he got up, pulling open his door and scowling at Vexen. "Of course I'm refusing to allow you to dress as a girl just to please my mother, or worse, so that you can later expose that you're actually a boy and thus cause more tension and…and all sorts of other problems then there already are between me and my mother! It's a bad idea! You have those sometimes; I don't know why you are making this into a fight. My FATHER just died! I don't want to have a falling out with you right now."
"Have you tried considering that perhaps everything in this world isn't about what YOU want?" Vexen snapped back. "There's not a damn thing I can say to please you, ever. I don't know who you are. I don't know who I am. I don't understand why it's such a big deal that your father died because I don't even remember having a father of my own." Vexen spoke, for the most part, in a calm tone, not bothering to control the cold. He didn't know if he could and right now, he didn't care either.
Marluxia stared at him for a moment, open mouthed, and then he sighed, just a tiny little sigh and then he turned and walked back into his room and sat on the bed. "I know not everything is about me. I haven't tried to make it about me. But I would think that with my brother showing up on my doorstep, and then finding out that my father - the only parent I had that kind of liked me - is dead, that I could be selfish. Just a little. I thought that you would be supportive, just a for a little, and then when this was over, it could all go back to you. I realize that you don't know who you are, or who anyone around you is, but even you should be kind enough to let me mourn and process this."
Vexen sat on the bed next to Marluxia and wrapped his arms around the younger man, holding him close, his anger ebbing and the room warming.
Marluxia sat stock-still as Vexen held him, staring at the wall.
"I could be your family from now on," Vexen offered.
"Ugh, but I hate family." Marluxia said, glancing at Vexen. "and I don't hate you. If you became family, I would have to hate you."
Vexen scowled and walked out, slamming the door behind him.
"I didn't mean it like that!" Marluxia yelled after the blond, and then he did something he hadn't done since he was young. He pressed his face into his pillow and cried.
"IMPOSSIBLE TO FUCKING PLEASE!" Vexen screamed once he was outside the apartment door.
It took Alrumia about five seconds to put everything together after seeing Marluxia. So, as calmly as he could manage, he walked out of the apartment, up to Vexen and punched him in the face, as promised. "I do believe you deserved that."
Vexen hit Al back as hard as he could, then jumped over the railing of the stairs, rolled to his feet, and ran
"FUCKING COWARD!" Al yelled after Vexen, then spat on the place where he had been standing. "GOOD RIDDANCE!"
Vexen ran all the way home, without saying a word after he got in the front door except, "Hi Zexion," and grabbed a random handful of pills and ingested them./
Zexion's eyes bulged, and snatched the pill bottle away from his flatmate. "What. The. FUCK?"
Vexen collapsed against the wall, twitching, closing his eyes. He explained brokenly what had happened.
"So why the fuck are you here attempting an overdose?" Zexion asked him in disgust.
"Now you're yelling at me too," Vexen observed, slumping over more as vivid pictures flashed in his mind, followed by a jumble of words and phrases. A voice he remembered- his mother's voice?
"Because you're an idiot." Zexion said flatly as he pulled out his phone. "Do you want me to call an ambulance?"
"No," said Vexen, "but I need the car."
"Why?"
"So Marluxia and Alrumia don't have to rent one. Don't worry, I'm fully functional to drive," said Vexen.
"Uh…What?" Zexion frowned and put his phone away again.
Vexen had already left. He drove over to Marluxia's flat and honked the horn twice.
Marluxia was still curled up in bed, although no longer crying. He was just staring up at the ceiling as Al paced around in front of the bed, tending to his knuckles.
Vexen got out of the car and raced up to the apartment, opening the door and going back into Marluxia's room. To Marluxia: "I'm sorry." To Al: "Don't hit me again." Back to Marluxia: "You really are impossible to please, but I love you anyway."
Back to Al: "I'm double-parked."
Marluxia raised his head at the sound of voice, glancing at Al then back to the door. "Did he just say he loved me?" "Does this mean really can't hit him again?"
"And I'm double-parked," Vexen added helpfully. "I didn't want you to have to expend money on a rental, for one. See, I went home intending to overdose, but I grabbed the wrong pills and now I remember EVERYTHING. Come on, the sooner we get this visit over with, the better."
"But we're not even packed- And, what? Overdose?" Marluxia sat up. "Are you fucking crazy?"
"Yes, but that isn't the point," said Vexen.
Marluxia got up and opened the door, stepping out and closing it behind him so Al was left in the room. "Why would you do that?"
: "Because you're impossible to please, as I've said before, and your brother hit me."
"I'm not impossible to please, I just wanted a little sympathy from you. And of course he hit you. I haven't cried like that in years. You totally deserved it." He spoke with a smile.
Vexen's expression grew stormy.
Marluxia registered Vexen's expression with a pouty expression in return, and leaned in to kiss him. "You did, but I'm sure he's sorry for it." Marluxia ignored the 'I don't!' that came through the door.
"I did NOT," Vexen snapped, feeling close to giving Marluxia a good smack of his own. "Forgive me for making a helpful fucking suggestion, which you rejected just like you rejected EVERY OTHER SUGGESTION I'VE MADE!"
Marluxia stepped back and sighed, bringing his hands up to his hair. "What do you want me to say, Vexen?"
Vexen continued to glare at Marluxia.
Marluxia sighed again, turning to bang his head against the door, albeit lightly. "I can't… I can't let myself get so worked up about one guy, Vexen. You're killing me here. I don't know what to do."
: "I was only trying to offer my fucking support," snarled Vexen.
"Oh yeah? How? I think I missed that."
"When I offered to be your family," said Vexen through clenched teeth. He struggled to keep the temperature at a comfortable warmth.
"Well…" Marluxia said, although he wasn't entirely sure where he was going. "What did you mean by that, exactly?"
"If you don't understand, then never mind. I'm not obligated to explain a thing."
"Fine then, it will continue to be a misunderstanding between us." Marluxia said with a shrug.
"Not that you care," said Vexen, "but it was my way of offering you support."
"I misunderstood it, that's all." Marluxia said quietly.
Vexen sighed and pressed his fingers to his forehead.
"Now what?"
"Nothing," said Vexen, sitting down and leaning against the wall.
"Should I rent y own car?" Marluxia asked, tilting his head to the side as he watched Vexen.
"Don't be ridiculous. That's why I brought my car. Just remembering all my past is going to take a little getting used to," said Vexen
"Well… We don't have to leave until tomorrow, so take your time getting used to it."
"I'll go and undoublepark," said Vexen eloquently
"Okay. I'm gonna make some coffee." Marluxia smiled meekly and headed for the kitchen.
Vexen went and undoubleparked, parking in an available space and going back up to have coffee.
Al had emerged again by the time Vexen came back. He tossed him a threatening look as he settled down next to his brother with a cup of coffee.
Vexen subtly gave Al the finger, pretending to adjust his reading glasses.
Al grinned a little in approval at Vexen's sneakiness, but dobbed him in nonetheless to Marluxia. "If you two can't nice, you're both leaving." Marluxia warned
"I'm nice," said Vexen innocently.
"Yeah, but if you're mean to my brother, you get no kisses ever again."
Vexen scampered up to Marluxia and stole a kiss.
"Hey!" Marluxia protested, pouting at Vexen. "That's cheating."
"But I wasn't mean to your brother," said Vexen, smiling.
"Yeah, but kisses are supposed to be rewards."
"No," mewled Vexen. "We both deserve a kiss because we both had a rough day."
"Hah." Marluxia smiled, leaning to kissed Vexen and flip the gagging Alrumia off over his shoulder.
Vexen kissed Marluxia back affectionately, then pecked Al on the head
Al stared at him like he was an alien. "The hell?"
"You don't deserve a kiss," he said frankly.
"I didn't want one."
"Exactly," said Vexen, kissing Al again.
"Oh, God. Mar, get him off me!" Al said, feigning horror. Marluxia just laughed.
Vexen ruffled Al's hair affectionately. He couldn't explain it, but none of this really bothered him- not Marluxia's profession, not his brother, not having his memories back.
Al huffed and smoothed his hair back down. Marluxia was still laughing, looping his fingers through Vexen's belt loops on his trouser and pulling him over. "Mine."
Vexen stumbled into Marluxia's arms. "Yeah, and you're mine."
"Of course." Marluxia smiled and kissed him again, nuzzling into his neck when he pulled away.
"And I'm sorry for overreacting about your job the first time I found out. I have the creepy old guy in my closet to experiment on while you're at work." Vexen gave a creepy smile
"Don't look like that, it's scary." Marluxia said with a pout.
Vexen snuggled up to Marluxia and gave a normal smile. "I love you," he said.
"I know." Marluxia smiled, kissing the tip of Vexen's nose.
Vexen blinked at Marluxia. "Do you… love me as well?" he asked.
"I have to go…out." Alrumia said as he slid out of his chair and left the apartment. He knew when his brother needed his space.
Marluxia glanced up at Vexen, fiddling with the front of his shirt. "Uhm… I don't know…" He said quietly, sheepishly.
Vexen smiled weakly. "I… I have to go," he said, going back out of the apartment
"Wait!" Marluxia called, running after Vexen and catching him in the hallway. "D-don't go."
"I have… an experiment to take care of," Vexen said.
"Vexen, don't you dare!" Marluxia huffed
"You lost the right to tell me what to do," said Vexen icily.
"Just because I don't know if I love you?" Marluxia asked with a strained expression. "I barely know you! Most of the time we spent together, we were fighting. You were horrified by what I did for a living, or I said something wrong. Please… Just stay." Marluxia pleaded, leaning against Vexen.
"I knew you for much less long when I said it to Al the first time," Vexen said. "Fill up Zexion's car before you bring it back."
"Don't you dare leave!" Marluxia order, clinging to Vexen. "It's not my fault I don't love easily! I can't give you everything you want from me straight away, Vexen!"
Vexen shook Marluxia off and walked out, not bothering to close the door, and took off at a run for his and Zexion's place.
Marluxia stumbled back into his apartment, collapsing onto his couch and staring at the wall. He didn't feel anything. He couldn't cry anymore, couldn't even yell, let alone think. Why was everything going wrong?
As soon as Vexen got into the apartment he ran to his closet, found Xigbar bound and gagged in it, took him out, bathed him, and proceeded to have furious revenge sex with him. He collapsed in a nearly dead slumber, but not before carefully retying the man and shoving him back into the closet. Today had sucked. Maybe it would be better when he woke up. He made a mental note to apologise to Marluxia later.