Larxene is pretty messed up emotionally. Axel's messed up mentally, and Marluxia finds himself back in bad habits. What secret is Demyx so jealously guarding? All four are about to discover a major secret, which could mean the end of Organization XIII…
Chapter 6: Encounters
((From the author: I want to start off by thanking everyone who has read and reviewed this story. Your support keeps me going, even when I fall ill with writer's block. Now that all that mushy-ness is out of the way I need to explain something about this chapter. It's a short one I know, but chapter 7 is already half way done so it should be up a lot quicker than this one. Second of all this is more of a just ' getting to know the characters' chapter. As I was writing it out I realized, you have to know whats going on in their heads to fully understand whats going on. So did this story twice, once in Marluxia's perspective and once in Axel's. I hope this doesn't confuse you all and hope you like it. Sorry it took so long, between work and writers block I was having a hard time.))
MarluxiaI don't know why but seeing Axel all over her made me feel jealous. It was probably that moment that I decided I wanted Larxene to be mine. In an act of stupidity I let my jealousy manifest itself in the form of my scythe. I slung it over my shoulder as I always did. Allowing myself to act on my jealousy I walked over to them. I grinned at them both and Axel looked up at me, giving me a look in between puzzlement and anger. I could tell what he was thinking.
"Hey guys," I said, trying to make myself sound pleasant.
"Hey Marlu" Larxene said and smiled. You only realize small details about people once you start thinking about them more. I had always noticed more often than not when she was new here she always smiled as if she was obligated to, not because she wanted to. Now, more and more I had seen her smiling cause she was genuinely happy.
How could that be if we didn't have emotions? I'd have to go shove that in Xemnas's face.
"Marluxia" Axel acknowledged tensely.
I forced myself to laugh " are you still angry about what happened the other day Axel? I didn't mean to hurt you that bad. Or did I just ruffle your pride a bit?" that was how you had to get to Axel, attack his pride. His pride came even before his life in his eyes. He glared at me and Larxene gave us both a confused look.
I waved my hand dismissively "it was nothing. Axel just being a jerk like always so I lost my temper." I did my best explain without further angering Axel and without mentioning what had transpired between Axel and I the other day, for both our sakes.
She nodded, taking my explanation. Her eyes were focused on something else. She looked slightly intimidated. I turned around to see what it was. Then it hit me, she was probably looking at my scythe. " Oh, this thing?" I asked and held it out so she could see it. Her eyes were wide and she whistled.
"Wow, that's one fancy weapon" she muttered. She attempted to hold it but she stumbled backwards from the weight. Axel caught her and I took the scythe back and shouldered it. " You make it look easy" she muttered, sounding annoyed, probably at her own weakness.
I laughed " practice. It takes a lot of practice to use a weapon like this. Trust me, I fell over a few times myself." The last part was a lie, I'd never had any problem with it, but I thought it would make her feel better. She nodded, excepting what I had said.
Larxene held out a hand and four kunai appeared between her fingers. She giggled and said, " I'll stick with what I'm good at."
Axel smirked cockily and held a hand out in front of him. A sudden flash of flames and a chakram appeared in his hand. He held it out to where Larxene could see it and she cautiously liffted it. She didn't have a problem with it. In fact she took it and gave it a pefect toss, sending it flying with deadly accuracy towards an organization member who I couldn't make out from here. Luckily it missed.
Axel looked at her, startled then he laughed. " not a bad throw."
"Ranged weapons have always been a specialty of mine" she said and giggled.
The chakram reappeared in Axel's hand and then the other one appeared in his other hand. He held them at his side and corrected her. " You know technicaly they can be used as both ranged and melee weapons. Like this."
Before I knew what was happening Axel had launched himself at me. I barely had enogh time to swing my scythe down and use it to defflect one chakram aimed at my head. The other one missed me, barely. Luckily I had backpedaled enogh from the first hit. He took another swing at me and I parried again. This time I knocked the chakrams out of his hands. I dropped the scythe then and gave him a good old fashion punch in the face. He punched me in the gut and my kneese buckled for a moment before I realized he had left himself open. I quickly elbowed him as hard as I could in the back of the head and he went down. I then promptly steped on his back and laughed.
"you might be faster than me Axel, but you don't know how to use it to your advantage. Tsk tsk, lets hope you get better before I meet you in the exams, if I do." I felt like I had earned the right to taunt him after my victory. Well my victory of the moment.
Axel quickly shifted and I lost my balance. He took advantage of that and knocked me off my feet. I hit the ground hard and I felt him sit down on my back, holding my arms against my back. I writhed and made an attempt to escape.
"Tsk tsk Marluxia. You might be stronger than me, but brute strenght won't help you in a fight where you can't catch your oponet." He was mocking me. It made me want to rip his head off.
AxelSince that bastard Marluxia had woke me up so early I decided to head down to the stadium where the exams would be. As I was traveling down the hallways I spotted Larxene, she looked confused. I laughed to myself; we needed to print up maps for new members.
"Hey Larxene. You lost? If you want I can help." I held a hand out to her and he first reaction was glaring at me. Damn that girl had a lot of pride.
"I'm fine" she snapped at me and headed down the wrong hallway.
"Okay, fine" I said holding my hands up in surrender. " If you're looking for the exams stadium you're going the wrong way." I smiled at her reaction. The littlest things set her off, it was kind of funny to watch tiny things like being corrected send her into fury.
"I knew that" she snapped and went down another wrong hallway.
I sighed and this time walked after her. I gently grabbed her by the arm and steered her in the right direction. I said nothing, just waited to see what she'd do. I though she might hit me, or yell at me, or something negative. Instead she just stared at me. It was unsettling.
"So you're actually not just being a creep this time" she asked. It took me a second to process what she meant. I turned dark red, remembering the way I had acted. I had been completely berserk with lust and anger. No wonder she'd been so snappish with me.
"Don't insult me. I think I'm doing very good in the ways of not being psychopathic." I grinned at her and she laughed. I had to admit she was really pretty. I had thought she was from the moment I saw her. Of course, being the idiot I had been at the time instead of being nice to her I had acted like a jerk and she had hated me. I was relived she was so eager to forgive me.
"If your not planning to abduct me this time then yeah, I could use some help with the directions" she admitted. She, much like myself, hated admitting she didn't know what she was doing.
" Yeah I'll talk to Xemnas about printing up some maps of the castle." I figured the sarcastic comment might put her off but she giggled instead. " Its just down the stairs, come on." I grabbed her fore arm gently and pulled her along. I notice her wince and try to get out of my hold so I let go. I was a bit offended but I didn't say anything.
I led her down the stairs, looking back often to see how she was coming along. She'd stop every now and then to look at something before hurrying back beside me. "This place is actually pretty neat if you stop to look at it. I always thought it seemed sorta bland all the black, white, and gray. Guess you can't judge a book by its cover huh? That goes for the castle and its in habitants" she said and giggled. What was that supposed to mean? Was she talking about me? Marluxia? Demyx? Possibly Luxord? A few ideas raced through my head, some of them a bit graphic. I herd her laugh again, " what are you thinking about so hard?" she asked. I must have looked like I was thinking a lot.
"hn? Nothing, random thoughts, kittens on fire, puppies on fire, Old ladies on fire, etcetera."
We arrived at the stadium a few moments later. She looked around, awed by it. I laughed and she glared at me. Not one of her typical death glares but more of a ' hey, if I wanna be impressed I will, its none of your business' type glare. I flinched and muttered " wow if looks could kill."
She giggled at me and said "you know if I can look past your arrogance sometimes, your actually pretty funny." She poked me hard on the chest then walked off. I stood, a bit stunned before I followed after her. It wasn't exactly hard to find seats in this place, considering it was a million times bigger than it needed to be. Larxene sat down a few rows up and I sat down next to her.
The scariest part about all of that? We actually carried on a normal conversation. I never have normal conversations. It was awkward at first but then as we kept talking I got gradually more use to it.
"So are you nervous?" she had asked me.
"Not really, I've done this before, twice" I said, holding up two fingers to illustrate. She nodded. I don't know why but I was compelled to ask, " what about you?"
she looked at me surprised I had asked. She shrugged and said "A little, but this is my first time. Something is always scary the first time though. You can't tell me you've never been scared before."
I laughed " Nope. Commit this to memory, I never get scared. Ever."
She laughed again. Slowly I found myself putting my arm around her shoulders. When I did she tossed me a weird glance. I was surprised when she didn't say anything. In fact she didn't seem to mind at all. I'd go as far as to say she liked it. I grinned at her and she surprised me again by smiling back. But, being me, nothing good could ever last.
"Hey guys" Marluxia said, faked friendliness in his voice. I glared at him and he returned it. What was his problem?
"Hey Marlu" Larxene said, smiling. I felt something in my gut lurch. I didn't like the feeling, and yet I did, because it was a feeling.
"Marluxia" I acknowledged him.
He picked up on the apprehension in my voice and laughed. "Are you still angry about what happened the other day Axel? I didn't mean to hurt you that bad. Or did I just ruffle your pride a bit?"
I bit my lip to keep from snapping back at him. I wanted to knock that cocky look of his clean off his face. I glared at him and he smirked triumphantly. I could tell by the look on her face Larxene was confused. I had begun to say something when Marluxia cut in again.
"It was nothing. Axel just being a jerk like always so I lost my temper." At least this time he wasn't making me sound like a complete idiot. He was just making me sound like a jerk.
I noticed Larxene was staring at him funny. She cocked her head to the side slightly. It took me a second to realize what she was staring at. That pink monster of a scythe he called a weapon. Weapon, more like death machine. If death machines were pretty and pink and smelled like flowers. One of these days he was going to kill someone with it.
" Oh, this thing?" Marluxia asked and held it out so she could see it. Her eyes were wide and she whistled.
"Wow, that's one fancy weapon" she muttered. She attempted to hold it but she stumbled backwards from the weight. I moved forward and caught her to keep her from falling on her ass.
" You make it look easy" she said distastefully. I could tell she was angry from her tone. More than likely it was directed more at the inanimate object rather than Marluxia. Shame.
Marluxia laughed and said " practice. It takes a lot of practice to use a weapon like this. Trust me, I fell over a few times myself." Funny, I'd never seen him so much as lose his balance swinging that massive monster of a weapon around.
Larxene held out a hand. Come to think of it, I don't believe I had ever seen her weapons. Four kunai appeared with a crackle of an electric charge. " I'll stick with what I'm good at" she said and giggled.
Fine, if everyone else was bringing out their toys I wanted to show mine off too. I held out my hand and summoned one of my infamous chakrams in a blaze of showy flames. Larxene gazed at it, ever so slightly amazed by it. Score one point for Axel. I held it out and she snatched it from me. Before I realized what she was doing she had hurled it like a Frisbee off towards the opposite side of the stadium, where another organization member barley dodged it.
I laughed nervously. "not a bad throw" I admitted. If they hadn't ducked when they did, we'd be short a member. Organization XI just didn't have as good of a ring to it as Organization XII.
"Ranged weapons have always been a specialty of mine" she said and giggled. My only though: no shit.
I saw the look Marluxia was giving me, a kind of vile smirk that made me want to put a dent in his pretty boy face. I re-summoned my lethal weapon in one hand and its parter in the other. I corrected Larxene " You know technicaly they can be used as both ranged and melee weapons. Like this."
I launched myself forward, an attemot to wipe that shit eating grin off Marluxia's face. I slashed, only to feel a painful vibration in my arm. Deflected. He had used his damn sythe to parry me. I quickly tried another attack while I still had momentum on my side. He backpedeld away, just out of reach. I made one last attempt at hitting and I was deflected again. This time he used the sythe to knock the chakrams clear out of my hands. He dropped his sythe and before I realised it he had punched me square in the face. Fine, he wasnted to play dirty? He'd get it then. I punched him in the gut (though secretly I had hopped to nail him in the crotch) . He staggered for a moment and then I felt his elbow crash down on the back of my head. Shit, I had left myself open.
I dropped, and I dropped hard. I felt the pain of Marluxia's boot digging into my back. Then he started laughing at me, which only further pissed me off. "you might be faster than me Axel, but you don't know how to use it to your advantage. Tsk tsk, lets hope you get better before I meet you in the exams, if I do." Alright, now I had earned the right to beat his ass in for that outburst.
I quickly shifted, knocking him off balance. I promtly followed it up by kicking his legs out from under him. He hit the ground hard, so I took advantage of the opertunity. I sat down on his back and pinned his arms behind him while he struggled to get up. I won!
Time for me to brag. "Tsk tsk Marluxia. You might be stronger than me, but brute strenght won't help you in a fight where you can't catch your oponet."He growled savagely and shifted, trying to get at me. But he couldn't. I smirked and laughed as he cursed.
((Quick Note: I did a section on Demyx as a bonus for making you wait so long, which takes place at the beginning of chapter 7))
DemyxI entered the doors to the stadium just in time to see a chakram flying full speed. I followed its path with my eyes and saw the unfortunate Saïx in it trajectory. I started to say something but the weapon was a lot faster than my brain. I closed my eyes as I herd the thud of metal hitting concrete. I look up to see Saïx had ducked away, barley.
"You okay?" I called nervously. He nodded, brushing off concrete dust from the chakram's impact. I looked at the huge dent it had left in the wall and winced. Was Axel mad or something? The chakram had already vanished, probably re-summoned or dismissed. I looked up in the seats and I saw Axel and Marluxia. I couldn't see very well from where I was.
I walked up the rows of seats till I was the three figures, Larxene, Axel, and Marluxia. Larxene was standing there, a look of amusement on her face. She giggled and then I noticed why. I saw Axel sitting on top of Marluxia who was writhing and bucking wildly in an attempt to get out of Axel's grasp. It looked a bit…odd. I felt a slight heat rise up in my cheeks, feeling a little bit dirty at a few of the thoughts going through my head.
"Had enough yet?" Axel taunted, chuckling sinisterly like he always did. He was a real jerk sometimes; I wonder what Larxene saw in him. I could tell she was really fond of him, even though she pretended to hate him and he treated her like a sack of crap.
"Let me up you ass hole " Marluxia snapped, fighting valiantly. Even though he was smaller, Axel was pretty strong. Marluxia was probably going easy on him though, not wanting to waist energy before the exams. Marluxia was probably the strongest of us all. Funny, he was the only guy that got picked on more than me, but he was more useful than me. I couldn't fight to save my life. In these exams I always lost the first round. I was going to try extra hard this year though. Everyone in the Organization knew there was more on the line this year. Why? Because there was a girl among us.
It's just a fact; men always act more violent when a woman is around, thinking it'll impress her. Being fairly well associated with Larxene I knew it was a wasted effort, but still it would be pretty neat to have a girl say, even if only once, ' wow Demyx you don't totally suck!' Yeah I know, I have low standards, but that's on my wish list. And I mean she was pretty too.
Yeah, in my dreams. I didn't have a shot with her, ever. Especially not because of my secrets. The ones I write down in my journal and don't tell anyone. Not even my best friends. Especially not my best friend, Marluxia. He'd think I was weird. And then he'd tell everyone. I'd just have to learn to live with the fact I'm a complete and total looser. I was getting ready to walk away when she said " hey Demyx."
I looked over at her and smiled and she waved and tapped the seat next to hers. She wanted me to sit by her? I thought my heart skipped a beat. Then I remembered I don't have a heart and I laugh at my own idiocy. Non the less I went and sat next to her, watching Marluxia and Axel rolling around on the floor, struggling and fighting each other like animals. I was going to say something when I herd Xemnas's voice over a loudspeaker. When did we get those installed?
"Attention, Members of Organization XIII the exams will officially begin in three minutes. Please find your seats and stay there till I say other wise"
Axel finally let go of Marluxia, jumping back as he made a few savage swings at Axel. Marluxia was ready to run after him when the Superior's voice said softly "Take. Your. Seat." How in God's name did he get over here to fast? I felt myself jump a little bit and Larxene laughed as Marluxia slunk into the empty seat next to me. Axel sat down on the other side of her and the superior strode down the rows out onto the arena floor and called out the first match:
"Xaldin and Demyx, come to the floor now."
…and with that announcement the exams were underway.
((Authors note: ooooh…what is Demyx's secret hmmm? You'll get an idea of it in the next chapter hahaha. Sorry again that this chapter took so long. Really my main problem was Axel. I had a feeling he was a bit out of character so I kept re-doing his part over and over again. Marluxia took me about an hour and Demyx only took like half an hour. So if everyone seems a little out of character I'm sorry about that. Any way, please review, its what makes me write more. Chapter 7 should be up fairly soon. I've already written five pages, and that's really just the beginning of the exams. I might have to split up the exams into multiple chapters. Anyway, tata for now loves))