39.
Monday
"If that boy disappears, that would mess up our plans."
"I trust you know what you need to do."
"Haven't a clue, really. Maybe you could spell it out for me."
"Eliminate the traitor."
-BANG BANG BANG-
Gunshots?
-BANG BANG BANG-
Dumpster dancing?
-BANG BANG BANG-
"MARLUXIA!"
"Nng..?" Marluxia's pink head of hair wormed its way out of a maroon-coloured, faux-fur blanket, its fibres tickling the eighteen-year old's face.
-BANG BANG BANG-
"MARLUXIA, OPEN THE FUCKING DOOR!" More banging and the teen blinked rapidly to force some awareness into his brain cells. Yawning, widely like a lion, he climbed out of bed, and hobbled up the stairs to unlock the second door at the top that led to the ground level of the main house.
"'Morning, Dahlia." He yawned and wiped his eyes.
"Yeah, yeah morning." The woman pushed past him, nearly pushing him down the stairs as she did so, and invited herself into his living room/bedroom. "Listen, I'm leaving for Collingwood in like… an hour," she explained, hurriedly, looking up and around the knick knacks on the teen's footstool of a nightstand. "I'm going with the girls and I need the car." He yawned again, uninterested, and chose a spot on the lower steps to sit, bring his knees up and rest his elbows on.
With one hand keeping her powder-blue bathrobe shut, Dahlia overturned half-eaten chip bags, empty candy wrappers and soda cans that littered the top of (as well as the area around) the short wooden table in the centre of the room.
Marluxia squinted. "Wait, what?"
"I need the car. I'm driving everyone there and I still have to pick up my clothes so –what are you wearing?" She stopped her scrambling to eye the pinket's choice of night-wear.
A skin-tight, tan, leopard-print pair of briefs. Silk.
Marluxia lazily narrowed his eyes. "What am I wearing?" He returned her mock-'disappointed' look with a glance at the lime-green rollers in her light, caramel hair; the purple puffed slippers on her feet; and the white, satin slip, low cut with lace at the breast. Because it was all perfectly visible to his unwanting eyes at that point.
Dahlia re-covered herself and complained, "I just told you my clothes were at the cleaners! Which reminds me, I need to borrow jeans, and possibly, a sweater." she started for the boiler room-turned-closet, but then immediately whipped around, motioning to the mess around her. "Where are the damn keys?"
The half-conscious twelve-grader groaned and fished the car keys out of his jacket pocket, which was thankfully, within reach from his spot on the steps. Noting the action with non-verbal approval, the woman continued towards the closet. Marluxia sighed and played around with the metal in his fingers.
"Do you have anything not skin tight?" she called from the closet. "These pants don't go past my thighs."
"No."
"Anything not studded or glittery?"
"Try the bin behind the left rack."
After a few incoherent sounds of indecision, she emerged in a simple black pair of jeans (which only had studs of the same shade, around the pockets) and a large navy-blue McMaster sweatshirt. Larxene's. Marluxia said nothing, but boredly dangled the ring of keys out for her. She took it cheerfully and pulled a twenty out from somewhere he was glad to be half-asleep for.
"Here's for bus tickets. I don't have the other two-fifty so just ask Keith later or something."
"Thanks.." he mumbled.
She gave him three kissed: one on either cheek and blew a third one before scurrying hurriedly up the stairs. "My phone's on its last two bars so don't bother trying to call until at least tomorrow. Be home Thursday, Ciao!" was all he heard before the door slammed shut and the footsteps on the next set of steps above his faded.
The pinket sighed yet again. "Have fun, mommy…" He rose from his seat and picked up the woman's discarded clothing, throwing them somewhat neatly into a chair for when he'd venture into the alien habitat that was the main house.
But then, and for the next hour and forty-five minutes before he actually had to start getting ready for school, he landed face first into his Zebra-print bedding. The print was magenta.
Saix slammed the door inward, making his entrance a loud and obnoxious as the room would echo. "Out," he spat sharply towards a small sophomore at the sinks. The boy took one look at the blunet's acidic yellow eyes and high-tailed it out of there, grabbing his knapsack with still-soapy hands, very careful not to bump into the senior on his way out.
The click of the lavatory door rang throughout the room when Saix locked it. Throwing his bookbag and sweater onto the ground, he stomped towards the sink, cupped his hands and soaked his entire face.
He wished he didn't have a heart. He wished he didn't have emotions. He wished he could be a completely different entity, apart from the person he'd become now.
A fuck was a fuck was a fuck; both he and Xemnas knew that. So why did it make his chest hollow and turn sour whenever he saw Xemnas and Xigbar together after last Friday? He growled with an animalistic expression at the mirror above him. This was fucking pathetic! Balling up his fist, he smacked the face in the reflective glass.
The shock ran up his forearm, but he didn't care. He could take pain. Just not this kind of pain.
Saix D'Veyener could take a bar fight; a gang fight; a mosh pit with vigour; he could take a rumble; a brawl; and a really out of hand dance-off. Bruises and welts were child's play. Scrapes and scratches were itches. The intersecting slices on his face were papercuts. Breaking bones were like cracking his knuckles! He could take all of that shit!
But what he couldn't take nor comprehend was this feeling of possessiveness over another person.
"Goddammit…" he muttered to himself.
He pulled back the sleeve of his uniform to note the time. 8:05 Time to get to class. He dried his face off and straightened out his clothing. Without a second glance in the mirror, he picked up his stuff, unlocked the door and faced the rest of his life.
"I love when Leon takes a day off work!"
"I know right?" Roxas said mechanically with a hint of sardonicism. He was browsing through his cell phone, careful to shield it from any teachers, as his brother exchanged his homework for his day-2 books at his locker. "I actually ate breakfast and you finally had time to brush your teeth."
Sora slapped him across the arm. "Funny," he said fishing out his mammoth-sized chemistry text book. "Even when we get a ride to school, we're still a little later than usual."
"Well, you insisted on changing your underwear."
"Oh geez!" Sora rolled his eyes, noting when Roxas finally put his phone away. It was so difficult to talk to someone when they were tinkering with their PEDs. No wonder they were illegal in school… "Hey, did dad say why he didn't go to work?"
Roxas pondered, then said shrugging, "Dunno. Something to do with Cloud?" He stopped leaning against his own adjacent locker to scrutinized the floor in thought. "Come to think of it, have you noticed anything different about him lately?"
"Different?" Sora tilted his head. "Like what?"
The blond crossed his arms. "Not sure. But last last Saturday, when we all hung out, the guys had left by then, and you were already asleep, but when I went back in with Leon, Cloud was there… being all—." Roxas pulled a face similar to that of a cat whose tail had just been stepped on. "And lately they haven't exactly been acting like the married couple from the 50s we knew."
Sora shut his locker and twirled his lock. "Do you really think something's up?"
"Maybe," he said reasonably. He didn't want to overthink things, nor did he want to find out there was actually something wrong. "Or Leon could just be missing Cloud. He has been working more nowadays too."
The two set off in the direction of their first period classes. "Well, then… it's good that they're spending the day together, yes?"
"I guess so." Roxas put it to rest. "Hey, so tell me more about Friday. The way you were fronting with Leon, sounded to me like you were covering up something big." The younger smirked at the crass pun. "And something you felt guilty for enjoying."
Blue, glinting eyes met blue, hesitant eyes. "Well," Sora blushed. "what do you want to know?"
Roxas listed off an array of hollow details, firing off like rounds of an automatic, and by the end of it, his older brother's colour had intensified a few brighter shades of red. He was about to attempt an answer to 'how long Riku lasted the second time,' when Sora collided with another person. Out of instinct, he apologized immediately to the dirty- blond bumping past, but his act of good nature was not returned.
He didn't know if he was joking, or just really arrogant. "Seriously, you couldn't see me there?" Or both.
Another boy called out from behind him. "Not everybody's staring at you, Tidus!" The blond quirked a smug variation of a smile at the twins, his own blue eyes boring into them, as if sizing them up. Or rather, down, since he un-surreptitiously winked at Roxas and walked away.
Still frowning, the younger Strife asked, "Who the fuck was that?" somewhat irked that his brother was in a let-it-go,-I'm-feeling-gracious-today mood.
"'Tidus,' apparently." Sora smiled. A couple more classrooms later, and they nearly reached the end of their grade's hallway. And by some happy miracle, a person whose last name began with a 'C', thus placing him in that very area of the hallway, was at said locker, and had miraculously just turned around to lock eyes with Sora. The two walked over, out of traffic's way.
Riku and Sora both smiled, far too widely, and held their staring contest. (And Roxas knew whyyy ~), though he said nothing, to pull them out of this highly amusing –whatever you could call it-.
Some minute later, Sora finally spoke, scratching his face out of slight embarrassment. "Stop smiling like that; people are gonna know we did it."
"Please. The way you're smiling, people are gonna know we did it three times." At that moment, Kairi and Xion walked by, giggling madly at the boys. "They don't count." Sora had to look away, the colour on his cheeks returning with full force. This was as bad as PDA and he didn't do PDA.
Roxas simply died against the wall, his uncontrollable snickering failing to be smothered by the sleeve of his uniform jacket. "Imma leave you here…" He tried to say more but couldn't without laughing in their faces. Riku could walk him to class.
Sure enough, Riku did the honours, escorting the brunet to chemistry. His own class, fourth-year kinesiology, was down that hall where inside, a group of his senior friends were hanging out, still being early for class. He took his regular seat beside Axel, and like all teenagers in the similar situation, started discussing 'it'.
"We were so in … sync! You know how some people just do it and they're just so in sync?"
Riku grinned like an idiot, trying to explain to Axel, who just watched him bemusedly. So Riku finally did the deed.The doof couldn't stop smiling –at least until Xigbar and Demyx (respectively) burst into song.
"EVERY LITTLE THING I DO
NEVER SEEMED ENOUGH FOR YOU!"
Axel snorted at their caressing each others' faces and overly dramatic 'despair' poses, their number disturbing some loser classmates who had no lives, so decided to start studying their homework before the bell rang, and turned back to Riku. "So, how'd it happen?" he asked, casually. "Did you guys like… talk about it first or just get down?"
"DIGITAL DIGITAL DIGITAL GET DOWN. JUST WHAT WE NEED
(JUST WHAT WE NEEED!)"
"Was it like…?" Axel wiggled his eyebrows suggestively and Riku smirked. He then vaguely described the overall 'aura' and 'experience' of it all, not divulging too many sordid details, but still managing to get through what had happened after with Sora's family with an ultraviolet smile, knowing that things with his life were just so good as of now.
"…so it wasn't that way, but-."
"I WANT IT THAT WAY
TELL ME WHY-EE-!"
Saix, being one of the ones studying (Axel held his tongue on that), threw an eraser at Xigbar, who ducked, letting Demyx take it in the hair. "Will you idiots get to class?"
Xigbar led Demyx in a two-man conga line, taking their singing to the halls and whatever poor, unsuspecting class they shared first.
"I WANNA SEE YOU OUT THAT DOOR
BABY, BA-BA-BYE ~"
Demyx smiled and waved innocently at Saix.
Kairi eyed Sora his entire way into class and into the seat across the aisle from her. He knew she was looking, though attempted to ignore all leers, knowing gazes and eyebrow wiggling.
Females are very powerful.
"WHAT?"
Kairi shrugged, her chin not leaving its resting position on her palm. "Nothing."
"… Were you really in the house when I—."
The redhead smirked evilly. "Friday. March fifth. 4:17AM." Sora hung his head.
"Oh lord…"
Marluxia blinked awake, a nervous sensation in his bones. He looked up towards the Playboy bunny clock on the opposite wall.
-blink blink-
…
…
…
"SHIT!"
Marluxia whipped off his undies, and dove into a laundry basket for a clean one. Finding camo boxer-briefs, he rushed to the washroom floor for his uniform. Quickly washing his face, he peeked at the Donald Duck watch on the counter.
"SHITE!"
He grabbed the washcloth behind him and dashed out of the room and up the stairs. His father already had a foot in the door. "Keith!" The brown-haired man looked at his son disinterestedly.
"What is it, Marluxia?" he sighed.
"Uh…"
"You need money."
"Mom said to get the rest of my bus fare from you."
Keith stiffened a fraction at the mention of his 'mother' and Marluxia caught it. The man sighed, checked his watch and turned around to put his briefcase down. The teen just watched his father taking out his wallet.
It was halfway through third period when Marluxia all but fell into his seat at their lunch table.
Demyx took one look at him. "Holy shit! You look like shit!"
"Thanks."
Across from him, Axel asked, "Where were you this morning?" Marluxia shared first period with the redhead.
"A majority of it was spent trying to look past an obese lady with a bowl hat to see if my stop was next. Broke my fucking neck doing. Man, I hate the buses."
"Heh," Demyx laughed. "Where's your car?"
"On vacation," he shrugged. Once he pulled his messenger bag off him, he glanced around. To his left was Demyx, as usual, but to his immediate right was Xigbar. Puzzled, called over everyone's heads "Saix!" he and the blue-haired teen looked up. "Where's Larx?"
A mild, half-annoyed look donned his featured and he responded, "'da fuck would I know what that nymph does with her life?" before stabbing at his bowl of macaroni.
Amused smirks came from Roxas and Zexion, and half a grin from Axel. Now that he took a good look at their table, he noticed it was a little askew (aside from the fact that Roxas and Axel were making googley eyes at each other. It wasn't exactly Demyx looking at Zexion after an early-release day at school, but it was still pretty Maplestory F9. Marluxia laughed every time. Early release indeed. Also, since Roxas was next to Axel, Saix had slid to the end of the table where Xemnas usually sat. The built nineteen-year-old was now across from Saix, shielding his goldfish crackers from Xigbar's wandering fingers. How that pirate managed depth-perception was a mystery to all.
When Xigbar seemed to give up, Marluxia asked, "Where's everyone else?"
"Lux is over at the poker table, playing for Ruffles," he explained. "And the Doritos he owed me from last week." Xigbar snaked his arm past Xemnas' to grab a fish, but the portlier limb clamped down on his wrist.
"Some niner blew up a pie in the food and nutrition room. Xaldin went to help clean up; Lex went with him." Marluxia nodded and grinned at Xigbar flexing and unflexing his long fingers, in a weak attempt to pull free. Xemnas sighed, shoving a small handful towards his mouth; Xigbar woofed, eating from the palm of the elder's hand. And to really sell it, he tapped the table happily, as a dog would its tail.
Beside Marluxia, Demyx laughed at the sight. "Aww, puppy!" Saix threw a heated scowl at Demyx for the comment, but no one noticed.
Switching his glance towards his left, Marluxia was a third surprised to not see Xion and Vexen animatedly discussing... something. (Once, Zexion had been included in as an omniscient consultant/reference. He'd only remembered such a boring fact since it served as a distraction in the form of Demyx's incessant poking. And for the redundant and obvious reason, the crazy-haired boy was simply bored.) So while Xion was conversing with the Zemyx about a topic Demyx would eagerly participate in and that Zexion could occasionally nod along to (anime), Vexen had a textbook open!
To explain his mental exclamation, Vexen never did any work during lunch. That portion of the day was meticulously designated for relaxation and/or nourishment. The 'and/or' being Vexen's attempt at 'mixing it up once in a while' and 'keeping it loose-y goose-y.' Dork.
If the work was 'fast tracking,' it would certainly not be done during this time of day, but at home, and if the need for the textbook was for present-day due dates... well that was just unheard of.
The blond's eyes looked a eighth of a fraction droopier, as well. "Hey," he said with a jut of his neck. Vexen merely looked up, pen still poised. Oops, Marly forgot to wait for him to be done a paragraph (Also Known to Vexen As: a predetermined pause in one's thoughts).
"Sup?" The utterance of that word from Vexen's and Marluxia upped his surprise to two-thirds, and was beside himself on where to start. What was wrong with the world today?
Demyx grinned. "He fell asleep in chem." And if that wasn't enough to blow him away like sakura petals, the dirty-blond added, grinning even wider. "And he missed an in-class assignment."
If he had been piloting an airplane, he'd have probably crashed it into the side of a mountain. He was that shocked, a more feasible, visual example wasn't available. "Seriously?"
Vexen grunted, narrowing his eyes quickly in Demyx's direction and immediately went back to number 11 in his notebook. But tenth of a second later, the pink-haired boy was talking again.
"You never sleep in class!"
"That's what I said!" Demyx agreed, excitedly.
"Dude, you're annoyingly against wasting valuable learning time."
Vexen, not un-noticing the thinly-veiled emphasis on 'annoyingly' would have rolled his eyes, but then the word 'pneu-mono-ultra-micro-scopic-silico-volcano-konio-sis ' would have looked like a telephone cord on his paper.
The two boys tittered amongst themselves for an unknown amount of Vexen's concentration time, though when Marluxia interrupted yet again, he could hearthe smile occupying his lips.
"What'd Finkle say?"
Vexen sighed and looked up voluntarily, but not after dotting a period at the end of number fifteen. "He was quite lenient about it," he said simply and started a new page for the next ten questions. He hated writing on the backs of lined paper. "I mean, it's not like I'm always dozing off in the middle of . . . I dunno, religion. Right Demyx?" A smile of his own crept onto his face when mullet-hawked teen bit his lip.
Now, even though Zexion appeared lost in 'Amazing Grace,' the pewter-haired boy had freakishly heightened senses; hearing included. "I think we've narrowed down the problem to your 63."
Demyx didn't say another word about Vexen, who Marluxia shared a look with. The former's, triumphant and the latter's, impressed.
Ha, busted.
Well played.
YAY! :D
Who else loves Saix? x-o
I'm like falling in love with my own characterization of his teenage self.
PART OF BUCKET LIST FOR SUMMER: At least 10 chapters finished, polished and posted ;]
Come on, you can't deny that you love me ! 8D
And also, if you're confused about anything, feel free to ask! I don't bite unless paid in advance ^^...?
THANKS FOR READING!
YHS
xDelfin
