A/N: Hey folks, good to see you again. Good to be updating again. Updating my OTP fanfic on Valentine's day, how appropriate huh? This chapter is shorter than the last, and is a bit of a fluffy and easy read – which seems good considering the last chapter was hefty and the next one should be fun. Also, keep in mind that Rex is supposed to be an awful person as you read this chapter. Please consider liking my FB page for more frequent updates and art that goes along with this fic (along with other art). The link is in my profile!
Chapter VIII: Gotta Work Even Harder!
So full of energy, nothing to hide,
No need to sleep, we come alive,
And if we're gonna take this ride,
We can go wherever we like
And if it feels like we're dreaming,
Believe it, believe it.
Zee bopped along pleasantly towards her room, and behind her was none other than Axel – which would be no surprise to anyone by now. Both of them had their hands full – Zee held a small bag while Axel was lugging around two sizable cardboard boxes, one stacked on top of the other. After a social night the two had decided Sunny deserved proper living arrangements. Over time they developed a list of items to acquire on the down-low, and figured out how much extra money they'd need to take in on missions to make this happen realistically. It wasn't exactly a quick or easy process, but that day here and now marked the end of their efforts. They'd gathered everything they were sure they needed.
Xirena opened up her door and lead Axel into the room. Sunny was sitting on the bed, her head perking up and tail wagging once she saw her momma return. The blue pig hopped off to make space for the Nobodies to put down everything they had brought in. Axel then dug the list out of his pocket to read off the items.
"Okay, that should do it..." He said, looking over the list, "Blankets, lots of blankets and pillows, doggie bed..."
He quietly went over the list to himself as Xirena started unpacking – pulling out the aforementioned doggie bed to start with. It was a standard, large bed that was nice and fluffy – the fabric on the bottom was dark brown, and a beige colored fabric lined the inside. It was rather understated, but it easily looked like the most comfortable one available.
"Hey Axel, you can go put the list in my desk if you need someplace to leave it!" Xirena offered, scooting across the floor and reaching under her bed.
Axel thought this was a good enough idea, so he went ahead over to her desk and pulled out the top most drawer. Inside this drawer were of course her purple charm, and also a folded over piece of paper. Axel dropped down the supply list into the sparsely populated drawer, wanting to just close it and move on; but he got a little too curious for his own good. He quickly reached in and grabbed the unknown paper, quietly unfolding it.
"Eh?" He whispered, "This is..."
A flood of confusion washed over the ginger. It was the note he had left her a while back, about the clock tower being no good anymore and to meet at home. Folded delicately in the same way he had originally, it was apparent that this note was preserved with care. But why? What would the point be? Axel figured this would be in the trash within two minutes of being read. He quickly looked over his shoulder and saw that Zee was still busy with pulling out what was under the bed – which turned out to be a comforter. He slyly slid the note back into the drawer and closed it, leaving no trace of his snooping. He did, however, choose to make conversation about her star charm.
"Hm, neat star thing you got there." Axel commented as he returned, "Where'd ya get it?"
"Dunno..." Zee shrugged, "I just kinda had it."
"I see..." Axel responded. Now that it had more mystery around it, the charm had an attractive quality to it. But really, this was something to be investigated later, if at all. Probably just a cute accessory she got somewhere – or maybe even a gift.
Sunny was watching the construction of her makeshift home with pleased anticipation. The doggy (piggy?) bed was placed at the foot of Xirena's bed, and the various blankets and pillows were placed on or around it for quick access. A small, wooden box was placed next to Zee's bed, closer to the head of the bed. This sturdy object would act as a stairway for Sunny to more safely get onto her momma's bed. Now with all the pillows and blankets for her, she could leap off the bed and land in a nice cushy place – Xirena thought that Sunny would have fun doing that.
As the pig home was coming together, Axel glanced over at Xirena's own bed. It had one pillow, a thin sheet and a slightly thicker blanket on top of the sheet.
The damn pig has a more luxurious set up than Zee herself... He thought to himself.
Next came the bowls for food and water, each of them marked as such. They were ceramic and pastel, with little piggies painted on them. More boxes. Including the ones they just brought in, were placed near the doggie bed on their sides. Zee then shifted some blankets and pillows so that they were inside the boxes, allowing even more places for Sunny to chill out and rest. She even placed two boxes on top of each other, a two floor structure!
Then, the toys... Things like slinkies, tossing toys, stuffed animals, a ball or two and some brown packing paper. More was surely to come. But Axel felt like something was missing...
"Uh, Zee?" He asked. Xirena looked over her shoulder to him, "Shouldn't we have a litter box or something?"
"Oh, no no!" Xirena shook her head, "Sunny is potty trained."
Axel was struck silent. The pig was potty trained? How? No way could this be true. As if reading his mind, Sunny jumped up and ran to the bathroom. A moment passed, and then a flush, followed by Sunny walking out of the bathroom proudly.
"Huh." Axel said, "Now I think I've seen everything."
"Everything?" Xirena asked in all seriousness, turning to face Axel with wonder in her eyes.
"Zee, it's just an expression." Axel laughed, "I haven't LITERALLY seen everything."
"Oh ok." Replied Xirena.
Axel chortled, and went back to watching the birth of the pig home. Again, he compared the living arrangements of Sunny versus Xirena. Her bed wasn't the only problem though – everything about her room was still so sterile and bland. By this point in their Nobody lives, most of the members had at least started to build their décor around their personalities.
"...Hey, Zee?" Axel called out, "You could really use some stuff in here for yourself."
"Whaddaya mean?" The girl asked, taking a break from her work to properly speak with her friend.
"Well... some color... personality... fun stuff!" He explained.
"Oh... oh ok." Xirena said.
She stood up and observed the world she created for her precious pig. She nodded with satisfaction and turned to face Axel.
"Maybe we could work on that sometime too!" She suggested with cheer.
"Heh, sure, fine by me." He responded, "So..."
He strolled over closer to Xirena and Sunny's new empire. In truth he wasn't that interested in the Pig Palace though.
"Whaddaya wanna do tonight?" He asked confidently.
"Oh! Axel, I'm sorry." Xirena said, her face transforming into worry, "I promised Rex I'd hang out with him tonight... We're watching the new episode of Glee!"
Glee huh?Axel thought. In the silence, Zee had hung her head.
"I'm sorry, I should have told you before." She said, poking her fingers together.
"Huh? No, no Zee! It's fine!" Axel replied, "I'm not mad... I can't be hoggin' ya all the time anyway, right?"
The tall man gave her a soft head pat to add assurance to his words. Under his palm he felt the faintest rumble – a tiny giggle and breath of relief from Xirena.
"I'm a slaaaaaaave!"
Xirena wiggled in her seat.
"For youuuuuuuuuu!"
Rex sat on his bed while he had dragged over a chair so he and Xirena could both watch Glee– and boy was Zee into it. She sang along to what little she picked up of the song upon hearing it for the first time, which was pretty much just the chorus. But it was the dance numbers that attracted Xirena the most to this show.
"I love this!" Xirena squealed, clapping her hands once the performance ended.
"Yeah, I can tell." Rex replied dryly, "I'm not much a fan of Britney anymore. Yawn."
"Why not?" Xirena turned to Rex with curiosity.
"Stop talking over the show, Zee." He commanded in response – not even bothering to look back towards her.
"Oh ok." Xirena replied, obeying without question.
She in fact obeyed so well that she was quiet throughout the rest of the episode, except for the occasional singing along, Rex tolerated that at the very least. He sighed and clicking his tongue as the credits rolled.
"THAT WAS AWESOME!" Zee screamed.
"It was ok, considering it was an episode built on the guest star gimmick..." The gay wonder sneered.
Rexvir glanced over at Zee and saw her still grinning at the tv. He gave it a moment of thought before sliding off his bed and kneeling on the floor.
"Come here hon." He asked of Zee.
The girl got down on the ground next to Rex, who dragged a roughed-up cardboard box out from under his bed. He opened it up and inside... calling it a collection was an understatement, a treasure trove might be a more accurate description. At least to Zee it was. Inside this box was what seemed like an endless supply of pop culture items: CDs, magazines, folded up posters... all sorts of stuff that caused Xirena's eyes to sparkle with delight.
"W-What's this?" She asked, eyes locked on the box's content
"My old stuff." He answered, "There's some Britney things in there... a bunch of others, you might find some things you like."
"Wow!" Xirena exclaimed, hopping to her feet with the power of her glee, "Thank you so much Rex! My room's gonna look really cool with all this stuff!"
"Mhmm yeah hon, no problem." Rex responded. However, his charity evaporated quickly, "Ok girl, now, up on your feet. Modeling time."
"Yep yep!"
Xirena obliged happily, removing her coat as she stood up. Social fun times were over and Rex was all about his business affairs now. Rex produced his measuring tape from seemingly nowhere and got to work. He stood in front of Xirena and began to take the traditional measurements: bust, waist and hips. While he was apathetic about her bust size, he frowned and grunted in displeasure after measuring her waist.
"Hon, what did we talk about last time?" Rex said, honored by a blank stare in response by Zee, "I wanted you to shave two inches off your waist... Like, I'm not sure I even wanna know about those hip numbers now. Bet those are still the same too, hmm?"
"Umm..." Xirena hummed as she poked her index fingers together sheepishly, "Yes?"
Rex rolled his eyes and threw his measuring tape over his shoulder in frustration.
"Did you follow the diet I gave you?!" He exclaimed.
The blank stare Xirena gave him said it all though.
"I-I didn't like any of the food on there." She answered honestly.
"Hon, you will never be high fashion until your weight goes down to the double digits." He scolded.
Xirena didn't know what "high fashion" was, as Rex never really defined it. He just threw it out there constantly without explaining it – so Zee didn't know if she even wanted to BE high fashion in the first place... and Xirena forgot about his recommended diet after she tried her first rice cake. It didn't register to her why this was SO direly important to Rex, and in truth, it was totally petty and Rex deserved to be disobeyed in this situation. In fact he easily deserved a few good slaps in the face, but he luckily picked the perfect victim. While Xirena was trying to figure out what high fashion was, Rex had gone to his dresser and pulled out a book and what looked like a clump of cloth.
"Kay so, I whipped together this skirt." He explained, returning to Xirena and holding up the 'skirt.'
It was black and pink, which is a lovely color combination in general. That's all one could really say about this raggedy monstrosity though – the Frankenstein garment was blatantly unoriginal, literally two other pieces of clothing ripped apart and stitched together with the skill of a grizzly bear. He abruptly threw it at Xirena, who managed to catch it, and whipped open his book – on which the cover read: DESIGN BOOK XOXO. He'd opened to a page of a clearly traced model sketch with his skirt design poorly added to it, where he pointed at it intently.
"This is how it's supposed to look." He instructed, "Make it happen."
"Oh ok..." Xirena replied, taking a moment to study his jacked up design sketch.
The girl quickly changed out of her pants and tried sliding on the skirt. Rex watched with disapproval and judgment in his green eyes – and this was all totally okay. Rex made her change in front of him when it came to his fashion practices in case he needed to fix anything, and he assured Xirena that it was okay because he was her "GBFF." This was the least of anyone's concerns right now though – the skirt was stuck about half way up Zee's thighs and showed no sign of having any stretchy qualities. Zee didn't want to rip it, but she also didn't want to disappoint Rex... but if she ripped it by pulling it all the way up, that would ALSO disappoint Rex.
"Okay stop stop stop stop." Rex muttered, motioning for her to discard the skirt.
"Oh ok." Xirena responded, quickly taking it off.
"SIGH." Rex said dramatically as he took the garment back from Xirena, "Back to the drawing board..."
The green eyed monster tossed the now useless piece of fabric over his shoulder and examined Xirena's face critically. He clicked his tongue.
"Eyebrows." He said flatly, "We have to fix those up tonight at least."
He clicked his sharp tongue twice more and had Xirena lay down on his bed while he rushed to his bathroom to obtain his needed supplies. She laid her hands on her stomach as she laid on her back, intertwining her fingers comfortably. That "Toxic" song was stuck in her head now from the Glee episode. She also thought back on her day before she was with Rex – the quest to build a home for Sunny with Axel! She was excited to move forward now with Sunny's "furniture" moved in, and now Rex was giving her fun stuff too. It was nice to have all these people helping her out. She allowed her mind to wander specifically to Axel, the one who'd possibly shown her the most kindness of them all; the one she possibly was the most fond of. When she heard Rex approaching again, she brought up something she'd been wondering.
"Hey Rex?" She began. Rex hovered over her and waited for her to continue, "Why don't you like Axel?"
"Ugh." He groaned, moving backward to prepare the hot wax out of Xirena's view, "He's just, like, a major loser. Always making bad jokes. He's like lazy and stuff. Horrible taste in music and like everything in general. I mean, red hair? Honey just no."
Pettiness is no strange trait to Rex, and his "reasons" for disliking Axel reflected that even more. Although, one might see his words as coming from a jealous point of view, but he'd never admit it if it were true. Which is most likely was.
"Kay hon, close your eyes." He instructed.
Xirena obeyed and soon felt a warm gooey sensation spread between her eyebrows, then she felt a bit of it on her brow bone. Rex then laid the waxing strip onto the wax-covered unibrow region. With no warning, Rex ripped it off ruthlessly, and the pain immediately set in. Xirena never felt pain like it before. It burned and stung, and she could hold in her anguish no more. Her mouth shot open and she screamed at the top of her lungs – a scream that was surely heard around the castle.
She never would get her eyebrows waxed again.