40.

After a very dramatic parting with Zexion, complete with Shakespearean quotes, dropping down on one knee and hand gestures of despair, Demyx was walking down the hall towards his Public Speaking class, when he spotted his blue-haired friend walking just a few feet in front of him. Demyx sped up and swerved around people to catch up, but it was only a few steps later that he felt something odd in the atmosphere. Saix's back was a straight as a billboard. The pretentious eighteen-year-old was very proper in carrying himself and in having etiquette, but there was a rigid edge to the way his shoulders fell, almost as if he were forcing himself to keep his stature at par. And while Demyx couldn't confirm from his position, the rest of the hallway in front of them seemed to take one brief glance at the bluenet and instantaneously begin to part like the Red Sea. Something was definitely up.

"..Puppy?"

The addressed teen did not respond nor did he show any signs of acknowledgment.

"Puppy?"

Some eleventh-years passing by gave him an astonished look, as if he were asking to be made a cripple.

"Saix!"

The teen whipped around to go berserk on whoever had shouted at him. They were disturbing him? His ferocious expression softened when he saw Demyx's concerned, puppy-dog eyes looking back at him. Because really, who could glare at Demyx?

"What is it?" he said, passing off his foul mood as tiredness.

"What's bothering you so?" Obviously, it had failed fantastically.

"How do you know something's bothering me?" he said lowly, not wanting the underclassmen, circling around them, to overhear that there was indeed something wrong with Saix D'Veyener. There was a reason it was 'unheard of'!

It was a stupid question, to which Demyx's subsequent expression, served to confirm exactly that. "Wanna talk about it?"

"There's nothing to talk about."

"No…," he drawled with hint of stubbornness. "There's nothing to say that you think can be qualified as intelligible." He reached out to place his hand on the side of Saix's arm. "Not everything you say has to make sense, Saix. You know that." Demyx gave a small, encouraging (but not pushy) smile. And under the why-the-hell-not list, he blinked his bright green eyes cutely.

Saix didn't say anything. Which to them, meant that he didn't say 'no.' His face lit up. "What class do you have now again?"

"Accounting," he said, abashedly.

"Well, it's not like they're gonna miss me in EPS." He whipped out his phone and started texting, looking around for any teachers first. "Let's go wander." Saix followed.


There was an awkward buzz against his left buttock. He frowned and took out his phone.

Fr: Demyx

puppy's in the doghouse.
skipping eps and maybe fifth.
but ill meet u under our tree, k luv?

12:07 on Monday March 8, 2010

The pewter-haired teen subtly pursed his lips at the thought of Demyx skipping a class, but he supposed it was for an acceptable reason. He was about to send a reply, but:

"Zexion Corazza!" His head whipped back towards the front of the class, where his teacher's shrill voice was directed at him. "I'm about to start the lesson. Put that away. You should know better."

He'd reply later.


As fourth period was ten minutes from being over, Marluxia's teacher received a call in class, asking for him to go to the main office.

"Marluxia Ikeda? Vaya al oficina. Puedes tomar las cosas con tu."

"..Muy bien."

When Vexen was in the middle of switching textbooks, Marluxia appeared further down the hall. There was only one senior hallway and the lockers were arranged alphabetically by last name. So while Vexen Prince's was at the end of one side, Marluxia Ikeda's locker was near the middle of the opposite side.

Vexen turned around to see the pinket furiously shoving papers inside, not an unusual occurrence, since he couldn't be bothered to put them in their respective binders, but the cause for concern was when he shoved his book bag inside along with it. Marluxia's locker was the epitome of disorganized, close-quarters hole, so having to shove his bag in there was why Vexen walked over. That, and because Marluxia irritably scratched through his prized pink hair and yelling, 'GAAAHHHHH!' and kicking the door shut.

He casually appeared beside the distressed senior. "Something wrong?"

"My stupid life is wrong!" he grumbled, forcing his lock shut and Vexen's eyebrows knit together in sympathy.

"Bad day?"

"You could say that…" Marluxia sighed, tiredly. "My mom went on another impromptu vacation, took my car, hence why I had to bus," he explained. "Now I get to bus back home, pick up some legal document then mission downtown to deliver it to my father or else he's fired and I get to rent my flat from some Armenian family with a parrot!"

"And you hate birds."

"They squawk, they molt and their smelly shit drips. Dammnit, I was supposed to drive Larx home after her practice," he groaned in the most self-loathing way, fingering through the perforated, paper squares in his Keroppi wallet. "Frick, I just bought tickets today. Hopefully I'll make it back here by four so I can at least bus with her back home. FUCK!"

Vexen put both his hands on the teen's shoulders and looked straight into his eyes. Just like ice. "Okay, calm down." Marly took in a quick deep breath. "…Or actually, run. Bus passes by here in three minutes."

A whirl of pink, accompanied by an inaudible curse word, then Marluxia was gone. Vexen started for his next class when something crunched beneath his shoe. Crouching down, he picked up a rose earring. It was a deep red shade and in full bloom. Only one person with the possibility of owning it came to mind. The blond uncaringly pocketed the jewellery and sauntered off to bio.


Neither knew which one of them had initiated it. As far as they saw, they both started moving before their eyes had closed. But at that next moment, Demyx started to feel a little queasy.

Because kissing someone who wasn't Zexion was something he hadn't done for years.

Saix and Demyx were sitting on a flat rock, somewhere in a small clearing that appeared in between trees. In the vast jungle of residential communities that embraced the Northeast shoulder of their school, parks, fields and small patches of woods, all connected by cleanly paved paths, were not ten minutes away. The woods the two teens were in, was secluded and off the beaten track, since kids were afraid to go there. It was always dark where tall trees were grown, so people stayed away. But naturally, when you're a big group of twelve, bored out of your mind, and would rather drink a gallon of turpentine and piss on a forest fire than go to another school assembly on what exactly you need to graduate, this place didn't seem so scary. And so for four years now, these woods could be claimed as their turf. These woods was also where two young boys were crossing some sort of line…

Saix was kissing Demyx.

Demyx was kissing Saix.

They were about halfway between school and their current position, when Saix let loose what had been infuriating him as of late. It was brief. Curt, even. As if the true magnitude of its effects didn't bother him. But it didn't fool someone like Demyx, who went straight to showering the bluenet of encouraging words like 'it's okay,' 'It'll be fine,' and pointers like 'you should tell him,' 'spice things up so that he won't need anyone else!' There also came the guilt things like 'is it because I accidentally called Xigbar 'puppy' today?'

Both boys were aware that what Demyx was saying had already crossed Saix's mind, and that it was doing it and living with it that was the issue. Demyx felt useless for it, so moving past the purely ration attempts at comfort, the blond grabbed Saix's hand, grabbing more of his attention, and sprouted self-confidence boosters.

'You're great, Saix! It's okay to feel like this. It just means you want to be exclusive. There's nothing wrong with you. You're amazing for it. It means you really like him! There's nothing wrong with it at all. Don't beat yourself up for it. You can fix this. You can change it. Just talk to him about it.'

What is a kiss? It's just a touch that shows care for another person. So the hand holding Saix's was no different from the lips kissing Saix's, right? Demyx could have passed it off as a genuinely innocent and friendly gesture, only it dragged on… They didn't part. Their lips remained locked far too long to be considered innocent, especially since there was movement, lively activity until then. They made out.

Saix was making out with Demyx.

Demyx was making out with Saix.

Saix's hand left the other's to wrap around his waist.

Demyx's hand let go to wrap around the other's shoulder.

Their chests brushed, their noses bumped, there was a sliver of tongue against Saix's lip…

It was over.

Demyx took a while to gather himself before putting on a cheesy smile, in the hope that Saix would see the gesture as he originally intended it to be. Physical comfort. Nothing more.

He thanked Hades when Saix didn't seem to misunderstand, he might have gone in for more or said something to encourage it, but let go of his waist, leaned back as to put enough distance from them, but not purposely trying to, and said with an earnest tone, "Thanks, Dem."


"Hey, check it out." Xigbar whipped out his original copy of Call of Duty. "Axel said he'd lend me his three and four so, whatdayasay? Marathon?" Xemnas grinned and was about to accept when his ravenous boyfriend appeared behind him, spun him around and feverishly started kissing the taller man's lips.

Both Xemnas and Xigbar raised their eyebrows. "I suppose along with the PMS, little Saix goes into heat too."

The teen detached his lips to fix Xigbar with a stare and Xemnas used it to catch his breath, only to laugh. "Full moon already?" Saix smiled sexily at the man for a split second before addressing Xigbar once again.

"Xemnas won't be playing any games at your house; he'll be busy getting reacquainted with the terms of our relationship." He then immediately grabbed the large, tan hand and set off in the direction of his house, mentally devising a list of where they were going to have sex. In order. After they've talked, of course.

Xemnas turned around, amused, looking back at his friend left on the curb of the school. Xigbar grinned back, widely and gave him a thumbs-up in approval.


Not far away, Zexion noted this all with pseudo-indifference. He stood there, leaning against the tree shading him from the garish sun, and let the afternoon breeze float through his bangs and loose edges of his uniform as he waited.

"Hey there, gorgeous."

Zexion hadn't needed to turn around a full ninety degree, since Demyx was already kissing him, in the possessive, I-missed-you fashion he'd recognized.

"Hey," he greeted back, leaning down to retrieve his bag and grabbing Demyx's hand as they started for Demyx's house out of a Monday, day-two routine. "Yours or mine?"

"Yours is fine."

"Okay." Zexion fished out his mp3 player, skillfully clipping it to the rim of his jacket and untangling the earphones with one hand. "Everything okay?"

Demyx swallowed but pushed his smile. "Yup! Saix was all mopey cuz Xigbar and Xemnas have been seeing each other more lately, so we talked, I kissed it all better, he cracked a smile and there they are!"

"Oh?"

"Y-Yeah." Demyx's voice cracked. "Sometimes puppy just needs a little love. But he said he'd talk to Xemnas about keeping things exclusive so he's talking him back to his place to mark him as his own." he rushed, trying to put the emphasis on Saix and Xemnas and less on what he did to help that go along. "I hope he didn't mean peeing on him.." He looked up to find Zexion eyeing him blankly.

Did that mean he saw through it? Or he didn't? Was that good? Bad? What does this mean? He whined to himself, then sighed. "Are you mad?" Had he made a mistake? Zexion wordlessly shook his head, pursing his lips ever so slightly, still looking directly at him. It was the silence, and lack of reaction that worried Demyx. "You know I love you, right?" When in doubt, reaffirm the thing that stays true, constant and unchanged despite what you've done.

Zexion smiled and nodded. He shorter man stopped walking to rise up onto his tip-toes and place a gentle kiss to his boyfriend's cheek. He whispered, "And that's all that matters, isn't it?" He looked away and began walking; right hand still linked with Demyx's, the other pushing the ear bud into his ear then passing the other to the blond.

He didn't know if he'd crossed a line in Zexion's eyes, as the man wasn't saying a word, so at least he'd told him. "Right." He justified and stared at Zexion for a while before Simple Plan's I Won't Be There flooded into his left ear. He hoped greatly that the choice of song didn't mean anything at this point.

Zexion kept his eyes forward the whole walk to Demyx's house.

I don't wanna make this
Harder than I have to
This is how it has to be
There's so many things I want to say
But you just don't listen to me

I don't want to hurt you
You don't want to hurt me
I can't stand you
And you can't stand me
We can't rearrange
You can never change me
Say goodbye
Nothing I say could change your mind because

I can't stay
Tomorrow I'll be on my way
So don't expect to find me sleeping in my bed
'Cuz when you wake up
I won't be there
I won't be there


Announcement: Next chapter is the chapter I wrote February 18th of 2010 – the first day this story took place. I wrote it alongside the first chapter, and for that, you can find obvious similarities. Excited? :D

Thanks for reading, guys. You're the best :]

YHS
xDelfin