The trio stepped out of the portal. Or rather, Marluxia walked out with Larxene who was still dragging Demyx.

"Ok. You have legs. Get up," Larxene said as she dropped Demyx's arm.

It flopped to Demyx's side as he sluggishly sat upright, "Nope. Last time I face planted."

Marluxia held in a snicker, "I'm not really surprised."

Demyx made an "oomph" sound as Larxene tossed the largest bag she'd been carrying around at him. "That's yours," she stated, hands on her hips.

He blinked at the bag in his lap and opened it. Demyx stared at the clothes, "You got stuff for me?" His lip was quivering, Xigbar had been completely wrong and he was happy enough to almost cry.

She nudged him with her foot, "Figured we could ditch the coats now that we're not in the Organization anymore."

"However we'll still need to bring them around if we're still going to portal," Marluxia stated.

Demyx finally stood with shaky legs, not sure if it was from joy or his body upset with him for going back and forth so often, and hugged the bag to his chest, "Thanks."

Larxene looked around and finally spotted a hotel, "Come on. You've gotta change and I am so wanting a bed tonight."

The three walked inside. Marluxia got two rooms, one with two beds, and another with one. He handed Larxene the key to the single bed room, "I figured you'd also want your own."

She took the key with a grin, "You'd be right. No way am I risking one of you being a snorer."

Demyx made his way into the bathroom of the room he'd share with Marluxia. Shutting the door, he took off his cloak and finally got a good look at what they had found for him. He was ecstatic about the sweatshirt. The ocean waves on it were spot on for something he'd pick himself. The rest of his clothes were exchanged for the new ones and he shoved the cloak into the bag. Sweatshirts were certainly much more comfortable than the uniform they had been wearing in the organization.

He walked out and dropped the bag and shoes by the bed near the window, claiming it for himself. Marluxia had already taken the other bed, as signified by him sprawled on it.

"Not getting much sleep?" Demyx asked.

Marluxia shook his head, eyes still closed, "It's been a little crazy. Larxene found me and then we tried to sneak back into the World That Never Was to find you but... "

"It was gone," Demyx finished for him.

He sat up on his bed, "We went to another world to try to think of where to go next but that's when we found out we'd been gone longer than we thought. There was no saying how long you had been by yourself or where you were so we went straight to Atlantica hoping you'd be there."

Demyx frowned and looked down, "I'm still sorry I left so soon."

Marluxia shook his head and flopped back onto his bed, "We weren't surprised when none of the locals knew about you."

The two fell silent. Demyx sat down in the middle of his bed and criss crossed his legs. He looked out the window and watched as the street lights turned on and the lights in other windows turn off. It took a bit of stretching as he was too determined not to leave his spot, but Demyx managed to reach the lamp between the beds and shut it off. Marluxia shifted and Demyx looked up, expecting him to say something, but he stayed quiet. Demyx pushed himself back up and realized Marluxia was asleep, unsurprising if he'd been running around as much as Demyx had.

Demyx looked out the window again and stared at the moon, it was odd that it wasn't the shape of a heart, but it was much more comforting than the one Xemnas had worshipped. He scooted back and shimmied under the blankets. After getting himself comfortable, he looked back at Marluxia, still fast asleep ontop of his own blankets. "Thanks for finding me," Demyx whispered as he closed his eyes.


He woke up with a start and looked over at the other bed. Marluxia had already woken up and left the room. Demyx swung his legs off his bed and tied on his shoes. He figured the two hadn't wanted to wake him up and were waiting in Larxene's room. Opening the door, he found no one. The bed looked as if it had never been slept in and there was no sign of Larxene even being in here.

Demyx ran down the hall. They must have left the hotel to wander around the town. He turned down the first street he came to and came to a screeching halt.

"I said they didn't want you," Xigbar said, shaking his head. "You should have taken me up on my offer.

Demyx turned and ran back and down a different street.

"Why do you deny it?" Xigbar chuckled, walking toward him.

Demyx took a few steps back before turning and running across the square. A keyblade swung at him and he barely dodged, stumbling away as he saw Sora.

"You're just a Nobody. You should just die!" Sora seethed, bringing the keyblade up to swing again.

He ran toward the door to the next district and found himself back in Atlantica. Everyone he remembered from before he was killed was there and smiled at him before morphing into strangers sneering.

"Who are you?" "You don't belong here." "Why did you bother to come here?" the crowd hounded him, slowly crowding him.

He swam away and back through the door, this time back in his cloak and standing in the grey room. "Larxene! Marluxia!" he exclaimed as he saw his friends. The two turned and glared at him.

"Augh. What do you want?" Larxene asked, face twisted in disgust.

"Can't you tell we don't like you?" Marluxia deadpanned, not even interested enough to add any emotion into his words.

"But…" Demyx stuttered, tears escaping his eyes. "We're…"

"Buddies?" Larxene mocked. "Why do you think we left for Castle Oblivion without you?"

"Even getting killed was better than being around you," Marluxia added.

A hole opened under Demyx's feet and he fell down into an abyss, Xigbar's laugh echoing around him.


Demyx flailed as he shot up, blankets dropping off him. He took quick shallow breaths as he looked around where he was. Looking at the other bed, he was releived to see Marluxia still asleep and still belly-flopped ontop of his blankets. Demyx rubbed his hand over his face, squeezing his eyes shut. His breaths started to slow down and become even as his panic subsided. It was just a dream.

"More like a nightmare…" Demyx muttered.

The moon was still up, casting soft light into the room. He stared at it, still hanging in the sky as a normal moon. It was still round and not looming over him. It was just there. He heard something shuffled and looked back over to Marluxia.

"Demyx…? Wha.." he muttered, propping himself up and rubbing his face.

Demyx sighed, "It's nothing, Marly. Go back to sleep."

He squinted at Demyx, sleep still blurring his vision, "Doesn't look like nothing."

Demyx looked away, "It's just a dream. Stuff Xigbar said to me."

Marluxia frowned, "Uh huh." He seemed to finally notice he wasn't under his blankets and slowly fumbled to get under them. "The look on your face says it's more than that."

Demyx flopped back onto his back, "He was just being a jerk and I need to forget about him."

There was silence for a moment. "He was your only friend after we failed our mission…. wasn't he?" Marluxia asked, guilt in his words.

He gave a small shrug and continued to stare at the ceiling, "We weren't that close. I guess he was the only one who spoke to me outside of missions."

"I'm sorry…" Marluxia whispered. "We shouldn't have left you like that."

Demyx shook his head, "What were you supposed to do? The plan worked. Sora came and destroyed the whole 'turn everyone into vessels' thing."

Marluxia looked at his pillow feeling guilty, "It was because of us you were alone for that long… and why Sora rejected you…" Demyx looked back at Marluxia, confused, as he contiued staring at his pillow. "Sora was proving difficult, so we decided to act as villinous and dislikable as possible toward him. We thought we could at least give him incentive to fight the Organization but… I guess we did too good of a job."

Demyx stared at Marluxia who started fidling with his hands, still not looking back to Demyx. "I'm not mad about that if that's what you're worried about," Demyx said. "Xigbar… he said you two weren't looking for me." Marluxia looked back at Demyx. He looked down and sighed, "He said I was lazy and that no one had liked me. That you and Larx were avoiding me."

Marluxia sat up, "You know we'd never do that."

Demyx shrugged, "It got to me, though. He made me think maybe. Maybe they really don't want me."

"We saw him right after you left the Enchanted Domain. We hadn't gotten there fast enoughto catch up with you, but Larxene was ready to maul him when he laughed about you," Marluxia said.

He chuckled, "That sounds like her."

"We should get back to sleep," Marluxia yawned.

"I kinda don't want to…" Demyx mumbled. "Xigbar will show up again."

Marluixa lifted up his covers, "Get over here." Demyx looked over confused. He rolled his eyes, "Before I got killed, some of the other garden fairies would get nightmares about the heartless since they were so big and fast. Sleeping next to someone would help them not get those dreams and if they did, they'd wake up and calm down much faster having someone right there." He gave the space next to him a pat as Demyx hesitently left his own bed and crawled onto Marluxia's.

"Thanks," he whispered, already falling asleep.

"I'm your friend. It's what I'm supposed to do," Marluxia responded as his eyes closed.


Demyx saw Xigbar standing in front of him. He opened his mouth to say something but before he could, Larxene charged in from Demyx's left and attacked with her keyblade. Xigbar stumbled a bit but fought back, starting to gain ground and push his way toward Demyx. Marluxia stepped up next to Demyx and looked at him before joining the fight against Xigbar, pushing him back with a panicked look as the two beat him farther and farther back with their keyblades.


He woke up, dream quickly fading. Marluxia was still asleep, facing him and with an arm draped over Demyx. He slowly sat up and scooted out of the bed. Marluxia kept sleeping as Demyx quietly left the room.

Demyx knocked on Larxene's door and heard grumpy mumbling in reply. The door opened to show a half asleep Larxene.

"Do they have coffee here?" she asked, rubbing her eyes.

"I can check," Demyx replied.

She nodded, still half asleep, "Coffee is good. Put sugar in it." Larxene then turned and walked back to her bed. Demyx left and she flopped onto it.

He laughed a bit at how the other members would have been flabbergasted at how out of the three of them, it was Demyx who was the early riser and Larxene and Marluxia the two who woke up late and grumpy. There was coffee in the enterence room and he filled three mugs, one with sugar for Larxene, one black for Marluxia, and one with cream and sugar for himself.

Returning, he found Larxene's room empty. He nudged his room's half closed door open to find Larxene had managed to stumble inside and flop halfway onto the closest bed. That bed happened to be Marluxia's who had woken up at her falling ontop of him and was, also partially asleep, trying to push her off while she mumbled incoherently about coffee.

Demyx put the three mugs down on the small table and laughed. He took a few steps back from the bed and charged, jumping and landing sprawled on both of them. The two finally woke up and kicked him off of them, still giggling like mad as he hit the floor. Larxene went to the coffe and picked one up. She took an experimental sip and scrunched her face up.

"This one's yours, Marly," she said as she handed it to him and picked up the correct mug.

He kicked off the blankets and took it. "How is it Dem is the one who naps everywhere yet wakes up early?" he asked as he drank half the coffee in one go.

"That is a question no one will ever be able to answer," Larxene replied as she stared at Demyx.

"It's called: I sleep everywhere during the day so I need less sleep at night," Demyx answered as he took his own coffee. Larxene rolled her eyes.

Marluxia finished his cup and finally got out of his bed, "Does anyone have any idea of what we should do next?"

Demyx gave an offended look to Marluxia, "You don't just chug coffee! You have to savour it."

"You're the only one who gets decaf and for the flavour, Demy," Larxene chuckled.

Marluxia nodded with a serious expression, "It's energy. You must chug it so you wake up sooner."

"You're just gonna crash and burn," Demyx laughed.

Larxene grinned, "When we do we'll copy you and nap instead of doing what we're supposed to."

Demyx stopped laughing and paused, "That's fair."

She put down her now empty mug, "We should figure out what to do next, especially with Sora and gang running around the place."

"Sora?" Demyx asked.

"He attacked us in Port Royal," Marluxia confirmed.

Demyx shrank back, "Yeah… let's avoid him."

Larxene sighed, "I'd love to smack that supriority complex out of that kid."

"He only attacked us thinking we were still Xehenort's goons," Marluxia scolded.

She shrugged, "Still deserves it. Especially seeing as Axel's part of his crew without a problem."

Demyx's eyebrows pinched together, "Axel joined Sora? I saw a silver haired kid but..."

Marluxia rubbed his face, "That was Riku, the friend Sora has been searching for. Axel probably joined because he was close friends with Roxas. He may be clinging to that hoping Sora has the same personality so he can have his friend back."

"That's… sad," Demyx said frowning.

"What can you do?" Larxene stated. "He made his choices, no matter how dumb they are."

"We do need to figure out what we're going to do," Marluxia said. "We can continue fighting against Xehenort or continue world hopping and let Sora handle it."

Larxene spoke up first, "We should use them against him. It did pick us after we already decided to without keyblades."

Demyx was quiet for a moment before saying, "What about Sora, though?"

"He's stubborn and won't like us, but he shouldn't attack. His friend seems to be the reasonable one who can calm him down," Marluxia reasoned.

He thought about it before nodding and saying, "Ok. We fight Xehenort."

Larxene crossed her arms, "We probably should world hop for a bit to train though. I can use moves from my knives but it's still odd."

Demyx shuffled his feet, "I tried fighting with it once before but it's close range. I'm used to distance with Arpeggio."

"Then it's decided. What world first?" Marluxia asked.

"Anywhere but Olympus…" Demyx gulped. "That satyr is a demon with training."

The three gathered their things, put their cloaks on over their much more favoured clothes, and summoned a portal.