Okay, chapter 4. Heheh…
-Recap-
"Well, it seems the inevitable must happen…"
"Which is?"
…
"…Bath time…"
-End Recap-
Marluxia twitched. Bath time? BATH TIME? He can very well wash himself! He doesn't need anyone to do it for him like he was some child!
Oh wait…He is…
Well, he certainly wasn't going to put up with this; no, sir, he would not! But before he could protest, Xemnas already picked him up and started to walk away from the dining hall. Marluxia, using his toddler charm or whatever the hell all little kids use, gave everyone else a pleading look and mouthed off, 'Help me!'
Demyx and Axel looked at each other and then back at him. The Melodious Nocturne gave him a look that said he can't do anything to help him. The Flurry of Dancing Flames gave him a look that said, 'Sorry, man, but you're on your own on this one.'
The chibified lord of Castle Oblivion sulked as he was carried away to the horrible thing that is bath time. And the worst part is…it was Xemnas who was supervising him. Xemnas. XEMNAS… The Superior, madman, Nobody of Xenahort—the totally psycho apprentice of Ansem who tried to take over Kingdom Hearts, and the guy whose name is the anagram of freaking MANSEX! That Xemnas!
Let's repeat it again, shall we?
XEMNAS!
"Superior, is it mandatory that you have to supervise? I may be a child, but I very well know how to bathe on my own. Also, I'm sure that you have loads of work that you must attend to…" he said, trying to sound like his old self. To put it bluntly, he just wanted to get rid of him. Badly.
"Number XI, as much as I know that you can perform ordinary tasks like this, I really don't trust you…"
"What?" he practically shouted. Realizing how immature that sounded, he lowered his voice and asked, "Why do you not trust me, Superior?"
"Think about it, Number XI…You have the form of a five-year-old child. You also carry some mentality of a five-year-old. If I leave you unattended, you may do something to the likes of getting revenge at Number IV…"
Crap…Well, there goes my hopes…
They entered the bathroom. Xemnas set the Graceful Assassin down and went over to the bathtub. He turned the knob, making water spill out. After a minute or two, he turned off the water and tested it. Seeing as it was not too hot nor too cold, the Superior of the Org. picked up Marluxia.
Now, Xemnas has no experience with children. None whatsoever. So, not knowing what the hell to do, he dropped the child in. Marluxia surfaced from the drop, shaking water off his head. Some of the food particles that were attached to his clothing had gone off, but he was still caked with crap.
He was about to say something when he felt the bottom of his shirt being lifted up. The back of it went over and covered his head.
"Ow! That hurts!" he shouted as Xemnas was getting the boy's shirt off. Once that was done, Marluxia held his head, softly moaning in pain. Then, he saw that Xemnas was reaching for his belt. Instinctively, the pink-headed boy splashed water on his face.
No way is that man going to see me nekkers…No way in all the seven hells…
"Number XI…" he said in a warning tone. He tried to reach for it again, but ended up getting splashed again. Xemnas sighed and went over to the door.
"Number II, Number III! Get over here!" he said, calling the two nearest people. The scythe-wielder's face paled.
Oh…shit…
Xigbar and Xaldin came in the room, wearing smirks.
"You've been a very bad boy, Marluxia, splashing Superior like that." The Freeshooter told him
With that said, the flower-using boy scrambled out of the tub and started to climb on the bathroom curtains for dear life. Once he was at the very top of the thing (and the curtains of the Castle That Never Was are very, very high) he clutched on it and looked down.
"Now, Marluxia, get down here." Xaldin ordered
"Shut up, you crazy old kook!" he spat out at him, "You aren't my caretaker!"
"But I am your superior."
Dammit…Wait a second…I have an idea!
"Now get down here." Xigbar commanded, "The quicker you do, the faster you'll be done with your bath."
"Okay…" he couldn't resist putting on a mischievous grin. He started to swing himself on the curtains. Once he got enough momentum, he let go, sending him in the air (while yelling a war cry of some sort). His right foot landed on Xaldin's head and ran his right foot on Xigbar's. Jumping off them, he made a mad dash out through the open door, still wet and still shirtless. But right now, he could care less. Oh yeah, he was dropping small things that I will not reveal yet on the floor. The small objects planted themselves on the floor.
"Axeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeelllllllllllll!" he cried in the hallway, skidding to a stop in front of the pyro's room. Said pyro opened the door and the boy rushed in, slamming it closed.
"Marluxia!" he looked at the people who were sitting on the floor. Demyx and Zexion.
"What are you doing soaking wet?" Zexion asked
"Xigbar and Xaldin tried to rape me!" he shouted. Well, it wasn't completely a lie…Hey, they tried to help Xemnas get him to take his shorts off. Anything wrong with that picture? Yep, you all guessed it. Everything's wrong with that picture!
Demyx sighed, "C'mon, man, let's dry you off before you catch a cold."
The Graceful Assassin stood still as Demyx went out the door. A minute later, he came back in, carrying a towel. Demyx carefully draped the blue towel over Marluxia and started to dry the tyke off, trying not to do it too roughly. Axel, in the meantime, went to his dresser and got out a red T-shirt and a pair of black shorts with tightening strings around them. It seemed to be about Marluxia's current size.
"Here. You can go into the bathroom and change into these." He said handing the clothes to the scythe-wielder
"The bathroom? But Xemnas, Xigbar and Xaldin are there!"
"No, I mean mine." Axel pointed to a door that looked almost non-existent at first glance. It was carefully blended in; even the doorknob had the same color, "No one really knows about it except for me, Roxas, Demyx, Zexion and now, you."
"………Thank you!" he shouted, quickly opening and slamming the door shut. Later, he came back out. Feeling nice and refreshed (well, kind of…Mostly scarred, but at least he's in clean clothes now), he went over to the three teens.
At that moment, hard knocks were heard. The brunette/pinky hid inside Demyx's cloak, again latching on to his leg. Axel went over and opened the door. There, he saw Xigbar, with cuts, bruises, a portion of a vine wrapped around his left arm and a few flower petals sticking out from his hair.
"Where. Is. The. Brat?" he asked, heavily accenting each word.
"Brat?"
"He means Marluxia." Axel looked behind Xigbar and saw Xaldin. He was in the same condition.
"Huh…Well, I would tell him to come out, but he ain't here…Why, are you planning to teach him a lesson?"
"Yes…A very big lesson…" Xigbar said, summoning his spearguns. The young boy heard him summon his guns and clung onto Demyx's leg tighter.
"Now you listen here, Xiggy, you have no right to hurt him!" Demyx yelled from inside, "He is our assignment and our responsibility, not yours."
"Yeah, we'll deal with him." Axel added, slamming the door right in their faces. He heard them leave, mumbling a string of very colorful words. The redhead opened the door a bit and checked to see if they were really gone. They were. Closing the door again, he turned back to Demyx, Zexion and Marluxia, who just got out from underneath the sitar-player's cloak.
"What did you do to them?" the Cloaked Schemer asked, "They looked like total wrecks…"
"I dropped a few seeds on the ground… They serve as traps of sorts…"
"Nice job!" Demyx exclaimed, sticking his hand out for a high-five. The flower boy stared for a bit before he clapped his small hand onto Demyx's, still a bit clueless. Apparently, he doesn't know what a high-five is…
"But really, you shouldn't have done that." Axel chided, "They are your superiors and, in that state, you could've gotten into major trouble."
Marluxia looked down at his feet. Then his head jerked up. Was he really feeling ashamed?
This toddler thing really got to my head……
"Now I want you to promise us that you won't go messing around with the others, okay?" Axel said
"Unless we're either there with you or give you consent to." Demyx appended
"Why should I?" he snapped
"Because we are your caretakers and we are responsible for you and your wellbeing!" Demyx retorted, "As long as the potion is in effect, you will listen to us!"
"Understood?" At the same time, Axel said, "Got it memorized?"
Marluxia was in shock and at the same time in awe. He had never thought that Axel and Demyx would have a sense of authority. Nope, he thought (much like the rest of them) that their heads were empty. But guess what he just realized. THEY'RE NOT!
"Marluxia, answer us!" Demyx ordered, "Do you understand or not?"
"…………Yeah, I understand…" For now, he will admit defeat. But once he's back to his normal self, that won't be the case anymore. Still, it doesn't go to show that he'll probably respect the two a little more. Notice how I said a little.
"Okay!" Demyx said, going back to his cheery self, "Now that that's settled, what should we do now?"
The tot thought for a moment before a devilish idea had entered his mind. He went over to the sitar-player and tugged on his cloak. Demyx looked down and saw Marluxia making a hand gesture to crouch down. He did so and the scythe-wielder whispered his little idea in his ear. A grin crept its way to Number IX's lips. He gave an affirmative nod, stood up and whispered something to Zexion. An eyebrow went up before the Cloaked Schemer smirked. This cannot be good, Axel thought, this can never be good on my part.
The trio turned to face Axel. The Flurry of Dancing Flames gulped. That was when Demyx unleashed his command.
"Get him."
---------
Luxord made his way through the halls of the castle. They were having a meeting, and he was assigned the task of fetching the others. Of course, to him, this was a troublesome task. It was a good thing he took care of Larxene and Siax first, that was for sure…
He had called just about everyone, except for Zexion, Demyx, Axel and the now little Marluxia. He checked Demyx's, Zexion's and Marluxia's rooms but found that they weren't there. So the only other place they could be was in Axel's, where he was headed for right now.
Stopping in front of the door, he heard a few giggles and an occasional, 'Ow!' coming from the redhead. Confused and very curious to what the hell was going on, he opened the door.
"Hey, we have a meeting; get down-AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"
The Gambler of Fate fell to the floor, a fit of laughter stopping him from his sentence. But you would be laughing, too, if you saw the sight that he saw. Marluxia and Demyx were grinning from ear to ear at their work. Zexion was trying to stifle a few chuckles himself.
"Whaddya think, Luxord?" Marluxia asked, cutely, "Y'like it?"
"Oh yes, very nice work!" he said in between laughs
"Aw, shaddup Luxord!" Axel shouted. He would've summoned his chakrams and gave the man some serious hurt, if he wasn't tied to a chair."
You see, they had taken Axel's unruly hair, tamed it and, using a little pink bow to tie the end, made a long braid down the middle. Marluxia left some of his bangs in there, but they were tamed like the rest of his red locks. He was pissed, but at least it gave the flower boy something to do that didn't cause any trouble. But the how was he supposed to salvage any of his pride? That is, if he still had some left…
"Anyway…" Luxord said, regaining his composure, "We're having a meeting. Come down to the dining hall."
"You guys go ahead; I'm gonna undo this thing…" the green-eyed Nobody said
"Just come down like that, man." Demyx suggested
"Yeah!" Marluxia agreed
"What? No way in hell am I going to go like this!"
"C'mon, Axel. Pretty please?" Marluxia asked, putting on 'the face.' Axel's eye twitched. Nobody or not, no one but a stoic bastard can ever resist that. He groaned and mumbled,
"…Fine…"
"Yay!"
"Okay, come on, before Superior gets mad at us!" Zexion said, already heading out the door.
"Right."
The five went down to the dining hall (which doubled as their meeting place). Axel was hesitant about going in, but did so after Demyx and Zexion pulled him inside. Marluxia went in first and greeted,
"Hi peoples! Lookie what I did!" There were a few 'awww's and Vexen wrote down some analysis.
He's starting to gain a more child-like mentality as the potion remains in effect…If the potion lasts long enough, he might lose his original mentality completely!
He was furiously scribbling in a spiral notebook. It was then that they heard the three voices.
"Axel! C'mon, you have to come inside!"
"Never!"
"If you ask me, I think you're being a little too overdramatic about this…"
"Yeah, well, nobody asked you Zexion!"
The two managed to drag the redhead in the room. There was a momentary silence before the whole started to crack up. Axel gave a low growl before he trudged to his seat. Marluxia went to his seat and looked up.
Aw, dammit…Not this again…
"Demyx?" he turned to the Melodious Nocturne. He cannot believe he was asking this. Damn his mentality! Damn his shortness! "Can you…help me up…?"
He heard a few more 'awww's and started to glare at them, simultaneously thinking of ways to totally kill Vexen and mutilate his body. While he was doing that, Demyx went over to the tot, picked him up and placed him on the chair. Finally snapping back to reality, the flower power boy muttered a word of thanks. Zexion leaned to him and whispered,
"Think of it this way. Axel's losing more of his pride than you are." Number VI slightly jerked his head at the Flurry of Dancing Flames, who was trying to ignore Larxene's comments. This made the boy much happier.
Xemnas cleared his voice and got everyone's attention, "Well, then…As you all can see, Number XI has been turned into a…a child." He heard a coughing fit that sounded oddly like, "Thanks a lot, Vexen, you old bastard." Demyx and Xigbar snickered. Vexen glared.
"Anyway, Demyx and Axel have been assigned as his caretakers-."
"Now wait just a minute!" Larxene interrupted, "Why put those two dumbasses in charge? I mean, they don't know anything about childcare!"
"Wrong." Xemnas told her, "Number IX, you have the experience needed, correct?"
"Sure do." He replied. The mullet boy quickly muttered to himself, "For once, I'm glad Ellie was born…"
"As I was saying, Number IV, get that potion done as quickly as possible. The rest of you are to give them any trouble. It is imperative that you each help out, if asked. Number XI," Marluxia turned his head, "I'm sure that I heard Numbers VIII and IX talk to you about this, but you must listen to them and follow their directions."
He nodded. Everyone else was silent, waiting for him to say anything else.
"That's all."
Later…
"Okay, Marluxia." Demyx said. Currently, they were in Marluxia's room, "You did a good job today. Let me just clear up a few things."
Oh good Lord…If he makes me do anything stupid, I'll kill him…
"One: No running off anywhere unless you tell me or Axel or Zexion." Marluxia nodded. So far, so good…
"Two: We've already told you this, but we'll tell you again. No messing around with the other members unless we're there or if we give you approval to." Axel stated
"Three: You will listen to the following people and those people only: Xemnas, Zexion, Axel and myself."
"And four…" The scythe-wielding boy prepared himself for protest. That pause told him that the insane, sadistic thing they wanted him to do for sheer pleasure was coming out.
"If any of the others are messing with you, or making you do something you don't wanna do, you have to tell us immediately so that we can kick their asses." The two said, simultaneously. Little Marly blinked. They actually cared?
"Alrighty. Those are the only rules you need to remember."
"That's it?"
"That's it."
"I don't have to do anything stupid like wear a dress or call you two 'Master' or anything?"
"Marluxia, Larxene's the sadist, not us." Axel said
"Yeah, besides, we want this to go by without any problems." The sitar player grinned
Marluxia couldn't help but give the tiniest of all grateful smiles. But then he realized what he was doing and stopped. The flower power boy didn't realize it, but he gave a huge yawn.
"Looks like someone's sleepy." Demyx said. Axel picked up the child and gently placed him in his bed. Marluxia was too tired to resist. The green-eyed member lifted the covers over his comrade's body. He and Demyx quietly sneaked out of the room.
"Okay. Day one is over." Axel stated
"But how long do you think this'll last?"
"Not too long, I hope."
"Well, now what?"
"Think we should start planning ahead? Y'know, make sure he has something to do tomorrow."
"I guess…"
Numbers VIII and IX walked down the hall and went into Demyx's room. Surprisingly, Zexion was there.
"Eh? What're you doing here?" Axel asked. His brain suddenly came up with an explanation, "Ohhhhhhhhhh! I'm sorry! Guess I should leave now, huh?"
"Axel!" Demyx yelled, hitting his friend upside the head. Zexion was confused.
"Huh?"
TBC
Crummy way to leave it, but school fried my imagination away! Direct all flamers to the teachers of my school! Oh, and wish me and Akamori-chan good luck; our Language Arts teacher is going to massacre our class.
Review if you want!