The next day, Alrumia put on is Twin Brother hat and, after asking for money, he went out a rented a car and got Marluxia his favorite food for breakfast and convinced him to get out of bed. Then he started packing for Marluxia, who seemed to be on a planet all of his own.

When Vexen woke up, it was late afternoon. He sighed, checked his bank account online, withdrew a few hundred dollars, and went to buy Marluxia a bribe of some sort. He had no idea what to get him and was searching for hours before coming up with a life-sized stuffed panda and a bottle of red wine. He lugged these things to Marluxia's apartment and knocked on the door.

Alrumia was just opening the door when Vexen showed up, a bag slung over his shoulder. "What the hell do you want?" He all but growled. "He doesn't want to see you."

"I'd rather he tells me himself," said Vexen calmly.

"No, now scram. We've gotta get going." Alrumia said, stepping back into the apartment and returning with Marluxia in tow. Marluxia glanced at Vexen, but said nothing, his expression blank. He just followed his brother down the hallway.

"Marluxia!" Vexen called, putting down the bag and pulling out the expensive bear.

Marluxia glanced back at the blond, stared at the bear, but shook his head. "I have to go."

"I want to come with you. Look, I'm sorry for being such a complete ass last night. I know it's not an excuse, but it's been so long since I've felt loved or needed…" Vexen blinked away tears and gently set the bear down on the porch, and next to it the wine bottle.

Marluxia stopped for a moment, ignoring the way Alrumia rolled his eyes. "You think that's enough? Some gifts and a little apology? I'm sorry. I have a funeral to get to."

"Maybe I'm not the one who should be apologising for needing space!" Vexen snapped, striding in and catching Marluxia by the arm.

"Let me go, Vexen." Marluxia warned lowly, trying to pull his arm free. "I will not argue with you. Let me go."

Vexen froze Marluxia's arm in a fit of anger. "It's about time you didn't argue with me. Now listen. I wanted to show you yesterday that I'd be there for you, no matter what. I said I love you and I meant it. You don't have to love me back. You don't even have to like me. But I want you to give me a chance to make up for running out on you last night."

"If you don't need me to love you then /why did you leave/?!" Marluxia snapped, trying not to show just how much pain he was in. "Let me go, or I will call Alrumia here."

"I needed you to last night," said Vexen quietly, letting the tears stream down his cheeks. The ice thawed into nothing and Vexen let go of Marluxia's arm. "But then… last night, I realised… there are things I can do to distract myself. I know now, you're a free spirit and I can never have you for myself. But now, I don't think I need to. I do want to go with you, though. I don't care what your mother or anyone else thinks of me, but I think you need as many people there as possible who love you, because your mother does not sound like a pleasant person."

Marluxia stumbled back a little and shook his head. "Vexen…" He started, but had no idea where he was going. He turned away for a moment, sighing loudly. "Alright. But… There's one thing I still have to tell you about this trip."

"I'm going to bring in the presents, but I'm listening," said Vexen, fetching the bear and the wine and lugging them through the door.

"Uh…" Marluxia paced a little. "Uhm, there's a little girl who lives with my mother, right?"

"M-hmm," said Vexen, wondering where this was going.

"Uh. She's my daughter." He said quietly.

"Where's her mother?"

"I don't know."

"Well then, I certainly hope your mother isn't poisoning this poor child's mind against you," said Vexen. He could sort of understand why Marluxia wouldn't want his daughter living with him.

"She's three, and doesn't talk. So… Even if mom is trying to turn her against me, I won't hear about it from her." Marluxia said with a shrug. "I just thought I'd tell you before we got there."

Vexen took Marluxia's hand gently. "I don't want her to grow up hating her father," he said. "No child should go through that."

"I don't know, she has every right to hate me. I haven't seen her in months." Marluxia smiled a little, but shook his hand free. "We should get going. Al's gonna throw a fit."

"Well, as long as it isn't your mother's doing. Mothers can be fairly cruel," said Vexen, speaking from experience.

"Indeed. She's just trying to raise Amelia better than she raised me though, I think." Marluxia sighed, and started down the hall after locking the door behind Vexen. "Ah, who cares. It'll be nice to see my little girl again, I guess."

Vexen nodded in agreement. "I'll try to behave myself, then. Thank you for telling me."

"You're welcome." Marluxia smiled and headed out to the car. Al pulled a face when he saw his brother emerge. "Jesus! Hurry the hell up, or we'll hit traffic."

Vexen sighed when he noticed the rental. "I brought my car so you /wouldn't/ have to rent one," he complained.

"Yeah, well, we didn't wanna be in debt to you." Al replied. "Now, do we have to stop and pick up your shit or what?" He asked as Marluxia climbed into the passenger seat and started fiddling with the radio.

"That would probably be a promising idea, seeing as I was so focused on buying Marluxia something that I didn't think to grab my clothes."

"Great." Al said sarcastically as he started the car and pulled out. Marluxia probably should have mentioned that Alrumia drove like a mad man on crack. "Where's ya place?"

"666 First," said Vexen.

Alrumia nodded in acknowledgment, and headed for Vexen's place with total disregard for the road rules and other vehicles. Marluxia turned around in his seat to look at Vexen. "So what was up with buying me a soft toy? I'm twenty-three, ya know?"

"But he's cuddly! And no one hates pandas," Vexen protested. "I kept the receipt if you want to take it back."

"N-no, but you can keep him. Oh! Actually, you should've bought him with you. Could've given him to Amelia." Marluxia thought aloud.

"Oh, so ya told him about the sproglet?" Al asked with a grin in Marluxia's direction.

"He wouldn't have fit in the car," Vexen protested, "and I'm not about to strap him to the roof. He's too cute to be covered in pigeon poo. Besides, I ordered a bamboo garden to go with him."

Marluxia raised his eyebrows at Vexen and slowly sat back in his seat. "You're weird, Vex'."

"Well, I still have some money left from the withdrawal I made, so I can pick up a stuffed toy for Amelia as well. Perhaps a bee or ladybug."

"Uuuugh, we're totally gonna be late, aren't we?" Al groaned. Marluxia sat up again to look at Vexen and smiled. "That'd be good of you. Ma might think a little more of you if you're good to Mia."

Vexen smiled affectionately and pecked a kiss to Marluxia's forehead.

"I don't care what your ma thinks of me," said Vexen frankly, "but I do like children."

"It'll make things easier if she likes you, though. And that's good. Although Mia's so shy, you'll barely notice her there." Marluxia said with a little shrug. "I dunno where she gets it from."

"Most likely from her mother," said Vexen wryly.

"No, no I don't think so." Marluxia replied sheepishly.

"Oh?"

"I mean, I didn't know her very well but… She wasn't shy."

"Hmm." Vexen went off into his own little world to ponder this for the remainder of the drive.

it wasn't much longer before Al pulled up outside of Vexen's flat and ordered him to get out. "Ten minutes, or we're leaving without ya."

Vexen dashed in, greeted his roommate and roommate's boyfriend who were making sweet love on the new couch, dashed off to his closet, grabbed some clothes and shoes at random, and threw them into a suitcase. He ignored the muffled protests from Xigbar asking to be let out, but did dash down to the kitchen and pull out leftovers for his "test subject" to eat as an afterthought. Then he grabbed his suitcase and was out the door in about nine and a half minutes.

"Not bad." Al remarked as he pulled out onto the road again. "And now, we only stop when I get hungry." He declared, and their road trip began. And Al was a Nazi of a driver. No one touched the stereo despite it being deafeningly loud, and no one complained about needing to stop without getting an earful.

Vexen pulled some earplugs out of his pocket and offered a pair to Marluxia, stuffing another pair into his own ears.

Marluxia rolled his eyes at Vexen, climbing into the backseat despite Alrumia yelling at him, and settle down next to Vexen, kicking aside some luggage around his feet.

Vexen put the earplugs he'd offered back in his pocket and snuggled up to Marluxia.

Marluxia sighed and nuzzled against him. "I hope you don't mind a long, head-ache inducing trip."

Vexen petted Marluxia's hair. "Well, you're here. How bad can it be?"

Marluxia gave Vexen a doubtful look. "Heh. We'll see."

Vexen smiled and kissed Marluxia's cheek.

Even though Alrumia drove like a sixteen-year-old boy in his first car ever, it was still a long drive. Or perhaps it took longer than usual because they got pulled up four times. Either way, it wasn't until late the following morning that they finally pulled up to Marluxia's mother's house. It was a quaint little house, well looked after with a few toys scattered over the front lawn and a little dog yapped madly through the gate that separated the front and back lawn. "Yaa~ay." Marluxia cheered unenthusiastically.

Vexen hid a smile. "Well. I can honestly say that that was the worst fucking drive of my life."

"Yer welcome." Al said as he climbed out of the car and went around to get hi stuff out of the back. "Come on, bro, can't hide in the car all day. Jesus, can you believe that little rat is still alive?" He added, glaring at the dog that was still barking away. It was grating on both the twins' nerves

Vexen grabbed his suitcase and glared at the dog. It was annoying the hell out of him, too.

Marluxia was last out, grudgingly grabbing his bag out of the trunk of the car and slamming it shut. The dog went quite for about a second after that. "Alright. Let's do this."

Vexen stayed behind the twins, feeling shy and slightly uncomfortable. He gripped his suitcase tightly as he followed them.

Alrumia looped an arm around his brother's as they reached the front door and knocked a couple of times. There was yelling from inside for the dog to shut up, and eventually the woman that was obviously Marluxia's mother answered the door. She seemed a little surprised to see her sons, but she smiled a little and gestured them inside. She shot a curious glance at Vexen, but said nothing.

"Good morning, ma'am. My name is Vexen. I'm the roommate of one of Marluxia's friends," he said.

Marluxia's mother raised an eyebrow at Vexen, then looked him over a couple of times. "Take you shoes off before you come inside, and you're sleeping on the couch. I wasn't expecting two people, let alone three."

Vexen smiled pleasantly and bowed, removing his shoes and placing them neatly by the door.

The twins tossed their shoes off too, and Marluxia silently took Vexen's suitcase and disappeared into the house. Al gave Vexen a look that didn't seem to mean anything to anyone but himself. There was an awkward silence for a moment, then Marluxia returned. "So, where's Mia? I wanna see her." "Oh, really?" His mother scoffed in disbelief. "That's a first. She's in her room, playin'."

"Oh yes, that reminds me," said Vexen. He'd gotten the aforementioned stuffed bee during one of the very rare pit stops. "I brought a present for the little one."

Marluxia caught Vexen's arm before anyone could say anything and pulled him down the hallway. He slowed down when he reached the last door, which was decorated like most small girl's bedroom door. "I'm nervous." Marluxia said quietly.

"She's a child, Marluxia. Children are naturally loving creatures."

"Yeah, yeah… You're right." Marluxia said slowly, nodding. He sighed, and pushed open the door. A little blonde girl sat in the middle of the room, big sheets of paper scattered around her, most of them covered in crayon scribbles. She looked up at the men who entered her room, eyes just like Marluxia's except a million times bigger looked over both of them and she smiled.

Vexen smiled back. He walked over to Amelia and knelt down. "Hello, Amelia. My name is Vexen. I'm a friend of your father's. This is for you," he said, handing the child the giant stuffed bee.

The girl's little smile grew to a massive grin, and she snatched the toy from Vexen. She was just as quickly on her feet and running to hide behind her father's legs. Marluxia leant down and scooped her up, looking like a natural, but extremely nervous. "Hi there Mia, you don't have to be shy." He said in a hushed voice. "Vexen's really, really nice to me, so he will be to you, too."

Vexen laughed. "I think she likes the bee," he remarked.

Marluxia laughed a little, too, pressing a kiss to his little girl's forehead as she pressed the soft toy to her chest and face and giggled a little. "Gods, she's grown up so much."

"She's beautiful," said Vexen, smiling. He took out his camera phone and took a picture of Marluxia and Amelia. "Don't worry, no one is going to see this except me."

"It's not like I'm ashamed of her," Marluxia said. "You can show people." He carefully put the girl down, who ran over her bed - she seemed to run everywhere, no matter how short the distance - and added the bee to her collection of soft toys. She fussed over him for quite some time until he was sitting perfectly. Marluxia sighed a little. "She's doing so well here."

Vexen nodded. "I think I'll buy her a big stuffed flower every time we visit her," he said, "to go with the big stuffed bee.

Marluxia smiled. "Already planning visits?"

Vexen gave Marluxia a reproaching look. "Well, we ought to visit her. You're her father, and if she isn't going to live with you, you should make it a point to visit her and let her know that you care."

"I know - I just wouldn't go so far to be making plans. It's suffocating being here, even with Mia here." Again, Marluxia sighed as he watched the girl return to her drawings. "Maybe she should come back with me."

"I agree," said Vexen quietly, "but… you're gone at night. Who would take care of her?"

Marluxia shrugged. "I could try and find a sitter…. but an all-night shift?" He chewed his lip. "I could… Try for a more normal job… But I'm so underqualified, it probably wouldn't be enough to support us…"

"Or Zexion could babysit," murmured Vexen. "He's got a good head on his shoulders… but no, Lexaeus doesn't like staying away from him for too long and he might frighten the poor girl…. Hmm." Vexen frowned in thought.

"And I barely know him." Marluxia pointed out. He rubbed his forehead with the palm of his hands. "If I take her, world war three will break out here."

"But she's your daughter," Vexen pointed out. "You have more of a right to keep her than your mother does."

"Yeah, but my mom can pull out the whole 'you left her with me to go and be a whore in the city' argument." Marluxia said flatly. He took a seat on the edge of Mia's bed and ran a hand through his hair.

Vexen understood how difficult mothers could be. In fact, his own was calling him right now demanding to know where he'd been for the last week , why he hadn't come to visit, and why he let her call go to voicemail. He sat next to Marluxia and put an arm around his shoulders. "Well, there's you, there's me, and there's Al. Three against one," he said encouragingly, "and if all else fails, I can call Lexaeus," he added half-jokingly.

Marluxia smiled and rested his head on Vexen's shoulder. "Ma's a pit-bull, Lexaeus wouldn't scare her. But you're right. Al still has some sway with her, so he can help. and he can look after her as payment for living with me, I guess."

Vexen quickly calculated his schedule in his head. "I don't have a problem looking after her on days when I don't have any work to do," he said.

"I can look after during the days, easy. It's just nights." Marluxia said. "And… Mia has to want to come, as well. can't just pull her out of here against her will."

"Of course," said Vexen.

The little girl looked up at the sound of her name, tilting her head to the side and smiling. Marluxia smiled back, sliding off the bed to sit in front of her. "Mia, love, would you wanna come live with me?" He asked quietly, watching her little face carefully. She seemed to glance around the room, focusing on Vexen and pointing at him as if to ask, "Him too?"

"I don't live with Marluxia," Vexen said, "but I live close to him."

The little girl pouted at her father, crossing her chubby arms over her chest. "Heh, I don't think she approves of that." He spoke.

"I work during the day and on private experiments on weekends," Vexen murmured, "so I could easily babysit you in the evenings."

"Well?" Marluxia asked Amelia, who crawled into his lap and after a moment of looking thoughtful, she nodded in agreement. Marluxia looked back at Vexen. "Now we just have to get ma to let her go."

"Joy," said Vexen sarcastically.

"Indeed. But we'll do it after the funeral, or it's just going to be awful." Marluxia said. He carefully lifted Amelia off his lap, kissed her and stood up to stretch. "Which is in… Two hours. I need a shower."

"Me too," said Vexen, his face colouring. It had just occurred to him that he hadn't showered after his vengeance boff last night and he probably smelled terrible.

"The spare room as an ensuite." Marluxia grinned. "Come with me." He said, ruffling Mia's hair before he left the room.

Vexen followed Marluxia, feeling ashamed of himself for what he'd done.

Marluxia led Vexen down to the spare room, carefully locking both that door and the ensuite door behind them before he flicked on the shower and started stripping off.

Vexen followed Marluxia and stripped as well.

"Are you okay?" Marluxia asked a with a little frown, wrapping his arms around Vexen's neck and kissing him lightly.

"Why do you ask?" asked Vexen, a little defensively.

Marluxia leant back a little. "You seem off." He said quietly. "What is it?"

"N-nothing," said Vexen, pulling away and scrubbing himself vigorously with the soap.

Marluxia simply frowned further, catching Vexen's arm and pulling him back to him. "Tell me. I know your lying."

Vexen switched the soap to the other hand and continued to scrub himself down. "Well, nothing has changed since this morning, if that's what you're asking," he said.

"That's not what I'm asking. You're acting weird." Marluxia pouted. "Tell me."

"I just desperately, desperately need a shower," said Vexen.

"We've barely touched in days, and you would rather shower?"

"We can have sex after I'm clean, Marluxia!"

Marluxia blanched a little, his eyebrows raised. "No, I don't think we can." He said, and he started washing his hair.

Vexen bit his lip. "What do you mean?" he asked.

"You're keeping something from me. I don't think I want to be touched by someone who can't be honest with me."

"Marluxia," said Vexen evenly, "I haven't showered since yesterday, nor have I changed clothes. I'm rank. I don't feel clean."

"Mhmm." Marluxia said. "But you wouldn't even kiss me. And you got all defensive when I asked what was up."

Vexen buried his face in his hands. "I'm filthy," he said. "You'd only be contaminated if I let you kiss me."

"'Contaminated'? You make it sound like you're diseased!"

"No, nothing like that! God!" Vexen laughed nervously. "I went to see the doctor straightaway after the first time, and he gave me a clean bill of health!"

Marluxia stared at Vexen. "…What?"

Vexen bit down harder on his lip. Well, shit.

"What, Vexen?" Marluxia asked through clenched teeth. "What- or rather, who- have you done?"

"I don't see why you need to know that. I don't ask for the names of all your clients, do I?" asked Vexen. "It just slipped out when you mentioned disease."

"Don't you fucking lie to me." Marluxia growled. Something was wrong, he almost had a sixth sense about this sort of thing.

"I didn't lie to you," snapped Vexen. "You're better off not knowing who it was."

"But you did sleep with someone? When?"

Vexen lowered his eyes. "Last night," he whispered. "After you said you didn't love me."

Marluxia looked up at the ceiling for a moment, and then everywhere else but at Vexen. "I…" Was all he managed, then he climbed out of the shower and grabbed a towel to wrap around himself.

"Oh, come on!" Vexen screeched after him. "What did you expect me to do?

"NOT sleep with the first guy you found!" Marluxia yelled back. "If you actually loved me, you wouldn't've done that!"

Vexen laughed wildly. "No, in fact, the first guy I encountered at home was Zexion. I wouldn't sleep with him. Lexaeus would kill me."

Marluxia pressed his hands to his eyes. "I can't believe this. I can't fucking believe this."

"What does it matter? You said you didn't love me back, so why should my miscellaneous relations matter a whit to you?"

"Because you're -mine-! Just because I don't quite love you yet doesn't mean I'm going to fine with you fucking around behind my back!"

"That's a little hypocritical of you," Vexen snapped.

"If you're referring to what I do for a living, I swear to God…" Marluxia growled, although he couldn't quite think of the ending to the threat.

"Would it have been better if I'd asked him for money? Could you stomach it then?!"

"Don't you dare!" Marluxia all but screamed. "My job has nothing to do with us, so don't you fucking dare call me a hypocrite!"

"I wasn't calling you a hypocrite because of what you do for a living! I was calling you a hypocrite because you expect me to be yours when you won't be mine!"

"I am yours! You idiot! I could have anyone, I could have three guys running at once, but do I? No. I have you. And I was going to keep it that way!"

Vexen fell to his knees in the shower, tears streaming down his cheeks. "Well it isn't as though I had any way of knowing," he sniffled.

"You idiot! Now you've gone and ruined it!" Marluxia was doing his best to hold back his own tears, but wasn't having much success. "Jesus, we can't get this right!"

"It was… comfort food," Vexen said softly. "A power trip. He's my prisoner. I feed him, bathe him, experiment on him, force him to sleep with me when I feel unloved. He means nothing to me."

"D-don't you try and justify what you did." Marluxia spluttered out, feeling like h was going to be sick. "I don't want to know."

"I'm not justifying. I'm explaining," said Vexen.

"You're the one who wanted to know."

"I don't want to know!" Marluxia snapped. "I just wanted to know if you had fucked someone. I-I don't wat to know who, or why or anything like that."

"You asked who," Vexen pointed out. "You asked me for the truth and you're getting it."

"Oh, just fuck you." Marluxia said, and he left the room. He felt like he'd been shot in the stomach or something.

Vexen continued washing himself until he was sure he was clean. It took about an hour.

Marluxia spent the hour trying to compose himself and getting ready for his father's funeral, which seemed to have been pushed thoroughly to the side. The house was eerily quiet, or maybe Marluxia had just zoned everything out.

Vexen took his time getting ready, picking a pair of navy-blue dress trousers and a matching silk blouse. He went to check on Marluxia after he got ready.

"You have your job and I have my stress relief," Vexen said softly. "It's better than hitting you would have been."

"No." Marluxia simply said. "Just… No. You could do anything but sleep with someone else. I wouldn't even care if you hit me so long as you didn't do that."

"I….I'm sorry. You've had a difficult few days. It's my fault."

"I'm inclined to agree." Marluxia said icily as he carefully knotted his tie in the mirror.

"I know," said Vexen, "but it's not as though this changes anything. It's not as though I haven't slept with him before."

"It doesn't make sleeping with him again okay, Vexen." Marluxia said.

Vexen thought for a moment, then came up with a "solution."

"I blame Zexion," he stated.

"What?" Marluxia asked an incredulous look. "How can you blame him?"

"Well, I won't deny that it was my choice for sleeping with Xigbar again," began Vexen, "but if you think about it, none of this wouldn't have happened if Zexion hadn't dragged me to that damnable club and introduced me to you. You'd still be your carefree self and I would never have met…him."

Marluxia stared, dumbfounded, at Vexen for a moment, then he picked up his suit jacket and put it on as he left the room. "Well then, make sure you're gone before we get back from the funeral. You can take the car; I'll hire another one."

"No, that isn't what I meant," said Vexen. "I don't regret meeting you, but I think you … you regret meeting me." He couldn't stop himself from crying again.

"Did I say that, Vexen?" Marluxia asked, turning back to Vexen. "Did I ever fucking say?"

"You didn't have to," said Vexen. "If a single fucking thing goes wrong, you're the one ready to call it quits."

"No. No. You were the one who walked out on me." Marluxia said. "You're the one who FUCKED someone else!"

"Which I wouldn't have done if perhaps you'd actually told me you wanted me!"

"Well I'm sorry for not stabilize you're pathetically doubtful, low self-esteem all the time!" Marluxia snapped. "You couldn't just be happy with what you had!"

"And what exactly did I have?" Vexen shouted through his tears. "By all means, Marluxia, tell me, because if I'd thought for a second that I'd be giving up anything-"

"You had me! And now you don't!" Marluxia said, and he turned away again and walked away. Alrumia was waiting for him at the end of the hallway. He wrapped around his brother and the twins walked away together.

"AND HOW THE HELL WAS I SUPPOSED TO KNOW THAT?" Vexen yelled after him. It was no use, though. He knew they'd already gone. He became dimly aware of the cold just before his entire body went numb and he collapsed to the floor, the sound of solid ice hitting linoleum ringing throughout the floor.