Hey guys XD I've been away long Oo I'm sorry for the long wait. I really am. But Lent's over and I can finally work my stuff XD
This chapter, in the very least, is slightly long. I was even wondering if I should leave the story altogether, but words from a supportive person and the realization that leaving it hanging would ruin things for a lot of people got me to go on. And it's going better than I thought 8D
Enjoy guys! 8)
I don't own the characters except, technically, Amanda, Kate, and Darienne.
"She shot a civilian? I didn't- I thought…" Yazoo felt like the most obvious epiphany just slapped her awake, and she felt an entirely different feeling from the guilt she'd felt just a minute before.
She felt almost relieved now. Relieved that she'd nipped it in the bud and cut herself off from those people. The biting feeling of guilt had turned into the tiniest annoying buzzing in her insides. But it WAS still there.
"Hey Yazz… To take your mind off all this negative stuff, I've got a present for you. Like a welcoming gift from the three of us." Amanda said sweetly, nudging the silver-head's side.
Yazoo tilted her head to the side. "A party?" The invitation waved in her face was dark blue and sparkled like the night sky. To her, it was pretty corny, actually.
"The party of the century." Kate said excitedly. Yazoo nodded, half wondering how the conversation got from a shooting to a night party. Also wondering how to run it through with her dad.
"You doing anything today?" Marluxia asked casually.
It took Axel almost all his conscious willpower to keep his jaw from dropping. "What?"
"I need to thank you don't I? Also, I've got nothing to do, and I abhor boredom." The brunette said irately, sounding almost defeated.
"Like, just us?" Axel said with as level a voice as he could. "Why not?" Marluxia responded casually.
"I can answer that question."
It was a wonder to Marluxia how Larxene could pop up at every unexpected and inconvenient time and place she wanted to, and now was just like all the other times the blonde had proven that ability of hers.
"Nope. You kids aren't running off without Auntie Larxy around to watch you." She quipped maliciously. Axel felt relieved, but then somewhat disappointed. Wait, what?
"I suppose the old woman won't get off our backs, then." Marluxia said with an exaggerated sigh.
"Old woman? Why you little froufrou!" While Larxene satisfied herself in giving Marluxia a bad (or worse than it already was) case of bed hair, Axel was left to wonder what it was he was feeling just then.
The mall. A place where 21st century teens have established their 3rd home mentality.
This also happened to be the place the three somehow ended up in when none of them were inclined to go to the teenybopper central of the district.
Then again, things didn't really go as planned, did they; Larxene wasn't supposed to be coming either.
"So we technically came here without any plan whatsoever." Marluxia stated cynically. "Not quite, Marxy. We've got fun waiting right over there." Larxene said, pointing to the abstract stone benches under the steep escalators running right over them.
Marluxia squinted through the mass of people but saw only one blonde male who wasn't moving an inch from where he stood, and he looked exactly like the type Larxene would describe as 'fun'.
He had an elegant yet dangerous look to him, much like… well, a gangster. He had a number of piercings lining his earlobes, and the look in his eyes reflected the same sort of cockiness they were accustomed to seeing in Larxene's cattish ones.
"Well, hello there ducky. Fancy seeing you here." The man said with a cultured British accent, grinning cockily at the female blonde who approached him.
"Call me that again and you won't be showing half of your pretty face for the next year, buddy." Larxene said, a cocky smirk plastered on her face at the sight of the older male.
"Marxy, meet my cousin Luxord. Axel's had the pleasure." Larxene said in her lazy way.
"Pleasure? I lost three hundred effing dollars to the guy!" Axel said irately. "Hey, it's not his fault that you suck at the game, Axxy." Larxene mocked.
Marluxia grinned. "Nice to meet you." She said, shaking his hand.
The brunette good-humouredly joined in Larxene's Axel-bashing, unbeknownst to her that right on the other side of the mall, another problem was to arise.
"This would look so hot on you Yazz!" Yazoo sighed and opened her arms to another pile of clothes, a slight smile on her face, wondering when they'd realize that she didn't have the capacity to try on all the clothes they gave her in a year, let alone a day.
The silver-head mentally picked out some clothes that she might actually like and dropped the rest into Darienne's hands, not waiting for the irritating response she expected to come as she went to the changing rooms.
At this point the teen had to be careful; she'd gotten used to it, but changing in public was a constant strain on the silver-head. Okay, technically it wasn't public, although the changing rooms were her danger zone.
Yazoo looked through the clothes. Fortunately for her, the clothing size of a normal female matched hers, so it didn't bother her very much.
Soon enough, Yazoo found something she particularly liked in the pile: a dark Persian green sweater. What did it remind her of?
The material was soft and felt good against her skin. She snapped out of her reverie when calls from outside told her to show.
Making sure nothing looked out of the ordinary, she slipped out and presented herself. Kate and Darienne cooed, saying she looked fantastic and such, while Amanda looked smug.
"Perfect, Yazz. Maybe you should wear that to the party." She said. Yazoo smiled, and soon enough they purchased a number of items (the three commented on Yazoo's good taste yet limited purchases) and stepped out of the store laughing.
Yazoo felt excited to at least be able to wear the turtleneck sweater, although, lost in her thoughts, the silver-head accidentally ran into someone.
More aptly put, someone ran into her, but it was partially her fault for not looking. Upon seeing who it was, though, the tension immediately rose.
The messy-haired redhead was already hurriedly grabbing the stuff he'd knocked out of her arms and laid the bag in her hand, saying no more but a muttered apology as he went as quickly as he came.
"Oh, how rude! He totally did that on purpose. What a son-of-a-" "Can it, Dar." Yazoo said quickly, getting on her feet.
Darriene looked disgusted still at the redhead's 'hit and run', although Yazoo stared in the direction of where the redhead ran off to.
She wasn't even able to say her apology. "Sorry, Reno..." She murmured.
"Hey, Starbucks or Seattle's?" Larxene asked. "Who cares?" Axel responded. "Starbucks." Marluxia said shortly. "Yes, your highness." Axel drawled, the half-hour of Axel-teasing not forgotten easily by the redhead.
"On second thought, how about Seattle's?" Larxene said quickly, steering the two of them away. "What? Larx, what the-" Marluxia looked in the direction of the coffee shop and spotted who Larxene was attempting to elude.
Too late, someone called out Marluxia's name.
Amanda seemed to deem it okay to call Marluxia over. Yazoo groaned inwardly, hoping to high heavens that she hadn't heard. Unfortunately, not even Marluxia could pretend that she hadn't heard, when she already stopped and stared.
The brunette looked livid as she walked over, leaving behind her, Yazoo noticed, Larxene and Axel, who had identical disdainful looks as they watched Marluxia walk over.
"Hi." Marluxia said in a falsely cheerful voice.
"Hi, Marluxia! What a coincidence, seeing you here." Kate said, completely oblivious to Marluxia's obvious antipathy to the girls (well, you know, three girls and one 'girl') sitting at their table.
"Yeah... Well, if that's all..." Marluxia said quickly. "No, we just wanted to get your opinion. We bought some new clothes today, and I found out from a source that you've got a good eye for it." Amanda said sweetly.
Marluxia crossed her arms and raised an eyebrow. "Okay, show me what you've got." She said, in the very least humoring them. They presented the stuff to her, conversing in the traditional girl-talk that didn't require them to really be friends, only, to know what each of them was talking about.
When it was Yazoo's 'turn', the silver-head brought the sweater out carefully, watching Marluxia's reaction as the latter's eyes widened.
"That-" Marluxia stopped. "What?" Yazoo looked at Marluxia warilly.
Marluxia refused to speak up, but Yazoo insisted. "What is it?" "Yeah, girl, tell us what you think." Darienne said.
Marluxia bit her lip. "It looks like your mom's."
The color in Yazoo's pale face was drained. Before she could think, Marluxia added, "You seem to be taking after your mom a lot, Yazoo."
The tension just rose ten times, and Yazoo's expression was next to murderous. "At least I have a mother, huh?"
Marluxia looked just as livid then. "You just crossed the line." She snarled.
"Trying to make up for something, Marluxia? Maybe the fact that you're really just a nobody, right? You're a sore loser who pulls at people's strings for the kicks." Yazoo said, provoking the brunette even more.
Darienne and Kate looked shock; Amanda just watched with fascination.
"If I'm a nobody, Yazoo, you're a fake. How long can you pretend to be what you're not? I promised that I wouldn't let you have a miserable year, Yazoo, but I promised that to my friend. Whatever you are now, you're leading yourself to misery." Marluxia said, stalking away without waiting for a response.
"Doesn't look good." Larxene said gravely, watching the scene. When Marluxia stalked over, the blond and the redhead came to meet her up.
"Marx, hey..." Larxene reached to her, but Marluxia just batted the girl's hand out of the way and took off on her own.
Axel and Larxene looked at each other, concern etched on their faces.
"Hey!" Marluxia looked up from the water under the bridge and saw Axel leaning on the railing nearby.
"What do you want?" She said coldly. "Hey, hey, I'm just worried, you know. Is that like a crime or what? Or do you have a personal emo bubble you don't want me to pop?" The redhead quipped, raising his hands defensively.
"Go away, Axel. I'm not in the mood." Marluxia said irritably.
"Fine fine. I just thought you should know... You shouldn't let that get to you. I really don't think Yazoo meant what she said, just like you didn't mean what you said."
"Like you'd know. She certainly meant every venom-caked word she spat." Marluxia said distastefully.
"Okay, maybe this is just my twin ESP, or Reno's just getting to me, but I'm thinking that Yazoo isn't going as bad as you think." Axel said, settling beside her.
The sun was setting, and it reflected on the water nicely.
Obviously, Twilight Town wasn't named that way for nothing. The sunsets always looked amazing, especially when one found a good place to watch it.
Marluxia looked at the vanishing point of the horizon, and watching the sunset, she sobbed once, and the tears finally came.
Axel put a comforting arm around her, his hand gripping her shoulder.
"Axel... You- you're not busy tonight are you? I'm sorry... I just don't think I can handle-" Marluxia sobbed. "I'll stay, don't worry." Axel said soothingly.
"I can't handle being alone." Marluxia confided, her voice barely above a whisper.
Marluxia watched the plane. He escaped from Aerith easily enough, right after he'd boarded. Marluxia watched the aircraft finish its taxi and saw it take off, moving farther and farther till it disappeared in the clouds.
He was alone. Marluxia, for the first time, realized his loss. He broke down. Aerith found the boy slumped in a corner by the time it was twilight. It seemed that Marluxia had cried himself to sleep.
"She's cried herself to sleep, the poor thing." Aerith said affectionately, gently brushing Marluxia's hair from her face. Axel watched the tender care Aerith and couldn't help but smile a bit.
"Thanks for staying around, Axel. You want to stay for the night? It's a bit late." Aerith said.
"Nah, I told Reno to relay the message. I told him I probably wouldn't be coming home tonight." Axel said.
Aerith gave that warm smile of hers as she gently shook Marluxia awake.
"Hm? What-" The younger said, sounding groggy. .
"Come on, dear, the couch isn't the best place to stay." Aerith said sternly, but retaining the same sweetness.
Marluxia got up, but stumbled, although Axel caught her quickly.
"You don't mind bringing her up, do you?" Aerith asked. Axel shook his head no and carefully led the half-asleep Marluxia up the stairs to her room.
Soon she was laid on the bed, and Axel carefully removed her shoes and jacket. Hoping that Marluxia wouldn't mind, the redhead took off the rest of the clothing save for pants and the shirt, although taking the painstaking task to remove her padding.
Throughout, Marluxia hardly stirred, except at one point when she turned over and muttered a name Axel didn't recognize.
As the redhead got up to leave, he was surprised when Marluxia's hand clutched his sleeve.
Axel sighed and sat by the brunette, who held a constant grip on him. Even asleep, Marluxia kept hoping not to be left alone again.
Okay, maybe not that long XP But it's getting somewhere, in the very least.
I should get shot for the 'nobody' and 'fake' comments. Yazoo being a clone and Marly being a, well, nobody, and all that.
Well anyway, I know it's been a while, but I hope comments will come!
wipes dust off comment box
Thanks for the wait guys 8D