Vexen was late home that night. Dusk had already fallen and the street lamps were burning in the evening drizzle as Marluxia patiently waited by the window. He didn't really know what Vexen did - presumably more shady contracts and commissions - and nor did he honestly care. Just as long as he was there in the morning and there to hold him close at night.
He still had nightmares, but not so much any more.
Eventually, a familiar car rolled into the drive, three floors below, and Marluxia took to a run, out of the front door of their apartment, down the stairs and into the lobby just in time to tackle Vexen as he walked in.
"You're late," He said accusingly.
"Vexen chuckled a little, ruffling Marluxia's hair.
"You need to get this cut."
Marluxia didn't like getting his hair cut, and as it was it hung messily around his shoulders and in his eyes, like a mane.
"Why are you late?" He pressed as they ascended the stairs. Marluxia didn't like lifts, either. Too claustrophobic.
"There was an outbreak of violence at the prison."
"I'll kill any bastard who thinks they can hurt you," Marluxia said pleasantly as he dragged Vexen in through the door. "I met somebody today."
"Did you now?" Vexen asked, prising himself away to boil the kettle.
"I did." Marluxia replied as he took a seat. "Her name's Larxene and she's a lesbian."
Vexen nodded half-approvingly.
"But I don't know what a lesbian is," Marluxia admitted. "And she asked if I was gay and I said no but I don't think she meant it in a mean way, and she said a lot of other things that I didn't understand."
Vexen patiently explained.
"Oh. But I don't like other men. I just like you."
"I am another man."
"I suppose so."
"So is she in any of your classes?"
"No, she just sat with me at lunch. She lives down by the park."
"That's not too far away," Vexen commented as Marluxia draped himself lovingly over his back, bored of the chair.
"Yeah. I'd have said that we could walk home together but I wanted to check with you first."
"I don't see any problem with that," Vexen said, pouring tea for them both.
"Thanks. How was your day?"
"I was threatened with a gun."
Marluxia's smile faded instantly.
"Fucking-"
"Nothing became of it," Vexen quickly interrupted. "I managed to calm her down."
"Still. She can't threaten you."
"You threw a knife at my head, once," Vexen replied smoothly. Marluxia bit his lip a little, apologetically squeezing his arms around Vexen's shoulders.
"I wouldn't do that now."
"I know."
"Can I have a hug?"
"Of course."
Vexen twisted his body around until he was facing the younger man, and he leaned down and kissed him, deeply. Marluxia enjoyed every second of the close proximity as he pushed Vexen back against the counter, murmuring nonsense against his lips.
so gently, Vexen picked him up to plonk him down on the kitchen table, pulling away.
"Tea."
Marluxia took it gratefully - no sugar, a little cream to sweeten the bitter taste - and sipped, eyes trained on Vexen. Just watching him glide effortlessly about the small, immaculate kitchen was enough to make his heart almost burst from happiness and pride. Vexen was gorgeous, and Vexen was his.

---

Larxene was already on the field when Marluxia came over at lunch time.
"Can I sit here?"
She laughed goodnaturedly at him.
"Sure."
He sat down next to her and pulled out his lunch box. Today there was grated cheese in his sandwich, but not much of it because he'd aimed most of it at Vexen's mouth before school, and missed.
"How are you today? A little less oblivious?"
Marluxia chuckled, picking a daisy from the grass and twirling it in his fingers as he ate.
"Yeah, a little,"
"Well, if I ever start using words that are too long for you, just say,"
"I'm not stupid," Marluxia huffed. "I just don't know much."
"Your parents never teach you nothing?"
Suddenly Marluxia had lost his appetite and he set his half eaten sandwich down.
"I haven't seen any of my family since I was eleven."
Larxene looked horrified.
"Oh my God, why not?"
Marluxia hung his head limply, picking at the daisy to pieces before discarding it. He loves me, he loves me not, he loves me...
"I'm not sure whether I'm allowed to tell you."
"Fair enough," Larxene said, sympathetically patting his shoulder. "Who do you live with, then?"
"Vexen."
"Vexen?"
"Yeah. He used to be my psychiatrist. Now he's just mine."
"You really did have a troubled childhood, didn't you," Larxene mused. "And I thought you said you weren't gay?"
"I wasn't the one who was troubled by it," Marluxia admitted quietly. "And yesterday I didn't know what you meant."
"You do know what a lesbian is then, right?"
"Yeah. I asked Vexen."
"Heh. You're cute."
"Thanks...?"
Larxene just laughed, pushing his shoulder and grabbing his sandwich, waving it at him until he took it and continued to eat.
"So what about you? Who do you live with?"
"Mum, dad, three brothers and a girlfriend, aunt and uncle, two cousins, a batty Grandma and my pet dog."
"Wow." Marluxia said. "That must be cramped."
"We have a big house."
"Vexen and I live in a little apartment just off the high street," Marluxia replied, impressed. "But there's only the two of us so it doesn't need to be very big."
"Yeah, we'd be dead in there," Larxene giggled.
"How many people have you got, anyway?" Marluxia asked, unable to count himself.
"Twelve," Larxene boasted proudly. "Soon to be thirteen. My big brother's girlfriend is preggers."
"Preggers? What's that?"
"Pregnant. Baby's coming in a few months. Everybody's so excited. Except me. I hate babies."
"I hate babies too," Marluxia agreed, not because he did but because ne wanted to be the same as Larxene. Nobody ever really talked to him so now that she was he wanted to keep it that way.
"Finally, somebody agrees with me," Larxene said. "They're so annoying."
Marluxia thought that babies were supposed to be cute, but he nodded anyway.
"Yeah."
"So what kinda stuff do you like?"
"I don't know," Marluxia admitted. "I like nature, I suppose. I went to a reserve once, back when I was- a while ago. We walked and I drew pictures of all the plants. That was one of my favourite days."
Larxene laughed.
"You're a weird guy. What were your other favourite days, then?"
Marluxia considered this for some time. The day I tried - and failed - to rape Vexen didn't sound quite right in his head.
"Well, that was the first one. The second day was when I first kissed Vexen, and the third was the day I told him I loved him."
"That's so sweet," Larxene murmured. If only she knew, Marluxia thought.
"You really think so?"
"Yeah."
Marluxia hadn't been called sweet since before he was eleven, when everybody thought he was an angel, and anyone who knew the truth was too scared to admit it. Weird, he thought. Scared of a boy with less than a dozen years to his name.
"So what about you?" He asked. "What were your favourite days?"
Larxene shrugged.
"I dunno. The day I came out to my parents, I guess, was one of them."
"Came out? Where?" Marluxia interrupted, confused. But Larxene had promised that she'd explain anything he didn't understand.
"You know. As a lesbian."
"Oh, right. Carry on."
"Yeah, well, I'd been so worried about telling them for so long and eventually I told myself that enough was enough and I had to come clear to my family. So that evening I told them and I was so scared that I'd get kicked out or something-"
"Your parents would kick you out?" Marluxia interrupted again, this time horrified. Sure, his parents had left him, but that was because he was a monster. Why would anybody who just happened to like people the same sex as them deserve the same thing?
"Well, you know, a lot of people are homophobic even now."
"I'm confused again."
"Scared of gays and lesbians. They think it's wrong."
"Oh. That's stupid. Wrong is like killing people and stuff, not being gay."
"Yeah, well..." Larxene trailed off.
"Carry on," Marluxia urged again apologetically.
"Oh yeah, so I was really scared, but then once I'd finished my mum gave me a big hug and told me she was so proud of me for being so honest. She was totally okay with it, and so was my dad. She woke up everybody else just to tell them. I've never been so relieved in my life."
Marluxia laughed, the grin on his face one of almost ironic childish innocence.
"That's really sweet too."
Larxene giggled with him.
"Yeah. I guess so,"
The bell rang for the end of lunch and Larxene gathered up her bag, standing.
"Catch you later, Marly,"
"Yeah. Um... do you wanna walk home to the park with me after college?" Marluxia quickly asked before Larxene could jog away. "I asked Vexen and he said he didn't mind me taking a bit of a detour home,"
Larxene nodded.
"Sure. Meet me here, yeah?"
"Yeah. I'll see you then."

---

Osmosis, wrote Marluxia. Osmosis is a special type of- of... damn it, I forgot again.
It had been decided by the people who decide these things and quite possibly no small amount of persuasion by Vexen that Marluxia should also do a course in each of Maths, English and Science, since with four years of secondary education missing he was struggling somewhat in keeping up with his other classes. For these he was tuitioned, largely, on a one-to-one basis, and whether this was normal or not Marluxia didn't really know, but all the same he carefully wrote out his scientific equations and circle theorems and poetic analysis as he recalled deep into his memory all those things he'd half-learned in prison classes in between figuring out ways to kill the teacher with nought but a pencil and an exercise book.
Today was Science and all the functions of cells were swimming in Marluxia's brain and not really taking the bait and diving on down out of his pencil onto the paper. He wondered if Larxene knew all these things. She probably did. She seemed very intelligent.
The teacher was somewhere - half of his lessons were simply writing out questions from a book - and he quickly grew bored, doodling flowers in the corner of his paper. This was an Anthericum Liliago, this one here was a Convolvulus Arvensis and this pretty one in the left hand corner was the Lantana Camara.
Then he drew a child-sketch Vexen which he labelled since it looked more like a four-armed stick man, and added himself with his fluffy mane that ended up looking like an explosion, so he had to label that, too. As an afterthought he popped in a Larxene as well, until there were the three of them there holding hands in a field of flowers twice the height that they were.
Marluxia felt very young. And then, looking at his Vexen and Larxene, he felt very lonely in the empty room. And then he felt scared.
And then he climbed under the desk and shivered a bit. But that just made him feel more claustrophobic so then, forgetting that this room's door opened inwards, tried to push it to get out.
Panicked and scared, he ran backwards and forwards from the locked window to the apparently locked door and when something clicked outside he screamed and hid under the desk again. He was stuck and alone and what if they were coming for him again? He'd lose Vexen and he'd lose Larxene and he'd lose all kinds of bits and pieces that he'd collected over the past six months and he didn't want to go to jail and he didn't want to be locked up didn't want to be locked up didn't want didn't want didn't didn't didn't-

When he came around he was huddled in a chair in the corridor with a few members of staff and a few confused students crowded around him, all with concerned looks on their faces. For several minutes all he could do was blink blankly at them all. His throat felt hoarse; had he really been screaming that much? He couldn't really recall anything.
"Vexen," He finally croaked out, even his clothes feeling uncomfortably tight against his sweat-soaked skin as he wriggled restlessly.
"He's on his way," One of the teachers, a young woman with a bow in her hair, promised as another shooed the gaping students away. He nodded a little, unwrapping his hands from his chest and inspecting them closely. Encouragingly, there was no blood.
"I didn't do anything bad, did I?" He asked after clearing his throat a few times. The teacher shook her head, gently reaching up to stroke his shoulder.
"Are you feeling better now?"
"I want a drink," Marluxia said, and, quickly remembering his manners, tagged on a "Please."
Again the teacher - he couldn't remember her name in his muddled state. Miss Gain... Gainsbury? Gainsborough? - nodded, and stood, leaving him with another teacher, a tall blonde male. Mr... Strife, was it?
The woman returned with a glass from the canteen and he sipped it distractedly until Vexen, arguing with somebody again, bustled in and instantly clutched him into a tight embrace.
"Are you okay?"
"I am now," Marluxia replied affectionately, burying his nose in the fur lining of Vexen's jacket. It smelled of him, a mixture of clean freshness and musky old, and Marluxia loved it.
Vexen smiled softly, patting Marluxia's back and steering him towards the door.
"Come on. Let's go home,"
"But I promised Larxene that I'd walk home with her today,"
Vexen reached up to gently caress Marluxia's cheek with his thumb.
"I don't think you should stay here."
"I promised," Marluxia insisted.
"Do you know what class she's in?"
"She does engineering and electronics," Marluxia dutifully replied. "But I don't know what lesson she's in right now,"
"We can send her a note," The woman teacher said.
"What if she worries?"
"We can give her our number and she can call you after school," Vexen suggested, and that seemed like a good idea, so Marluxia nodded.
"Okay."
Vexen wrote a note for the teacher in his neat scrawl, signed it, and took Marluxia out to the car park and bundled him in the car.
"Can we have sex when we get home?"
"I think you should be doing homework."
"Well, I'll be a naughty student and you can be my naughty teacher."
"Don't tempt me, Marluxia."
"Aha! So you're tempted!"
"... Please don't grope me when I'm driving."
"Sorry."