Disclaimer: I do not own Kingdom Hearts or any of its characters.
A/N: Still figuring out how to use this computer properly so I'll just say a huge thank you here to everyone who has kindly put me on alert/favourites/reviewed me, etc. It means a lot to me, and really inspires me to keep at it!
Impromptu Party:Lux plays Deus Ex Machina
It was the last day of their official 'vacation', Roxas, Demyx and Axel were all lying stretched out on the lawn of the gardens which had once been Marluxia's domain. Around them the bees buzzed in and out of the hibiscus flowers which were Demyx's personal favourite, and above them, artificial sunlight streamed down into the biosphere; above that, in the darkness that surrounded their home, pulsated the shell of Kingdom Hearts. They'd just decided to throw a party to mark the last day of their first ever holiday, and to say a kind of thank you to the others, well, Xig, and Lux and Xaldin, anyway, for being so uncharacteristically helpful when Axel had been recuperating. They were trying to decide where to throw it and what they'd need, and had come here to their 'happy place' to think. The pink bastard had gone, and his gardens were now the nicest place to be in the castle, the only place where the doom and gloom of the darkness, and the shadow of Kingdom Hearts really didn't interfere.
"What do you say we have it here in the garden?" Demyx suggested. "We can set the clock to night-time, moon, stars, the lot; hang Chinese lanterns in the trees, put fairy lights around the decking where the herbs are, and put the sound system there in case people want to dance..."
"Who's going to dance?" asked Axel, his eyebrow raised nearly to his hairline, "Unless Roxas is planning to get all jiggy with Xiggy, I really don't see Xaldin or Lux or heaven forbid, Xemnas and Saix doing the hippy hippy shake!"
"...and now that we've cleared out part of the greenhouse, we can serve the food in there!" concluded Demyx, not letting Axel put him off.
"Dem, it sounds good if we had 50 or so people coming, but we don't. There's only eight of us left, and let's be honest, Xem and Saix will probably disappear after five minutes, and the rest of us will end up playing poker or blackjack until we're too drunk to recognise the cards, and then we'll end up having sex," Roxas said to his friend somewhat sadly.
"That's what we always do. That's why this has to be different. Memorable. It may be the last chance we get to throw a proper party. Why can't we invite people from outside – ordinary people, I mean not everyone's against us, most people don't know who the hell we are, and if we brought them straight here by gummi ship, and we all behaved normally...we'd have to make sure Xig didn't do his party trick – you know, the one where he hangs upside down off the ceiling and downs a pitcher of beer...they'd never guess we were any different."
"Yeah right, Dem!" commented Axel drily. "Want a light for that cig you're playing with? Here!" said Axel shooting a small flame from the end of his index finger. "Dem, it's not just Xig's party trick, we all use our skills all the time in little ways, what kind of a party would it be for us, if we had to be constantly on our guard? In any case Xemnas would never allow outsiders to come here."
"You know, Dem has a point," said Roxas, thoughtfully, "but we'd have to have Lux on board for this one, and you're right we'd all be dusks if Xem ever found out, but there's actually no reason why we can't have a proper party if none of the guests ever remember being here. In fact, with that in mind we could have a truly amazing party!" grinned Roxas cheekily.
"And how do you propose we keep Xemnas and the blue bugger out of the loop, Mr Genius?" asked Axel, slightly worried by Roxas's enthusiasm, and with visions of being turned into a dusk or worse at the front of his mind.
"Simple!" this was Demyx, "We arrange them a thank you dinner and a hotel room, somewhere really fancy, and a long way from here! I did that with my parents once. Admittedly, they couldn't portal back in under a second, but I honestly don't think that the risk they would do anything major to us, is that great at the moment. If we're all in on it, they couldn't get rid of all of us, they need us right now – and not as dusks. Worst case scenario, they chew us all out and never leave the building again!"
"Wrong! Worst case scenario – they make an example out of one of us, probably one of US, because it was our idea, and trust me if the shit hits the fan, the others won't hesitate to mention that, and I don't want to be the ONE!" declared Axel, now seriously concerned at the direction this was going. "Why don't we just go out for the evening? Take the guys with us if you want!"
"That's another thing we always do, and it always ends up the same, we come back drunk, we play cards and we have sex!" complained Dem.
"Is this your way of telling me you don't want to have sex?" Axel asked Demyx, sitting up.
"No, silly!" Demyx leaned up and kissed Axel playfully on the nose, "I could live without the drinking and poker first though, skip straight to the main event, so to speak, but no, this is about the fact that I want one really memorable party and I want it tonight!"
An hour later the argument was still going on, Axel refusing to be mollified, and nearly jumping each time a dusk appeared to tend to the plants.
"Right," said Roxas, "we are running out of time, if we want to organize anything today I suggest we put it to a vote. All in favour say, 'I'! 'I'!"
"'I'!" echoed Demyx, gleefully, pressing the tip of Axel's nose with his index finger.
"No! It's mental! You're both mental! This is going to end in disaster..." his voice trailed off as the other two had already got up and were portalling in search of Luxord.
They found themselves, of all places, in the library. Lux was sat by the fireplace reading a newspaper he'd picked up on whatever world he had visited the previous evening. Seeing them arrive, he commented, "There's never any goddamn good news in these things. They're always reporting disasters or tragedies that have happened, or they expect to happen. Never anything to cheer up the poor people on these worlds, like they haven't got enough to cope with, with all the Heartless around."
"Lux, I think they have comics and magazines for that kind of thing, newspapers are just supposed to give the news – as it is, and at the moment, it isn't good! Anyway on the subject of happier things, we have a small favour to ask!"
Lux put on his most lecherous face, which since they now knew was all an act, just creased them up.
"Go on then, what can this old man do for you two youngsters?" he asked suggestively, but with a broad grin on his face.
"Lux, can you meet us in Dem's room in about five minutes?" asked Roxas.
"Damn right I can! That is a little favour, for me!" said Luxord, keeping up the front. Xem and Saix still had no idea that Lux was not the lecherous bastard he made out he was, and in public Lux kept up the pretence. They'd picked Dem's room because they had debugged it after the dusks had been in to 'clean'. The three friends had decided they couldn't be bothered to debug all the rooms everyday and so randomly picked one each morning to use as a safe room, today it had been Dem's.
Lux knew the score and often didn't bother doing his own room these days but just joined them in whoever's room.
When he portalled in they were sprawled on the bed where they had been joined by a still muttering and reluctant Axel, who preluded the conversation with, "You don't have to agree to what they're asking, you do know that?"
"Ax, as yet I have no idea what they are asking, so I will reserve judgment!"
"Lux," began Roxas, "like I said, we need a small favour. We need you to manipulate time tonight, for quite a few people, real people, not nobodies – can you do it?"
"Yes, I can do it, it's actually easier with humans, the question is, will I do it? So how about you tell me why you want me to do it. I presume there is a good reason."
"Yep, we want to have a really big party but because we're all a bit different, and because of this place, we can't afford for them to go home telling tales, so it has to be as if they had never been. Can you, will you, do it?"
"Party? Of course I'll do it. Hell, I don't remember the last time I went to a party, not counting Claudia's last Saturday, or Lisa's the week before, well not a party here anyway! And I see your point, but you've got a problem I can't fix, and unless you can, I'm afraid you'll have to count me out!"
"Thank heaven someone has a brain!" said Axel.
"What's our problem?" asked Demyx, wondering what they had overlooked.
"I can't manipulate time with Xemnas, well I might be able to if he were unconscious, but I know it doesn't even work when he's asleep, I've tried."
"Oh, that's not a problem, we're getting rid of him and Saix for the night. We're booking them a fancy meal and even fancier hotel room, at the Arabian Nights Hotel in Agrabah, complete with the dance of the seven veils, the works."
"Smart thinking, my boy. I suggest you get Xaldin to tell them about it, he's about as above suspicion in this place as anyone is ever likely to get, and he's the only one of us left who doesn't actually piss those two off! I presume Xig and Xaldin are going to be in on this shindig."
"Totally. It's kind of a thank you to you all for getting Ax through the last couple of weeks, even if he is completely unappreciative and dead against tonight!" said Dem, giving Axel, who was still muttering, a rather disdainful look.
"Ax, calm down, I think the boys are right, it'll be really good fun, and between you and me, I think Agrabah is perfect, I know for a fact that Saix ordered a sheikh's costume not that long ago for one of their roleplay games, so it should suit them down to the ground. They won't be back till morning, I'll make sure of that, but I suggest that we pretend to know nothing about this trip of theirs. Leave it with me, I'll speak to Xaldin, you just organize the entertainment and the guests."
Roxas and Demyx looked at each other blankly. That was something they hadn't thought of. It was one thing saying they wanted to invite a load of humans, but in reality it was a bit of a problem. In Demyx's case, he couldn't just walk up to people who thought he was dead and ask them to a party, or in Roxas's go up to people who couldn't remember him, and Axel was in the same position as Demyx. Luxord saw their faces and instantly realised the difficulty.
"Kids! You didn't think about who you'd invite to this hootenanny did you? What were you planning? To just grab people off the street? Luckily, I know some pretty fun party people, might be a bit mean to pull the whole time thing on them but needs must, I suppose. You'd better leave the guests to me as well then. I mean you could just portal in a few old friends as well if they're not going to remember anything after, but it could be a bit awkward at first!" chuckled Luxord. "Anyhow, I'll be off now, go sort things out with Xaldin." Lux portalled out to his room, realising that he was going to have to debug his room after all today, but he didn't mind too much since it was in a good cause.
"Right, Ax. Like it or not we are all going shopping now for supplies, and you will enjoy this, whether you want to or not!" said Demyx, ending the sentence with a long deep kiss, which was usually guaranteed to get him his own way. He could feel Axel giving way, and felt enormous pleasure at how easy it was becoming to make Axel change his viewpoint.
"Give over, you two! Shopping. Urgent." Roxas begged, whacking them both on the head with a throw cushion.
"Sure Rox," said Dem, "Ax and I are happy to come, aren't we?" he said, grinning at Ax, who had now stopped muttering, and looked vaguely complacent.
A few minutes later they portalled to the mall which had recently opened in the Imperial City on the Land of Dragons, in search of lanterns, and other decorations.
Luxord meanwhile had finished debugging his room, and was off in search of Xaldin. He took a bit of finding as he had taken his last day off to go hunting on a world light years away. When he heard the plan though, he really brightened up, and the pair portalled to Agrabah to make arrangements, in their own inimitable fashion, with a few extra twists the boys would never have thought of, to ensure that the pain-in-the-ass couple would definitely stay gone until morning.
They portalled back to Lux's room and worked out how they were going to get the Boss and his lover to take up the offer. Xaldin thought he had an idea and e-mailed himself off Lux's computer, via a couple of external ones at his favourite internet cafe, so it looked like an external message. He could have portalled to do it, but he was feeling lazy and knew enough about computers to able to make it look good, even under Saix's scrutiny.
"Congratulations! Xaldin, you have just won the 'spot-the-balls' competition, in Hot Hunnies magazine, June edition. Your prize is a night for two at the Arabian Nights Hotel, meals and all added entertainment included, to be taken the night you receive this e-mail. Valid for one night only."
"Right! I'm off to deliver the package" said Xaldin. "See you back here when I'm done. Suggest you fill Xiggy in meantime. He's the only one who doesn't know what's happening and he does know a few fun people we could invite!" he said, tongue firmly in cheek.
"I think we can live without being invaded by heavy metal bikers for tonight. I was kind of thinking, that maybe we could set Roxas up with someone. He's kind of lost the plot recently, we've dragged him down to our level, and I don't think he's totally happy. A nice girl might just be the thing for him right now."
"You are so going to piss Xig off! But you're right, as usual, you inane individual. So, you go find Rox a nice piece of ass," said Xaldin, in his usual vulgar fashion, "and I'll sort out the arseholes."
Hope you enjoyed this, I do get to the actual party eventually!!! Please review if you've got a couple of minutes to spare!