"Shut up, they'll see us!"
"It's not us I'm worried about, it's you!"
"Oh bloody hell, just shut up already!"
The echoing footsteps of the approaching three were coming nearer to the duo that were, literally, crammed into the oddly-narrow framed alley. The vibrant color of Axel's hair was evident in the shadowed area, and walking beside him was obviously Sora. The two watched as another came trailing about two feet behind them, his blonde hair also evident in the gloomy fog. The two in the alley tried to move slightly and get more comfortable in their awkward positions, but to no avail; it made things even worse then they had been. A grunt escaped one of them, and the other shot his companion a glare before peering out towards the three walking past. Axel and Sora had seemed to be conversing about salty ice cream, while Demyx stayed quiet – For once in his life.
"I'm slipping," one of the two said, her whisper stressed and loud. The other looked to him, his chest trying to expand in the narrow alley so he could actually breathe regularly. Their position, like stated earlier, was awkward. The one who was slipping seemed to be on top of the other one, or at least leaning terribly hard on him. The guy being leaned on was closer to exiting the alley first, while his companion was behind him. So, if the one leaning on the other slipped, they'd both fall out and be seen.
"Just hold on, they're almost gone!"
"I can't hold on, I'm slipping!"
Suddenly, the one nearest the exit watched as Axel suddenly stopped his stride and looked around. Sora stopped as well, and Demyx walked up beside the two. He could see the red-head mouth, "Did you hear that?" to the others, and a silent curse escaped his lips. Maybe they'd forget about it and go away. Yeah… Sure.
"Hear what?" Sora asked, twisting his head around. He saw nothing. Maybe it was a cat or some sort of dog. He certainly didn't hear anything. It didn't look like Demyx had heard anything, either. They both looked to Axel, was scanning the area of the street.
"I guess it was nothing." The fire manipulator shrugged, and the three started up again. "You know, Demyx, it's funny: I thought I heard L-" suddenly, he was cut off as a large sound tumbled out of a small alley they had just passed moments before. The three immediately spun around, only to face two adolescents their age crumpled over each other. One of them was a girl, and the other was a guy. The male looked oddly familiar, but Sora couldn't place who or where he'd seen him before.
"Luxord?" Demyx exclaimed, eyes widening as he looked to the two on the cement floor. The girl was unknown to him, but that didn't matter now. Immediatley after Demyx blurted the gambler's name out, both Axel and the spiky-haired brunette suddenly had realization of who the adolescent really was. Luxord grunted in dismay, lifting his two arms up and pushing his torso up from the cement, legs then propelling him to a standing position. The gambler's arms brushed off the dirt from his chest, and nearly forgot about his lady-friend that was still on the ground. Turning suddenly, the blonde offered her his hand – But she gave the male a glare and got off herself, facing him angrily. With a whirl of her hand and a sudden smacking sound, she was off, turned the corner, and disappeared from sight, leaving Luxord rubbing the bright red spot that was now evident on his cheek.
It was odd to see Luxord without his trimly cut beard. Now clean cut, his was probably as tall as Axel was now, which was a bit taller then Sora was, overall. He wore black-hued pants, and on his torso was covered by a white undershirt and an also black jacket, making his hair and vibrant eyes seem to glow among his dark outfit. A chain hung from his neck, and hanging from this were two metal dice.
"Yeah, you bloody ingrate, it is me." The gambler spat to Demyx, giving him a glare before turning to Axel. "Seems you've got the same problem to, then?" There was a slight grin on his features before it drifted quickly away. Sora could feel Axel shift uncomfortably beside him.
"Yeah, Lux, what's it to you?" The added nickname was something that the fire manipulator knew it would distraught the other adolescent. And, indeed, it did, for Luxord's pupils narrowed afterwards. But the gambler knew how to keep a poker face, all in all.
"Just thought that I'd tell you-" The blonde began, looking at his fingernails to seem un interested. His sentence stopped, and there was a rolling shrug of his shoulders before a little bit of a grin appeared on his features before his stare looked up to Axel. "Oh, wait! You don't care, right? Nothing that I say will help you, or him." He motioned to Demyx. "Of course, the three trouble makers are back together aren't they?" Sora glanced to Axel, but the red-head did not whisper or motioned anything to him.
"Like old times, huh?" Luxord went on, his words sharp and cool. "You, Demyx, and of course," his bright eyes looked to Sora. "Roxas." Sora's eyes narrowed slightly.
"Shut up! Leave him out of this." The Keyblade master yelled, his hands tingling as he readied to summon the Keyblade. But suddenly, he found Axel's arm blocking him between Luxord and the brunette, orange eyes looking to Sora.
"There's no point in fighting."
Sora stared at him for a good amount of time; Finally, a sigh escaped his thin lips as his summon fell into oblivion. He saw Luxord grin slyly out of the corner of his eye.
"Good boy." Luxord went on. Sora had to admit that his intimidating stature had lessened while he stood this age. Why were they not running him off? The three of them against him? Pfft. It wouldn't even count as a fight. But. There was the note tucked in the back of his head that he hadn't seen any of them – Marluxia, Larxene, Demyx, or Axel – Take out their weapons, except for the small dagger that Marluxia had kept in his pocket. Why was that? But, there was so many questions that still needed to be answered. Too many, in fact, that his mind was beginning to overload. So many people, so many things were happening at the same time, it all seemed like a blur.
Unknown to the three, Luxord had been slowly backing up the whole time in their conversation. His mission was to slowly back up until he reached the place where the corner turned into the open street, and from there sprint off and hope that they didn't follow. Things were becoming worse and worse by the day; and now this had happened. Of course, the gambler knew they'd meet again. Rumors had spread around town of a red-head sneaking into the haunted house, and another of a mysterious blonde boy working for money, and never seemed to get his job right. Or, at least one kid had said that, saying he had to work with the adolescent on the job, which included lifting and organizing many objects for the food shop: The boy said he had ran off when their boss found him stealing some supplies from storage. Luxord hadn't taken it seriously. It couldn't have been Demyx, there was a lot of un-responsible blonde boys with weird hair-styles around Twilight Town… Right?
Well, he'd been wrong, and here the two stood with Sora himself. Finally, he felt a wisp of an opening behind him, and felt the wall no longer beside each side of his framework.
"Luxord, why are you here?" Axel inquired, giving him a questionable glance. The gambler wouldn't say his purpose in this small world, much less to Axel and the others. The gambler only smiled.
"I need to finish some business here," and, with that, he was off, disappearing from sight in the open street.
"I… Don't… Think… We…. Can… Find… Him… Sora…" Demyx panted, leaning against a nearby wall and laying his head on the surface. The Keyblade Holder glanced wearily to him, but he, too, was worn out from running. Axel was leaning his back to the wall, staring at the opposite brick surface as in some sort of deep thought over the dilemma.
The brunette sighed, and leaned on the wall right next to Demyx. The musician gave him no heed, and continued to close his eyes and catch his breath. All their chests were pumping vigorously, and Axel still hadn't said anything.
"Alright, tell you what," the red-head finally spoke up, turning to the two and breaking from his trance on the opposite wall. "Sora, let's find your friends. God knows where they ran off to trying to find you." He lifted himself from his tilting position on the wall, shrugging slightly. "Where'd you last see them?"
Sora seemed a little bewildered at Axel's sudden comment. But, in fact, Sora himself hadn't thought about his friends for a good long time. Where was the last time he'd seen them? Ah, right: The hideout. He turned to Axel.
"Remember the place you kidnapped Kairi?" Axel moved uncomfortably at this sentence.
"Yeah."
"They're there."
"Otherwise known as the place they kept me hostage." Demyx added sourly, giving Sora a glance before looking back to Axel.
"It's not a long walk. We could get there in about-" He was cut off by a couple of running footsteps. Sora heard Demyx try and hold back a yelp, and they turned around, only to see Marluxia and Larxene side by side, facing them with a vigorous look on both their faces. Dawn was approaching, and the first streaks of light were beginning to open up the sky.
"Oh, it's the lovebirds."
"Shut up, Axel." Larxene hissed, glaring at him with radiant, glowing eyes. To Sora, they seemed to be set ablaze. "Once again, you're a traitor to us."
"Hey, take it easy! Not my fault you're un-observant to anything I do."
There was a silence for a moment, and it seemed that Marluxia had already taken out his dagger. Demyx was staring closely at it, never taking his eyes off it in fear that he wouldn't dodge it if flower-boy decided to throw it at him.
"Are you going to attack us with that little dagger, or what?" Sora blurted to them, casting his gaze to each of them. Marluxia looked at him, lifting the dagger higher.
"You mean this? Well, I don't see you with any weapons, now do I?" he threw the dagger up in the air, catching it on its grip. "Oh, and Axel: I won't be sorry for doing this." There was a sudden flick of his wrist, so fast that even Sora didn't even see it until he felt the dagger zoom past his head.
"Axel!"
The fire manipulator hadn't seen this coming. Eyes narrowing, he had no time to dodge the flying dagger, and at the last moment he didn't even have time to shield his chest from the dagger. It had happened so fast that he hadn't had time to act: In truth, the dagger was about to pierce his chest after one second after Marluxia had thrown it. He could barely even wait for it to stab him – In fact, he had no time to think at all.
Suddenly, he felt a sudden spray of water at his face, showering him with water. Eyes opened, and found a wall of water itself blocking him from the now-fallen weapon. Axel looked to Demyx, pupils narrowing. He held his blue-hued sitar in hand, his own face shocked with confusion and shock alone.
The wall suddenly fell to the ground, seemingly disappearing under the cobbled street and out of sight. At Axel's feet layed the dagger, wet with the drops of water that had slowed it down from literally killing the red-head. He bent down and picked it up; but while holding it, he looked to Demyx again.
Demyx was in a blur. He could feel the sitar in his hands, feel the strings, and feel the notes sliding away in nothingness as his fingers left the strings themselves. If he had had a heart, it would've been beating wildly. But, he had no heart to call his own. Eyes were wide with confusion, or, pretending to have confusion, and he looked to Axel.
"Hey, look! I got my sitar back!" He yelled, his tone sort of shaky and excited at the same time. How could this be? How in God's name could he be holding his sitar? It was probably a delusion, some sort of mirage… How could he, Demyx, have his weapons, and the others not?
Marluxia and Larxene glanced to each other. Though Demyx wasn't the greatest of fighters, he now had the only weapon between the fighting group. And the musician knew this. Eyes flickered to them, and a grin crept up his thin lips as wide as his face allowed it to go.
"Dance, water, dance!" He yelled, and his hand went flying over the strings. A melody of rock notes went slicing through the morning air, and lifting up from the ground came an enormous wall of water, taller then Marluxia and Larxene alone. With another twinge of notes, Demyx sent it flying towards the two, who had no time to react. It slammed vigorously into their framework, and both went tumbling onto their backs, soaking with water and coughing it up as well.
"Ok, we can go now!" Demyx commented, and turned vividly around and began walking quickly off. Axel raised his arm and caught him by the collar of his white shirt, and Demyx struggled to try and get out of his grip, like he had done when Larxene had kidnapped him.
"Not just yet, Dem." The fire manipulator replied, giving him a large, smirking expression. The musician caught his vibe, and as he summoned away his sitar (Quite uncertainly, however, for fear he wouldn't be able to summon it back), and replied to the red-head with his own, wide grin, turning to the fallen Marluxia and Larxene. The pink-haired adolescent had hit his head on the wall, and his head was spinning and his eyesight was muggy and blurred. Larxene had suffered less damage, and had not hit the wall, but was still trying to recover from the pressure of the way forcing her onto her back, now unprotected.
Axel leaned down and lifted Larxene up by the shoulders, pressing her to the nearest wall. She blinked, finally regaining her senses, and her kicked and thrashed under Axel's death-grip. The red-head dug into his pocket, revealing the ropes which had tied up Demyx and Sora to the walls in the secret alley-room earlier that night. He could see Larxene's eyes narrow, and he merely smirked wildly. He tossed some to Demyx, who barely caught it in time, then turned back to Larxene.
"You just got owned by Demyx," Axel taunted, chuckling slightly to himself and ignoring the heated glare of the blonde. Soon enough, both her arms were tied up to the wall, and he began working on her feet. Finally, she was tied up perfectly and tightly, just like she had tied up Demyx and Sora. Demyx had finished up tying Marluxia as well, and it had been easy with the flower-boy barely conscious.
"Feel free to give us a call sometime," Axel joked, walking to where Sora stood, who stood bewildered.
"See you later, suckers." Demyx yelled, and raising his hand up to his forehead and doing a little salute-type gesture, the three ran off into the alley, leaving the two behind.
Oof. Hopefully, I got Axel's personality right. And, 'dun worry, Demyx will be back to his annoying self soon. 3 I just didn't feel like getting his personality exactly right in this one.
Reviews welcomed and thanked!
