Author's Note: My muse this morning hit me with something during German class because I'd found a page in my German textbook about ladybugs being signs of good luck to the Germans. So, imagining Axel covered in ladybugs spurred this fiction along. I just grabbed stuff from Japanese, American, and German luck myths (or so how I have heard them). Hope you guys enjoy it, it's over 900 words :D

Disclaimer: No. I don't own Kingdom Hearts II, nor do I seek profit off of any of my fiction. It is simply for entertainment purposes alone, and not meant to be distributed at a price. Besides, who would buy this crap anyway?

Demyx was definitely a creature of habit. He may have the ability to improvise very quickly, but there were things that just shouldn't be disturbed in his schedule. Like having a cup of tea in the morning to help wake him (coffee fights were some of the bloodiest Demyx had ever seen, so he'd learned to avoid the substance) or going to the Proof of Existence every other night to pester his muse for ideas or to practice. But it was a little known fact that Demyx was superstitious. Very superstitious.

So when a black cat (that kinda looked like a robot) crossed in front of him and Xigbar at Hollow Bastion, he had run away in the opposite direction as fast as he could, leaving a very confused Xigbar in his wake. And when Xaldin's coffee mug broke as Demyx did the dishes, he never left the man's side despite threats to his life until the glue had set and the cup was fully repaired.

Another instance where his beliefs got the better of him was when he went with Axel to Agrabah. Besides the massive amount of heat dragging him down, there was sand. And dust. And a lot of both. So it wasn't a surprise to Axel when Demyx sneezed several times but what made him give his attention to the boy was when he'd clamped his hands over his nose and mouth, green eyes wide with fear.

"What? You need a tissue or something? Got stuff on your hands? Just wipe it off man...Dem? Dude, c'mon man, breathe," Axel saying, turning to fully face the guy who was trying to gesture something to him with his eyes.

Axel might not have even bothered with the kid if he hadn't started to turn a little off-color, and he sneezed again. He rolled his eyes, "Bless you man bu-". He was cut off by the sound of a sharp intake of air as Demyx removed his hands and breathed.

He stared as the kid returned to a normal color with disbelieving eyes. "You refused to breathe until I said 'Bless you'!"

Demyx nodded and looked around as if someone was gonna hear something important. He spoke in a low voice, "It's said that if you sneeze three times, your soul leaves your body! So someone has to bless you so it will stay in your body!"

Axel looked at the guy's completely serious expression and tone, and laughed harder than he had in a long time. Seriously, the only thing Demyx could take seriously was something as ridiculous as a soul leaving through sneezes? He doubled over, holding a stitch in his side as he gasped for air and wiped a tear away from his eye. He straightened himself and gave Demyx a pat on the back, still chuckling. "Dem...y'know none of that stuff is true; it's all gibberish people spout off so you do stupid stuff like not breathe."

Demyx's eyes narrowed and his lips formed a pout, "You just wait until something happens to you Axel...then we'll see what's gibberish."

The redhead shrugged it off, turning to walk around a corner in the alleyways of the kingdom and right into a local vendor. A vendor carrying a large, decorative mirror. Than happened to slip out of the man's hands and shatter on the dusty ground. Both Demyx and the vendor looked at Axel with horrified expressions on their faces (for different reasons of course), who blinked in surprise at the mess. Then off of the rooftop above them, a washwoman decided then would be the perfect time to dump the water used to wash the clothes, directly onto Axel's spiky head. He glared at a wide-eyed Demyx under soaked red locks. "That was completely a coincidence."

Demyx opened a portal directly behind him and grabbed Axel's drenched arm, "That's seven years bad luck Axel! Seven years of stuff worse than water dumped on you! And if it's already taking a hold now...we gotta get you un-doomed!" With that, he pulled the wet, unhappy Flurry of Dancing Flames into the portal and back to the Castle to apparently "un-doom" him.

Green eyes glared at a very concentrated Demyx under a mass of four-leaved clovers, ladybugs, horseshoes, and standing in the middle of a circle of salt. This was about the eighth cup of green tea he'd poured in the past hour until he finally grinned and handed Axel the cup, and said, "Here! Drink this! The stalk is standing up!"

Axel took the cup and drank it down as quick as he could to appease the guy, and handed the cup back to him. He sat there as Demyx messed with the remains of the stalks and leaves for what seemed like forever, until the kid finally said he was finally uncursed and could lead a bad luck-free life.

Upon taking the last clover out of his precious hair, Axel heard a noise of realization from Demyx and turned to face the boy, eyes practically threatening to rip him apart if there was another "good luck" charm to use. Instead, Demyx gave Axel a half smile and a laugh and said, "Y'know, I just thought that we coulda asked Luxord for help. His main element is time, but he's always been good with luc - AH! AXEL!"

There must have been another superstition out there that Demyx had missed that said something akin to "Stating the quicker solution to a problem after it's been solved the hard way will get you strangled by a very angry redhead."