Author's Note: The last couple of chapters took much, much longer to come out than the first few, and I'm sorry about that, however, I am really busy at the moment. It might be a while before I manage to update again so I'm gonna say I'm on a semi-hiatus, hopefully I'll start updating a bit more regularly in a few weeks. But I love reviews (even if I forget to answer some) so feel free to leave one :3


Demyx Strife

I was trying to chicken out at the last minute. I'd called Zexion to tell him I wasn't feeling up to it anymore but, sadly, the first thing he said was that he was at the end of my street and would be here soon. For once I hated the fact that everyone walks in Twilight Town, because now I felt far too guilty to tell him to turn around and march straight back.

So in the end I tried to smuggle him in through the back.

There's a side door on the kitchen that leads into the conservatory, which leads into the garden, and in the garden stood a slightly bemused Zexion, with alcohol; a pleasant – and as it turns out necessary – surprise.

"Is there a reason you're sneaking me in through the back?"

My eyebrows shot up and a smile flipped into place. This was an automatic reaction I'd developed during childhood whenever I was being asked a question about something I'd hoped no one would notice I was doing. It had started somewhere between Cloud asking "What happened to my crayons" and me eating Cloud's crayons.

"I'm not."

"It feels like you are."

"Well you feel wrong."

"Sneaking me in this way isn't going to help you once we're inside you know. They're bound to notice a new entity appearing in the room."

"You're an entity?"

"Who are you embarrassed of?" Zexion asked with an even expression and I felt my stomach curl unhappily. Guilt. Man, I hate guilt. Almost as much as I hate clowns and overly aggressive squirrels.

"It's not you." I told him with a sigh. "They know things. Embarrassing things, things they could tease me about for the rest of my life. And I don't know if you know this but they're all completely insane."

"You've mentioned that before."

"Not enough."

"At least once a week,"

"Yeah, I still think I've not gotten the point across."

Zexion sighed and dropped into one of four wicker chairs around a small glass topped coffee table. And it occurs to me now that my aunt and uncle really have no taste when it comes to décor. The most interesting thing in here is a dying plant that Sora swears lives off coffee. I sat down next to him and noticed that not only were the cushions hideously patterned but they were overly stuffed and lumpy. And fuchsia.

Now came the hard part because Zexion was looking at me expectantly, waiting for an explanation as to why I'd invited him over only to try and hide him and – guess what? I really have no clue what I'm supposed to say.

Fortunately I didn't have to say anything because a second later the door to the kitchen burst open and Roxas hurtled in and stopped dead in his tracks. "Aw crap."

I was sprawled in my chair trying to recover a steady heartbeat and Zexion's only reaction had been to raise his eyebrows. I'm wondering if I'll die of fright and he just quirks an eyebrow…that boy is ridiculously cool.

"What the hell Rox?" I asked after a second.

He shrugged casually and called over his shoulder. "Money goes to Riku."

"What?" I asked with an expression of total incomprehension.

"I bet that you were talking to yourself in lyrics again." And now I was blushing like a fool and trying not to look at Zexion, "Sora said you were having an intellectual discussion with the Coffee the Plant and Riku bet you'd snuck a girl in."

"Zexion isn't a girl." I muttered mortified.

Roxas cheeks twitched and I could see the self-restraint he was putting into not-smirking. "Same basic principle."

At this point, I think the only escape is self-combustion.

Roxas left the room and I waited until I could hear him and Sora squabbling before I dared say anything.

"Uhm…"

"They're all insane, I know, you've said." He cut in, standing up while I watched him with wide eyes.

"What are you doing?"

"Going to introduce myself."

I stared. "Why?"

"Because it would be rude not to." He said, as though the answer were totally obvious. Which I guess it is. But still.

I stood up and – with a deep breath – led the way into the kitchen.

Sora and Roxas were stood there whispering and when they saw us they stopped immediately; plastering on blank expression with Roxas holding a can of soda out to Zexion and Sora hopping up onto the counter and watching us with feigned disinterest.

"This is Zexion." I said, feeling the need to shuffle and look at my feet.

"We know." Roxas said with the hint of a smile, and I relaxed ever so slightly because it was clear Roxas had decided he liked Zexion and this routine was purely for the sake of humouring Sora.

"So you work with Dem?" Sora asked amiably, trying for casual and falling at the metaphorical hurdle of casualness.

"Technically Demyx works for me." Zexion responded and if you didn't know Zexion you might assume he was stoned, but if you did know Zexion, which I do, you'd know he sounded amused. "But yes, we work together."

Sora nodded and shot Roxas a look, and man I want to study those two because something was said in that look. And then Roxas took half a step forward and asked just as casually – only he managed to pull it off – "And is this relationship of yours completely professional?"

I might have just died. Did I? I'd like to have just died. Is that possible? Just to expire from total humiliation? Because if Zexion didn't know three minutes ago that I like him in a maybe-more-than-friends way the twins of Anything-but-Subtle may have given him the smallest of hints.

And by 'may have' I mean they are bastards and I hate them.

"We've been friends for years, which makes the working relationship easier." Zexion responded, still with the barely detectable hint of humour. "Which you must understand well enough, what with having Leonhart as your boss, he's good friends with your older brother right?"

The twins exchanged another look before deciding to completely ignore the question as Sora asked, "And what are your intentions towards-"

"You know what would be great?" I blurted, probably looking both alarmed and manic because for the love of God Sora be quiet! "Uhm, drinks."

Roxas tapped the side of his soda can. We all had drinks.

"Ah, but there is no alcohol in these." I replied matter of factly.

"Speak for yourself." Roxas shrugged.

I didn't manage to figure out whether he was joking or not because I was distracted by the fact that I love my sister - even though I hate her for getting me into this - because two seconds later she was at my side all smiles and charm and saying in her magical Twin-Taming voice "Sora, Riku's having trouble finding the game you wanted. And Roxas it seems a little rude to let Zexion provide all the alcohol, maybe you should get a couple of bottles from Cloud's stash?"

"You mean the stash we don't know about?" Roxas asked with a grin.

"That's the one." Namine agreed as the pair trailed past her. Then she smiled pleasantly at me and Zexion and left to help Riku and Sora.

"I am so, so sorry." I groaned as soon as they were gone. "Sora and Roxas are like guard dogs, they don't mean anything by it, they especially didn't mean anything by any of the comments to do with our, uh, friendship…"

Zexion was watching me evenly. "I don't mind."

"They were only joking."

"It's ok." He shrugged, "I like your…twins." He said with a strange frown, one that I recognised because no one ever knows whether to call them my cousins or my brothers.

I smiled a little, a small tug of the lips because I was still too mortified to smile properly. "If it helps I know for a fact they like you. They didn't even threaten you with physical violence or anything."

Zexion laughed. It's sweet that he thinks I'm joking.

We left the kitchen – although I'm not sure if it counts as 'leaving' when it technically isn't an individual room, more like half a wall sectioning it off and that wall has a huge 'breakfast bar style' hole in it anyway – into the living room were Riku and Sora were once again sprawled over the sofa with controllers in hand.

"Namine's gone out." Riku informed me absently.

"Yeah, she's gone to a friends because she didn't want to be in the room with 'this much testosterone when the fight games begin'." Sora added with a grin and I can imagine his brain was coming up with all sorts of unpleasant things he'd have said about Roxas' testosterone levels, had Roxy actually been in the room.

"Do you do this often?" Zexion asked and I noticed his gaze was on Riku, noting the boy's total ease even in a home that is not his.

"Not really, it's just an urge that takes over sometimes. Riku is just always here. And is naturally that laid back. It's something in his genes, I think he's part cat."

"That was a theory to be kept in our heads, Dem!" Sora hissed in a stage whisper.

"You think I'm part cat? How the hell would that even come about?"

"Well, Riku, when a man loves a cat very, very much…"

I turned to Zexion, "I'm so sorry that I've done this to you."

Zexion only smiled. Roxas appeared a second later with a bottle of tequila and one of gin, then disappeared into his own room and brought out what looked like cheap vodka, leaving them on the table and disappearing for shot glasses and lemon and salt.

"Is it just me that doesn't keep alcohol hidden in my room?" I asked frowning.

"Yes." Sora and Roxas replied in unison.

"Though to be fair," Sora continued. "Mine is for medicinal purposes."

Riku scoffed, "I don't think 'I'm going to have a shot because I'm too drunk to remember where the painkillers are and it really hurt when I ran into that wall' counts as medicinal."

"I think it does."

"I'm sure it doesn't."

"I rule in with Riku." I offered.

"I wasn't listening, I'm on Sora's side by default." Roxas called from the kitchen.

"Roxas' vote is discounted in accordance with the Not Listening Rule." Riku called over his shoulder.

"Please check page 34 of the booklet," I told Roxas, holding up a hand to stop him from arguing as he re-emerged from the kitchen. I kicked Sora's foot and he shuffled over so that he was leaning heavily against Riku – really? Does he really think we don't know about them? – and I sat down in the vacated space patting the cushion beside me for Zexion.

He was giving me a funny look. "You have a booklet?"

"No." I said quickly.

"Yes and no." Sora amended.

"It's not really a booklet so much at a lot of sheets of paper with crap scribbled on it." Roxas explained dropping into the armchair Namine had been sat in earlier, Zexion quirked an eyebrow at him. "We were very drunk. There's more or less a rule per page…with diagrams…and nineteen of the pages are nothing but stickmen doing dirty things...I hope there are no actual rules to those."

I'm thinking next time we get drunk and add to our 'booklet' we should include rules about what we do and do not tell strangers, friends and crushes.

"And you all just…do this during your weekends?" Zexion asked, indicating the way we were all comfortably sprawled.

"No. Are you kidding? With the way Sora eats we'd be dirt poor if we did this on a regular basis. Sometimes it just seems right not to go out and get shitfaced on a Saturday night." I shrugged, sipping my soda.

"Yeah, occasionally we like to stay in and get shitfaced on a Saturday night." Roxas grinned. "Riku kick. Didn't we ban you two from playing each other?"

"But it's more fun, I always win." Sora grinned.

"Only because you cheat." Riku countered.

"I do not." Sora pouted.

"I'm not rubbing my own crotch."

Uhm…yeah.

I wonder what's the Spanish word for 'awkward'?

Roxas was doubled up laughing. Sora's face was verging on beetroot at this point and he muttered something about Riku having thigh cramp which only caused Roxas to laugh harder.

I turned to Zexion, who had sat down cautiously beside me. "Once again, I'm really sorry I asked you to be involved in this."

"Not a problem." He responded and if his hair wasn't covering the part of his face closest to me I think I might have seen a Zexion smile. An actual Zexion smile.

And God did I want into that boy's pants.


Cloud Strife

"Turn left! Turn left!"

"Don't turn left, you'll go completely off the track!"

"It's a shortcut!"

"Into a ravine!"

"Jump the ravine!"

"It's a car not a pogo-stick!"

"Who can jump a ravine on a pogo-stick?!"

I don't think they'd even noticed me when I pushed the door open and knocked it closed with my foot, our door hardly ever makes a noise and I'm pretty sure Roxas has something to do with that; it makes it a great door for sneaking in and out but it sucks for dramatic Slamming Exits. I dropped my keys on the little round table by the door, kicked off my shoes and fell into one of the two armchairs, adjacent to the couch and opposite Roxas.

Shit.

Leon kissed me.

Only he didn't kiss me.

But he would have.

Or would he?

Maybe it was a hug. Yeah. It was a hug.

With lips.

Shit.

"Uhm, you ok there?"

I glanced up at Demyx, oddly flushed and looking concerned.

"What?" I asked sceptically.

"Sora's been talking to you for the last thirty seconds." Demyx explained. His eyes looked a little…off. Something a little not normal but something familiar...

"Are we drinking?" I asked.

"We are. You just got back." Roxas told me slowly. "You remember who you are right?"

"Funny, Rox. Alcohol. Now please."

Sora paused his game and looked at me sideways. "Dude, you ok?"

"Fine thanks."

"You look like someone just kicked a kitty in font of you." Demyx said, a little too loudly and a little slower than necessary, like he'd really had to think about the words.

Demyx doesn't handle alcohol well; where Sora goes hyper Demyx gets slow.

"…What?"

"Yeah, you look kind of violated in a 'there was nothing I could do to stop it' kind of way" Demyx informed holding out his hands and widening his eyes like he was reaching out to an imaginary scene in front of him.

"Carry on playing." I told Sora. He un-paused the game but kept darting sideways looks between me and Riku. Who I noticed, for the first time, was not holding a controller. And thus my gaze was inevitably drawn to some guy sitting beside Demyx on the couch.

"Who are you?"

"Zexion." The guy responded, "I'm a friend of Demyx'."

"Yes. We call him Zexy." Demyx beamed. "And sometimes Sexy Zexy, but we must never call him that to his face or a little bit of his soul would die and we'd have to clap and yell about fairies…" he trailed off laughing.

I looked over at Riku and Sora. "When did he start drinking?"

"At about seven." Riku told me with an apologetic smile. "He seems to be feeling quite stressed."

"I think that's my fault." Zexion said quietly. And that was kind of the end of that subject.

He tried to kiss me.

Shit.

"Cloud." Roxas said softly as he re-entered the room holding what looked like a cola but smelt like vodka. "I can't help but notice Leon isn't with you."

"Oh…"

"And also I can't help but notice its three hours since you text us saying you were going to swing by his apartment before you came back."

"…yeah."

"Care to share?"

Uhm, no. Really no. Distinctly no.

I kind of did a bad thing. Not only a bad thing but an un-manly thing that I would be teased mercilessly over, should Roxas and Sora find out about it. I sort of maybe ran off. I know, I know. How cliché and womanly and romance-novel could I be? But what the hell was I supposed to do? I mean what was that? A comforting-hug accidental-kiss kind of scenario? Or did he mean to do that? Or maybe he tripped. Slowly. Maybe gravity broke.

See, if you were stood waiting for your best friend (who had just tried to kiss you) in an apartment (belonging to the best friend who just tried to kiss you) right beside the door (the exit from the place where your best friend tried to kiss you) wouldn't you maybe take advantage of that too? Maybe just slip out for a minute. And then start to head down the hall. And then start to head towards the lobby. And then maybe run off?

Ok, so I didn't run, I just walked fast. Very fast. And for quite some time. Three hours time, apparently. But in all fairness, I was freaking the fuck out; because Leon kissed me. Or tried to, or nearly did, or just thought about it or this is all a horrible mistake and he's been sat alone for three hours thinking I've been abducted by aliens.

Shit.

"Any day now." Roxas said softly, still standing beside me.

"I…got lost."

"You got lost?" Sora asked from the couch.

"Yes."

"In the town you've lived in your whole life?" Roxas mused.

"Yes.

"And you're sticking with that one?" Sora inquired.

I thought for a moment. "Yes."

The twins exchanged a look and a sigh, it was an expression I was used to and currently grateful for; it meant they'd let the subject go, for now at least.

"Let us know if you change your mind."

"Sure."

And did I mention shit because Leon kinda almost tried to kiss me?

My head hurts.

I didn't say anything for a while and tried not to think for even longer. I watched Demyx get steadily more and more drunk, watched Sora cheat his way to winning three racing games, watched Riku's face turn pink, watched Roxas get restless to watch films and watched Zexion do absolutely nothing at all. And then when Sora and Roxas argued and Roxas inevitably won on the understanding that Sora could choose a film, and then the lights went out and I was sat in a room illuminated only by flickering screens on the TV screen it occurred to me I'd spent all that time distinctly not solving my problem and sipping thoughtfully on the drink Roxas was regularly topping up.

On the plus side I hadn't been panicking. Much.

I don't think it counts when it's subconscious.

And so, sat there blatantly ignoring some sort of Mafia flick, I tried to mentally sort out the scenario; and you know what? I think maybe I overreacted. It wasn't exactly a kiss now was it? And it wasn't exactly unpleasant. It was brief really; too brief to actually have been much of anything.

And so yeah, maybe I'd been breathing heavily on the verge of panting and considering pulling him closer or pushing him onto something and it's quite possible that I'd been staring at Leon's chest like I hadn't eaten for a week…but that was purely in appreciation of a notably fantastic set of abs.

And I mean that in the straightest way possible, because I only made out with Zack that one time.

It's not as bad as it seems. I just panicked. It's fine. I'll talk to Leon in a couple of days, when we'll both have completely forgotten what happened except for the part where I disappeared; and then I'll just tell him Demyx fell down a flight of stairs and I'd had to rush back to check on him.

Even better, maybe we'll have to push Demyx down the stairs for realistic bruising; and it's a while since any of us saw Demyx fall drunkenly down the stairs.

Great work, Cloud Brain Trust, great work.

"Ok, right. This movie sucks and none of us are drunk enough to appreciate a sucky movie in all it's glory." I declared sliding off the sofa to kneel in front of the coffee table where Roxas had left the spirits and shot glasses. "From now on every time someone says something ridiculously cliché in the worst Italian accent you've ever heard, we all take a shot."

"Yay!" Sora grinned. "Cloud's back."


Zexion Smith

­By the end of the Mafia flick we'd made up more rules than we could keep count of and Demyx had fallen off the couch. So naturally, we put on a chick flick. Cloud, Riku and I made the rules beforehand whilst Sora and Roxas tried to get Demyx to drink a glass of water and Roxas got changed because he'd apparently been wearing the same jeans for thirty-six hours straight and now smelt like stale cigarettes.

Five minutes into the film we'd already been required to take three shots and I felt a comfortable fuzz settle on the world, the slight haze that isn't prominent until you turn your head and it takes your brain, or your eyes - or both - just a fraction of a second longer to catch up with your skull; you know that warm glow that comes from being tipsy. We all moved onto the floor at that point.

Roxas told a story about 'some guy' he'd been talking to in a club restroom when Riku and Sora had burst in and ruined the moment – which was probably a lot funnier than it would have been without the influence of alcohol.

Sora told us about his theories on Luxord's 'Book Woman' and I tried to remember that one to tell Luxord next time he came into the Blue Sitar.

Riku – not so regal after countless shots – did multiple impressions of his brothers and father, whom I now have every desire to meet yet would never want to spend too long in the same room as. Demyx was incoherent but kept pointing at Roxas and giggling the words 'coffee' and 'Marluxia'.

I ate more sugar then I'd ever had in one sitting and managed to rouse everyone into a mass game of truth and dare which we had to give up on after fifteen minutes, during which time Demyx completely failed to tell the truth, Sora snorted vodka through his nose when Roxas admitted he'd like to still be a virgin, Riku nearly cried of laughter when Sora gave an impromptu performance of Girlfriend by Avril Lavigne, and Cloud got locked outside naked when the twins claimed they'd forgotten how to work a locking mechanism.

We seemed to have moved onto a third film – that may have been a horror – when I ended up leaning forward, head against the edge of the coffee table, Demyx' feet in my lap and Cloud's arm around my shoulders as he tried desperately to finish the story he was telling me – something about a swing set and Squall Leonhart and some guy called Zack – but couldn't for the both of us wheezing in a way that made me feel like I might be sick if I laughed any harder. Riku and Sora had their heads close and grins on their faces and Roxas was sprawled under the coffee table smoking something of dubious origin even though we all saw it come out of a cigarette packet.

And God it was more fun than I'd had in a long time.

"We're out of movies!" Came Roxas voice from under the table.

"We only rented three." Cloud groaned.

"We need more."

"We'll watch an old one."

"We need pizza too." Sora said, shooting up and almost knocking Riku's forehead.

"Are you kidding?" Riku asked "If I eat anymore I'll puke."

I agreed completely with this sentiment but found myself joining in the plea for pizza half a minute later. The muttered conversation was punctuated by a strange, whining kind of giggle that made us all turn to look at Demyx, whose hair which was now some sort of…creature that looked mussed beyond repair and whose eyes now lacked the ability to focus.

Roxas rolled his head out from under the table and took a drag on his 'cigarette'. "I think Dem-Dem needs a visit to the conservatory." He grinned, surprisingly evenly considering he'd laughed until he choked half an hour ago.

"Why?" I asked, finding it a little difficult to focus myself.

Roxas shrugged, a motion that dissolved into the carpet. "It's cold in there. And when he's cold and he can see the pond and his fishies it sobers him up – in a way that defies biology or chemical reactions or something." It was half mocking half affectionate. Another drag and another puff of off-smelling smoke.

Cloud relinquished his grip on my shoulders, obviously giving up on telling his swing story. "Zexion can take him. Guest privilege and all."

I grinned at this although I don't know why, it wasn't exactly grin-deserving, and I think the expression came out weird anyway since Roxas snorted and coughed on the little pool of smoke he had created between himself and the underside of the table. I groaned my way onto my feet and then caught Demyx under the elbow as he sat up and dragged him up with me; he leant heavily against me almost as soon as we were upright and I felt him sway and felt all the blood rush to different areas of my body. Namely the legs I'd neglected for the last couple of hours and then my brain to counterbalance this. In all we stumbled merrily to the kitchen and into the conservatory and it's quite possible that Riku pushed Demyx half the way.

And you know what? That conservatory is magic.

The décor looks like style puked in there and maybe the plant in the corner could do with some water, but Roxas was right, it was cooler in here, and if you pressed your forehead to the glass you can imagine you're outside with the dew sticking grass to the bottom of your shoes and your breath coming out in mist, even though that wouldn't happen because it's summer. And I really did feel my head starting to clear.

I don't know how long I'd been stood there, with my brain telling me to get my head off the cold glass, when I really noticed Demyx was there. I mean, obviously he'd been there the whole time, and I'd known he was there the whole time but now he seemed to actually be here. His head was clearing too, I could tell by the way his eyes were fixed on me – the key word being 'fixed' as in 'focused' – though judging by the hazy smile and how inebriated he'd been however long ago it was that we stumbled in here; I'd say he was still much, much further gone than me.

"What?" I asked after a minute when the hazy smile didn't recede and he didn't look away either.

He shrugged, a slow, thoughtful motion that might have been both those things due to alcohol, "Nothing. You just…look kind of beautiful in the moonlight,"

My smile flickered and then spread into a grin because he wouldn't remember it anyway, "Pretty sure that's a street light Demyx."

He shrugged again.

"I meant to ask you something." I said, watching him tilt his head in a mirror of me, watching the way the streetlight – the moonlight, whatever light – caught his hair and scattered across his face, shards of shadow making it look like he had chunks of it falling in his eyes. There was something about Demyx…something about his air and his presence and the way he looked that has always had me fascinated. "About you." I clarified when I'd finished staring.

"Sure." He said, crossing the room and taking the chair I'd been sat in at the beginning of the evening.

"Why are you so…" And now my words were failing me. I'd had it perfectly, had it written out in my mind like a speech, memorised so absolutely that I'd never be able to mess it up, no matter how much vodka I ingested, but now it was failing me. "Protective…isn't right. Nervous? You…you're scared." I said finally, still frowning a little because that didn't seem to fit entirely either, but maybe it was a culmination of the three. "You're scared to let anyone meet your family."

His eyes met mine, though granted they took a while to get there, and I guessed that if he was sober enough to answer coherently he was still drunk enough to have forgotten this by morning. So I ploughed ahead, sitting down too, absently choosing the chair he'd been in at the start of the evening.

"You me and Axel, we've known each other for years, and Axel and I have met your parents but we've never met your family. We've met Namine and she's a part of it, but until today I'd only met Cloud in passing and Roxas for a minute at the coffee shop. I don't think you've ever told me a story about fun things you did with your parents – or even your aunt and uncle – it's always your cousins. Then it turns out the guy in the coffee shop is your cousin and you'd neglected to mention that all the times we sat across from him in the Blue Sitar, and then Marluxia announces he likes Roxas and you blow a fuse… and then tonight having me here it's like you were preparing for…open heart surgery-"

"You think I'd get drunk to perform open-heart surgery?"

"No, I just mean…what could possibly be so awful about us meeting your cousins that you'd get this…drunk over it. And it's only occurred to me recently that you've effortlessly postponed this moment for years. What could possibly go so wrong?"

For a while I thought Demyx was thinking of the right way to phrase his answer, and then for a little while after that I thought he'd forgotten I asked a question. And a while after that when I was thinking maybe the pizza was here he spoke, as though there hadn't ever been a pause to end all pauses.

"You might not have liked them." There was a frown on his face, like maybe he'd been as uncertain over his answer as I'd been over my question, and I guess this is what alcohol does to you.

I said nothing, waiting to see if maybe he'd carry on, expand a little.

"They're…my mum and dad never really…I dunno, they never really appreciated me and Namine. We just weren't what they wanted from us – we aren't what they want from us - so they used to leave us with our aunt and uncle. We grew up with Cloud and Roxas and Sora, we're used to them." he was grinning again, that hazy smile that fixed on nothing and welcomed everything, and his gaze drifted a little like maybe he was talking to the window. "But Sora is a hyperactive freak, Cloud is just plain scary and if you say a bad word against either of them you'll find Roxas ready to like…break your face…or something. As much as I love them, maybe other people don't love them quite so much. Or maybe nobody else likes them so much as a group, maybe they want them separate."

He paused again, scowling as though this had been suggested by the window and Demyx was thinking of the best way to punish it. But then he turned back to me and he just looked vaguely concerned.

"If you and Axel don't love them, how can I love you and Axel?"

I felt my head cock again, though more from a lack of will to keep it upright then a desire to tilt it. "We don't have to love them, Demyx. You're supposed to, they're your family. If they don't love your friends and your friends don't love them, it isn't the end of the world; 'like' works just as well sometimes."

He nodded, partly comforted by my words and partly not believing any of it, but he nodded all the same, to show he'd taken it in for consideration at the very least.

And then we stayed like that - him watching the plant and me watching him – until the doorbell rang, and we went back through and watched TV and ate pizza and pretended like we hadn't had a drunken conversation about feelings.