Juukai sayz: Hey peoples! …I'm kinda bummed. I got literally one review over that last chapter. Did you all leave me? I see lots of favorite story and story alert adds, though, so THANK YOU, YOU AWESOME ADDING READERS! But the sudden disappearance of reviews scares me. Alright, so I went to Jampcon. And it was amazing. For serious. And I reconnected with the RenoxRufus fangirl in me. Sigh It was good. Look on Photobucket for JAMPcon pics by Juukai, and there ya go! There's even two of me in my zebra char. Cosplay. Anyway, onward to the story!

Disclaimer: fanfiction. F-A-Nfiction. Do we need to break out the flashcards?

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Chapter 5

Zexion hefted Demyx up again, the dirty blond a deadweight in his arms. It was harder than he thought it would be to walk the skinny kid out. Not that he could really call Demyx a kid any more than someone could call him a kid; they were only a few months apart from each other after all. It wasn't that Zexion wasn't used to doing this sort of thing; he had been Demyx's roommate for a year and a half before, but it was more that he hadn't expected to have to do it again. He'd moved away from him, after all, and had gotten a single room. It was supposed to make Demyx angry or upset with him, Demyx wasn't supposed to want to see him again. That wasn't how someone was supposed to react to a friend leaving him to a strange new and older roomy.

Around ten thirty Demyx had passed out at the booth, leaving a still slightly coherent Axel and Riku to continue to attempt to give themselves alcohol poisoning. It was with that thought in mind that he finally stopped the actual drinking part of the competition. Instead, he proposed a test to see who was the most affected by the alcohol already. Axel had whined that that wasn't fair. He could hold more alcohol, Zexion had thought he had slurred, but it killed his sense of balance by the sixth shot. It wasn't surprising he knew exactly which shot would get him, either. And a balance test was precisely what he had ordered to see who the winner was. Riku had smiled in drunken triumph while Axel complained.

Standing both of them away from anything they could try to lean on to cheat, and away from anything they could fall onto and hurt themselves on if they couldn't manage the trick, he made the two balance on one leg and touch their noses with both hands separately. Riku would be able to get away with driving drunk just fine if he ever got pulled over, because he was able to do it with only a little rudimentary teetering. Axel fell on his ass the moment his left hand got to within four inches of his face. Riku had crowed in victory, showing the most emotion Zexion had 

seen come from him other than sarcasm all night. Which was saying something coming from Mr. Stoic himself.

It was eleven by the time that they got out of the bar. Xaldin let Zexion leave early to take them back to the dorm rooms, which was a blessing since he would have been working until one in the morning otherwise. He managed to get Demyx somewhat awake, and he was more supporting him to Axel's truck than dragging him, like he was doing now. The redhead was in the backseat pouting by the time Demyx was settled behind the passenger seat. Riku was going to be sitting up front with Zexion, it seemed. And that was because of the extra part of the bet that he had already planned out in his head. When Zexion climbed up into the driver's seat, Riku leaned in close, reeking of vodka.

"Th'r's a tattoo place that's open till midnight that I passed on my way through town," he tried to whisper, but failed. No one else was paying attention, anyway, though.

"I know the place." Zexion had answered smoothly. He had a tattoo on his right shoulder blade that the proprietor had done.

"Tha's where we wanna go."

Sighing, Zexion drove to the place, deciding that it was not in his best interest to argue with the drunk.

The place would have been easy to miss. Zexion was surprised that Riku had noticed it on his way in, but the white haired youngster just told him that his taxi driver had taken a turn here on the way to the street to the college that went by all the houses. That made more sense, since the parlor was on the corner of a little strip mall. A lime green and purple sign proclaimed that Traversing Tattoos was, indeed, still open when they pulled up and Zexion herded everyone inside before they could get in trouble for drunken loitering.

"He wants a tattoo," Riku told the guy behind the counter as he jabbed a thumb in Axel's direction, slurring less now. He must have been trying harder to not seem so drunk. Couldn't hide the smell, though. The man wrinkled his nose only slightly, and Zexion commended his efforts silently.

"Alright," the man said, raising an eyebrow at Zexion in question. He must have been the only sane looking one, and small wonder. Zexion just shrugged, so the man went on. "What's he want?"

Riku knocked Axel in the ribs with an elbow, and Axel turned to glare at him while rubbing his abused side. "Got a book I can look through?"

They sat down with a binder in hand, searching through its pages with a definite lack of enthusiasm. Riku was the only one really finding cynical amusement in the whole thing. For 

Zexion, he knew that the satisfaction would come for him in the morning when Axel woke up sore as hell with no idea what happened.

"You sh'ld get a f'ce tattoo like yer dad!" Demyx piped up in a voice that was much higher than his normal one. The way he butchered the English language when he was drunk always made Zexion shudder, and now was no different.

"Your dad's got tattoos 'n his face?" Riku questioned, giving Axel an unreadable look.

"Mmm. Red ones right here like this," Axel put one finger right under each eye and moved them slowly up until they almost touched the corner of his eyes.

Riku just blinked at him, and then grinned. "Do it. Get something on your face like your ol' man."

Axel stuck his tongue out like the thought disgusted him, but then he thought better of it. He noticed something in the book and stood up, nearly knocking Demyx, who had been resting his head on his shoulder, over in the process. "Can I get these little bits put on upside down right here?"

No one could see where he was motioning to but the guy behind the counter, since Axel's back was to everyone else. The older man just nodded, and showed Axel over to one of the chairs. The rest tried to follow, but the redhead just shooed them all back with shaky motions, telling them to just wait until he was done. He seemed serious all of a sudden, and his expression was almost like the one that he had had when Zexion had come upon Demyx asking persistently about Roxas. He started to wonder about that, but let it go when he heard the gun whiz to life in the other room. Zexion winced in sympathy. It had hurt enough when he'd gotten a tattoo done on his back, he couldn't imagine one on the face. Maybe that was the only reason Axel didn't want them in there, and he was just putting too much thought into things.

Half an hour later, Axel came out, his cheeks pink from the brand new tattoos that sat below his eyes. They started at the very top of his cheekbones at the center point for his eye and went down about an inch. The best way Zexion could think to describe them was a sort of upside down tear drop done in a deep blue-violet. The artist resumed his position back behind the counter and gave Axel a bottle, instructing him on how to put the liquid inside on his tattoos so-and-so many times a day and to come back if there were any problems or he wanted another one done. Riku was kind enough to pay the bill since Axel had really gone through with getting the tattoo.

And that brought their evening back to now. Riku and Axel had been leaning against each other when they walked ahead to their dorm hall a bit more quietly than Axel was known for. Which was good. Zexion didn't think that his ears could take anymore of Axel's singing tonight. That wasn't to say that he thought that Axel couldn't sing, he just didn't think that he could sing 

as well when he was drunk as he could when he was sober and accompanying something Demyx had written. Call him biased.

Though he was dragging an unconscious Demyx now, he had been jumped earlier. As Axel well knew, Demyx was an affectionate drunk, and he sure liked to hug and cling when he got wasted enough. Tonight had been one of those wasted enough scenarios. When he'd gotten Demyx to stand up to get out of the tattoo parlor, he'd been glomped. There was no other term that fit better than that. And he'd only been able to get Demyx off of him long enough to drive them to campus. By the time they were back and in the parking lot nearest their dorm hall, Demyx was mostly asleep again. Zexion managed to get him out of the backseat and support him before he was truly out.

Going up the stairs without any help was tricky, but he managed to get up all the flights without incident. Demyx's room was at the opposite end of the hall from Axel and Riku's, so he would only check to make sure that they had gotten in alright after he had deposited Demyx. He was still in their hall, only he was in a private room on the second floor. He didn't know any of the people in the surrounding rooms, and he didn't care to. His small band of friends were mostly on the third floor, and he really had no interest in branching out. As he passed, he heard a drunken shout from Vincent's room, and he could see the eerie RA standing just outside of the door. Poor Vincent looked exasperated as he tried to shush whoever was in there. Zexion caught sight of blond hair within, and immediately understood. The blond who had been at the bar with Luxord and Vincent was the one now inside the room making noise. It was Cid, his lover.

"Is he twenty-one?" Vincent asked quietly, eyeing Demyx in Zexion's grasp.

"Yes. We checked at the bar before giving him anything," Zexion was a lot more patient with Vincent than he would have been with anyone else that knew where he worked and how he was a guy that lived by the rules, for the most part, since he was only doing his job by asking.

Vincent didn't answer, but nodded him on.

"Don't wake up your neighbors," Zexion added over his shoulder as a farewell, enjoying the small blush that pinked Vincent's otherwise pale cheeks before he walked into his room.

He got to Demyx's door, and dug around in the dirty blond's pockets until he found the key to get in his room. He opened the door as stealthily as he could, trying not to wake up Demyx's new roommate. A light snoring was coming from the bed opposite Demyx's, but those soft sounds stuttered to a stop when the springs on Dem's bed squeaked as Zexion eased him down. The stranger sat up, holding a hand over his right eye as he looked over at Zexion.

"Whassa'matter?" He obviously wasn't coherent yet. Almost like three drunks Zexion knew, but he had a more reasonable excuse to be that way.



"Just bringing your roommate back. Go back to bed," Zexion muttered softly, pulling the blankets over the gently breathing body he was leaning over.

"He do this often?" The other asked, brushing his gray streaked black hair out of his face with his free hand, his voice still gruff with sleep.

"No. Now go back to sleep, Xigbar," he had gotten the name from the paper nametags on the door. Using his name worked. For a moment, Xigbar looked like he wanted to protest, but instead he pulled his hair up over his shoulder, presumably so he wouldn't be laying on it since it was pretty long, and flopped back down, rolling over so that he presented Zexion with a scarred back.

He left just as quietly as he came, sure to lock the door behind him. Vincent was in his room with the door closed by the time he passed again, and he didn't linger to see if all was well. Zexion was fine with knowing they were lovers, he didn't care. But he didn't need to hear the evidence of it. He continued on down the hall, where he knew the room number that Axel had sent him over the summer was. The door was cracked open, but one look in told him that it would be better if he turned around and left, closing the door behind him. So he did. Let them deal with the repercussions of their actions in the morning; it was no real business of his. Though it did bring up the subject of Roxas in his curious mind once more.

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Axel woke up with a near groan. His initial reaction was to roll over and try to fall asleep again. To try and sleep through the ache that pounded in his skull, threatening to split it. Thankfully there was no nausea; that would have made things, including his disposition for the day, even worse. When he tried to roll a pair of arms that he hadn't even felt above the headache tightened around his waist, effectively stopping him. That made him stiffen and utter a surprised curse that was hardly above a whisper.

Very slowly, Axel began to inch his weight over so that he could get a look at who was cuddling with him while he slept. He was extremely surprised to find that it was the demon of temptation with silver hair that just happened to be his roommate.

Riku still seemed to be sleeping, and while he had held Axel still before, he hadn't shifted since. Must have been a deep sleeper. Just as slowly as before he unwound Riku's arms from him and sat up. Blankets bunched around his bare abdomen, and he looked down.

'What the hell happened last night?' was the question that seemed to be repeating itself in his head as he tried to remember when they had left the bar, let alone when he had lost his shirt.



He brought up one hand and rubbed his forehead, and then his eyes. Last night was hazy after they got done singing. That last song with Riku had been their last one. He remembered singing that girly ass song with Demyx before that, too. 'Bastard better not try to tease me for it,' he smirked though, knowing that at some point the brunette would bring it up for vengeance against some joking jibe he'd make. His fingers skimmed lower on his face, and he flinched away from his own touch with a hiss.

'Damn, that hurt! What the hell was that…?' Tenderly this time, he touched the spot again, wincing when it sent a rush of pain through his nerves.

Riku made a sleepy noise next to him, and his muscles tensed. He got up the guts to look over a few seconds later, and he found a pair of sleep-darkened green eyes watching him just as carefully as he watched them. "Morning," Riku croaked, though he didn't seem to want to move. Which was good. The bed was a lot smaller with two people on it than Axel remembered.

"…Morning." Axel answered back, unsure of what was going to happen next. He had the distinct urge to hop up out of bed and go sit on the other one- Riku's he noticed when he glanced down and saw his own sheets bunched around his waist- while he tried to remember what happened last night before he got his head bitten off. Riku seemed the kind to do it.

But Riku surprised him by sitting up and fixing Axel with a weird look, his gaze pinpointed on the spot right below Axel's eyes that had hurt to touch earlier. Did they get in a fight or something and he had a black eye? "They look different on you now," the silverette muttered, still staring at that spot. "Must be the light."

Axel gave him a strange look. "What look different?"

"Don't you remember anything? You got two tattoos on your cheeks last night." Riku's mouth was still open to say more, but Axel had already shot up off of the bed, yesterday's shorts hanging low on his hips. Low enough to show off a pair of pair of boxers that looked to have little balls of fire with cartoon-y happy faces on them.

"I did what," he shouted, making it to the mirror that hung above their dresser unit so that he could take a look for himself. Sure enough, two tattoos sat in those sore spots on his face. He felt around them, still too far buried in his state of shock to say anything, even curse himself for being so stupid.

Riku nodded and continued, "Yeah. Right before we came back here and…" The other boy glanced down, wavering off and letting Axel know that something had happened, and he was right to try and remember what it was.

"What? What happened after that?" He rounded on Riku, feeling even more insecure when the usually cocky man refused to look up. His lime green eyes lost their focus as he tried to remember back. Now that he'd been reminded of it, he did vaguely remember stopping at the 

tattoo parlor and being elbowed by Riku until he chose something. The tattoos probably hurt, but his endorphins must have kicked in early, because he didn't remember that so much.

Neither did he remember coming back. That was all a blank. "We didn't… eh, go all the way did we?" He usually wasn't so awkward about this sort of thing, but he did have to live with the guy for at least the next nine months, after all, unless he wanted to get charged for moving roommates or sell his soul for a single room like Zexion had. Neither were options that he really wanted to have to take.

The other shirtless male shook his head, sweeping his hair out of his face after the motion. "No, I don't think so. I don't remember that, anyway. I think we fell asleep while we were, uh, making out." Axel was glad to hear that Riku seemed to be just as unsure about how to phrase this. It made him feel like less of an immature geek.

Part of Axel, the foremost part, was glad that they hadn't continued. It would have made things even more embarrassing. Plus, if he did ever have Riku sharing his bed in a more intimate manner than last night, he wanted to be able to remember it, and not give either of them the excuse that it was because they were drunk. But part of him was also disappointed. Riku was attractive, and to put it lightly, Axel hadn't been able to find anyone he liked to satisfy his lusts with for far too long, in his own mind. And maybe someday he and Riku would get there, or maybe he'd find someone else. Regardless, that had nothing to do with now, and now was the part that mattered since he had a half naked Riku in his bed, under his sheets, and that thought was pure torture. As was the headache that was still threatening to crack his skull.

On his way to his drawer, where he kept the ever-important Tylenol, he passed by Riku again, ruffling his hair with enough force to almost knock him off the bed. The man hissed, indicating to Axel that either he didn't like his hair touched or he had an equally bad headache. Axel just smirked over his shoulder at him, ignoring the glare that tried to spell his doom. "Get out of my bed, you wanna-be-vampire." For a moment he could feel Riku just stare at his back, and then he heard that arrogant chuckle he was already getting used to.

"Bet you don't say that to a man that often."

Axel hid his growl of indignation behind a cough. "Damn straight," he decided it would be more interesting to play along. "Not when they have six packs like that, anyway." With the bottle of pain relieving pills in hand, the redhead turned back around, getting an eyeful of all that a shirtless Riku meant as he crawled out from under the covers.

'Damn, he's toned! Fuck, I had just been guessing about those abs, I didn't know he really had 'em.' Axel knew he was staring, but he couldn't help it. The way that Riku's boxers- briefs, maybe?- and his pants played peek-a-boo with his hips just screamed for Axel's attention.



Riku cleared his throat, and Axel looked up slowly. "My eyes are up here, dude." He was smirking, though, and holding his hand out to Axel.

"Yeah, but it doesn't really seem like it's your eyes I'm interested in, does it?" Axel joked, fearing maybe he'd gone too far after he said it. But the impatient hit from Riku quickly got rid of the fear.

"Shut up and let me have some of your drugs, Marshall," one of the silver-haired boys eyebrows seemed to be twitching under the fringe of his bangs, and that would have amused Axel in any other situation.

Instead he jerked the bottle far away from Riku's grasp with a snarl. "Call me by my middle name again, you gray haired old man, and you'll wake up missing some very important parts of your anatomy."

He was actually down-right laughed at for that. "Whatever, hot shot. Now I know just what to call you as payback for all the ridiculous names that you give me." When he only received a glare in return, Riku held his hand out again. "Are you going to share or what? Were you absent from Kindergarten the day they taught that?"

After staring at the hand for a moment, Axel finally relented, turning his attention from Riku as he poured out two pills. He downed them dry while winking at his roommate, who rolled his eyes. "I was absent that day. I ditched."

"I think you're a year older than everyone else because you failed that grade, not because you took a year off to work," Riku muttered, still holding one hand out while the other rested on his hip. "I'm too hung over for this shit. Just give me two and I'll cut the homework you owe me down to two weeks instead of a month.

"Low blow, Ri-Ri, low blow." He handed over the pills, dodging the hand that was threatening to make his headache worse from behind. "Why don't you have your own pain killers?"

"I swear, I'm going to start calling you by your middle name whenever we're out of this room, Marshall, if you don't stop with all the stupid ass names," Riku pulled out the water bottle that had stayed in his bag from the flight yesterday and took a large drink to wash down the Tylenol. "I don't have any of my own because I forgot to buy some from the store last night, and I didn't own any at home, so…"

"Don't call me that," this time Axel sounded whiny.

"Why not? I can think of worse things for your middle name to be…"

"Marshall's a stupid name. The only Marshalls I have ever seen, bar none, have been either complete perverts," Axel glared hard when Riku snickered. "Don't say it. Just don't. 

They've been complete perverts or book-screwing nerds, okay? You don't have hot redheads like me going around getting called Marshall."

"Small ego's obviously are things reserved to Marshall's, as well, since you don't seem to possess one," Riku grinned, his headache lessening enough for him to joke around a lot more comfortably just because he knew that the medicine would start working soon.

"Yeah, yeah. What time is it," Axel asked, taking the topic away from his failing argument to leave his middle name out of the ropes.

"Uh…" Riku glanced at the alarm clock set up on his desk on the corner nearest his bed. "A little after 12:30. Why?"

" 'Cause we're about to miss lunch!" Axel launched himself at his dresser, leaving Riku to give him a strange look.

"Huh?"

"Seriously, get your ass moving. Lunch time here cuts off at 1 on weekdays, and I don't feel like driving anywhere if I don't have to. Gas isn't cheap, you know? So get dressed and lets go," the redhead was currently wrestling his way into a slightly faded black shirt. His problem was that he was trying to pull his head through one of the sleeves in his hurry.

"Try through the right hole, air head," Riku muttered, pulling out a yellow and black shirt for himself that was one of his old favorites, and a pair of baggy deep blue jeans.

"Shut the hell up, old man," came Axel's muffled reply.

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"Did you remember to put that stuff on your tattoos before we sprinted down," Riku asked, shoving his hands in his pockets as they slowed to a walk.

"Yeah, Mom, I remembered. I even have clean undies on, too. You can check if you want," Axel sneered, lifting his shirt up a little.

"Not on your life." Riku wrinkled his nose. "Those are the last things I want to see while attempting to go and get food."

"Because you'd just want to take me back upstairs and lock the room door and we'd never get to eat, I know. Don't worry, Ri, no one would miss us if we decided we wanted to skip 

a meal. Or ten." Axel was back to his shameless flirting. Even he had to admit it was a strange thing to do when he was trying hard to forget how he had woken up that morning.

"I don't really think I need to say this, but I'm going to anyway," Riku interjected, glaring at Axel for the use of the nickname he hated so much. "Last night. This morning. They never happened. That clear?"

The redhead snorted, burying his hands in his pockets and running one finger along the edge of his phone. "Yeah, I got it. No need to tell me. It's not like I wanna go announcing it to Demyx," he shuddered. "The whole campus would know in five seconds flat that I couldn't even get some when I'm drunk."

"Glad to see you won't tell, although I'm a little worried that you don't want to tell your friends the truth." Axel could hear the smirk in Riku's voice.

"Old fucker," Axel muttered, glaring at the ground for the rest of their walk to the cafeteria. When they got there, they just had to flash their ideas at the person behind the counter to prove that they were students, so they wouldn't have to pay, and then they went on. The line-up wasn't looking wonderful, but they always had the fall-back option of hamburgers and hot dogs if there wasn't something to ones liking on the main line.

Currently they were serving chicken breasts, some disgusting looking potatoes, and a selection of vegetables that must have made Demyx a very happy sitarist. Axel made for the hamburger grill, ordering a double cheeseburger with everything on it. There was a serving tray full of fries next to him, and Riku watched him fill his plate, leaving minimal space for his burger.

"How are you not fat with all the junk you eat?" It really was a mystery, if Axel constantly ate like this.

"I'm just that damn talented," came Axel's distracted reply as he tried to make sure that none of the fries would escape his plate and fall to their doom on the floor.

Riku shook his head. "You must be one of those skinny fat people. You look like a stick, but you don't have any muscle, just fat."

"And yet, I could probably kick your ass any day," he grinned up at Riku with sharp green eyes. "Terrible, isn't it?"

Riku's plate had a piece of chicken, some of the vegetables, and a few of the potatoes, which still looked nasty in Axel's opinion, on his plate. "Does the selection ever get better?"

"Nah," the taller boy hung his head and sighed, "not really. Dinner is usually better than lunch, though. The worst time to try and get food on campus is the weekends. Most of the staff stays at home, so the pickin's are even slimmer then. That, and they're lazier. They do brunch 

instead of having each meal and the hours they're open are shorter. Kinda sucks. But that's partially why there are so many little restraints and stuff so close to here. They know a good business spot when they see it." He grabbed the hamburger that was being passed off to him, and lead Riku away towards the tables.

When they got close enough to one to be spotted, Axel heard a shout, and saw an arm shoot up. Demyx was flagging them down. 'Hell, he's waving his arms like he's flagging down a damn plane,' he thought, rolling his eyes.

"He's just as energetic as ever," Riku commented at his side.

"I told you he was always like that." He lowered his voice so that as they got closer the topic of their conversation couldn't hear them. "Rain or shine, he's always like this. Actually, he's worse when it rains. Or snows. I swear this kid is part fish. He gets even more excited when he's around water. No joke, it could be a lake we pass in the car, rain, snow, sleet, mist, a pool so chlorinated your eyes fall out before you get wet." They were getting too close, so he stopped.

Demyx grinned up at him, patting the chair next to him. "Hey, Axy!" He waited until Axel sat down, and set his food down before he grabbed Axel's face in both of his hands and made the surprised redhead turn to face him. Then the dirty blond leaned in, studying Axel's cheeks with enough intensity to make Axel blush slightly.

Axel was feeling a little uncomfortable with the position. Demyx was a little close for his person comfort. Really, there had to be only one or two inches between their faces. He tried to glance over at Riku, but he was tilted too far towards Dem to manage. Instead, he just got an eyeful of Zexion. And the waiter didn't look happy. His face was still mostly emotionless, as usually, but Axel could see a slight pinch in his eyebrows. That was a good hint; that and the fact that the one visible blue eye looked like it was trying to see if Axel could burst into flame just from will alone.

"U-uh, Dem? What are you doing, exactly?" He was trying not to look down at him. That would only make him more uncomfortable. He didn't really do this kind of contact with friends. It got weird. Sure, he'd joke around, but not usually to this extent unless there was some kind of attraction there. And he didn't feel that for the spunky little guy.

"Looking at your tattoos." Well, at least he sounded slightly serious. That was a change. "I'm trying to see if I like them or not. So shut up and let me make up my mind."

"That's all fine and good, Dem. But I think Zexion's going to jump me behind the gym if you don't let me go," he glanced over at the purple haired boy dressed all in black, who suddenly refused to make eye contact.

Demyx let go right away, and he and Axel leaned away from each other immediately. "What? Oh…" He glanced over in Zexion's direction.



"I am not." Came his remark on the subject. Zexion picked up his fork and started poking at his food, muttering, "Drama queen."

"Keep telling yourself that, short stuff," Axel grumbled, taking the shot at Zexion's height since he started the name calling first.

"Anyway," Riku inserted forcefully when it looked like Zexion was about to make another low remark. "You drank almost as much as us, Demyx. How come you don't have at least a headache like Axel and me?"

Said excitable boy just shrugged. "I don't know…"

Beside Riku, Axel snorted. "This kid never gets hangovers. I don't think his body knows how. He can drink like a fucking sailors, last night for example, and the next morning he's as perky as ever. It really sucks when he's the one that wakes you up after a big party. He's loud and obnoxious, and he won't take 'let me sleep, you fucking moron!' as his hint to get out."

"Poor baby," Riku snickered before taking a bite of his chicken. "Did the mean ol' Demyx make your headache bigger?"

"He's cranky when you wake him up like that!" Demyx whined, leaning around Axel so he could look at Riku, his fork dangling out of his mouth. "I almost lost an arm trying to wake him up for classes that day!"

"You drink like that when you have classes?" Riku gave Axel a disapproving look.

Axel gave him a seething glare, which lost part of its effect since his cheeks were slightly puffed out from the big bite of hamburger he had just taken. "U-on't-owe-waf-a-erminances-err." He growled out, though he did keep his mouth mostly closed for the benefit of everyone at the table.

Riku and Zexion gave him a strange look. "Wanna try that again, this time in English," Riku asked.

" 'You don't know what the circumstances were.' " Demyx translated cheerfully, his eyes on the peas that he was currently trying to stab onto his fork.

"How the hell did you understand him?" Riku shook his head. "Never mind. I probably don't want to know. I don't care if I didn't know the circumstances, just try not to keep that same habit this year, okay? That, or go sleep with Demyx and Xigbar."

"It was one time. One. Time." Axel held up one finger, waving it around to help Riku realize that it had only happened once.



"Hey guys!" Demyx shouted, getting everyone's attention. But he was looking over towards the serving lines. "Over here!"

Riku saw the new group that he was waving to, and hoped that their table had enough space. There were four others heading their way, one of the girls, for there were two, waving back shyly at Demyx. They only just had enough seats and space for everyone.

"Alright, Riku, introductions," Axel said in a low voice to just Riku. Then he spoke louder, "Everyone, this is Riku Staley. He's my roomy this year, and he's pretty cool, even though he's a bit of a jackass. He'll fit in with the gang perfect. Alright, Riku, time to learn more names. The little blonde beauty over there next to Zexion is Naminé. She's shy at first, but then she opens her mouth once she's comfortable with you, and WHAM! totally makes fun of you when you least expect it." He took the time to stop and wink at her, and Naminé just stuck her tongue out at him. "She can be nice, though, and her art'll blow you outta the water, just like Demyx said last night. Next to her is Larxene. She's a total bitch, just stay away from her or you'll probably catch some kind of disease." Axel dodged the carrot slice that was thrown at him, and ignored it when the blonde with the antenna hairstyle, Larxene, flipped him off.

"The wall sitting there next to Demyx is Lexeaus. Good luck getting him to talk. You have a better chance of getting Nam to strip dance for the whole cafeteria." At that point he was stopped by the whole table, except for Naminé and Lexeaus, shouting at him.

A chorus of "Don't say that kind of thing!"s and "Axel!"s echoed around the table. Namine turned bright red and looked down at her food while Lexeaus just pretended like nothing had been said. Axel, on the other hand, was fairing the worst from the slap to the back of the head he'd gotten from Demyx and the kick to his shins from Zexion.

"Ouch! Okay, okay, I'm sorry! Gods of the Coliseums, you people are no fun! Anyway, moving on, the last blonde over there is Cid. That's the guy that was with Vincent last night." Axel was still sulking from the abuse, but he looked down the table to Cid. "Where is ol' Dark and Dreary Uncle Vinny, anyway? I thought you two followed each other around like puppies."

"Shut yer mouth, Ax," Cid pointed at Axel with the knife he had just been using to tear his chicken to pieces. That was the only way to describe it, since he didn't seem to be cutting it into any kind of pieces like one normally did. It looked more like he was shredding the poor cooked bird. "'Fore I weld it shut fer ya and stick you on the next air ship ta Atlantica."

"He calls planes air ships," Axel muttered to Riku. "Apparently his whole town does, not that I have a clue where he's from. Some place called Rocket Town, I think."

"An' Vince's at manda'try R.A. meeting, so he had ta skip lunch." Cid promptly dug into his own.



"So you have to eat enough for the two of you to make up for it, Captain," Larxene threw in, grinning sweetly at Cid when he turned a glare on her with a full mouth.

Axel smirked, and then turned his attention back to his end of the table. "What do you think of the gang, Riku?"

A couple curious but expectant glances turned the sea-eyed male's way, but he ignored them. "I think they're all completely insane except for Namine and Lexeaus. And you're their king and Larxene's the queen. Demyx is the court jester on crack."

Cid burst out laughing while Larxene made an affronted sound and crossed her arms over her chest. Demyx whined that he wasn't on crack, but didn't even try to refute him being the jester, if he even noticed that part. Zexion rolled his eyes and Namine giggled cutely.

"Fuck, I'd have to be the King of insane to marry that bitch!" Axel crowd, cackling at the expression Larxene had.

"You're going to be the eunuch of insane if you don't cut it out, Axel," she snarled in return, leaning over the table to glare at him, her antennae wavering a little at the quick motion. "And you, gramps." She jabbed a finger in Riku's direction. "Don't you go lumping us together like that unless you want to be next on the castration list."

Everyone was still laughing pretty hard, except for Demyx (who was pouting), Lexeaus, and Zexion. Riku suspected that if he was in real danger of Larxene hurting him, someone would be interfering, so instead he leaned forward, too, so that while they couldn't be nose-to-nose, they were still a lot closer than before.

"Does he not have the right parts? Or wait, you wanted to be the King instead, huh? Maybe if you can find a Queen crazier than him," he elbowed Axel in the rubs, grinning at the punch in the arm he got in return, "we'll change it up."

Axel kept an eye on Larxene as her face contorted into anger, and then went blank, worried for a moment that he'd have to push Riku out of harm's way. Larxene could have quite the temper, and around campus she was a little known for it.

But suddenly she grinned, and he relaxed, smiling slightly. "I like you, kid," she said, sitting back up. "Got plenty of balls, and that's just what this group needs. Welcome to the gang!"

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x



Argh. Twenty one pages for you. I love you all enough to give you twenty one pages for being late. Which doesn't make sense to me, since I started this chapter like… the day after I uploaded the other one. For serious. Anyway, please review. I need feedback, you know!

Avi den Kanashimi- ;; ZOMG. Thanks for the only review I got over the last chappy! You make me cry a thousand tears of joy. I'm so glad that you like it! D I'm fond of it myself. It's just kind of growing into this monster… You really think it's funny? Like, none of it seems forced to you? Sigh of relief Thank the heavens, I was afraid that I was putting too much effort into that. I just think of most of the cast as wanna-be comedians, and a generally fun loving crowd. I know that's how me and my buddies are right now in college…