Wow, I updated
Luxord curled into a ball and covered himself as the bright light was turned on, instinctively hoping it would be enough for him to hide from the morning antics and go back to sleep. And of course, it was never enough. As if the sounds of Larxene walking over to his bed and humming obnoxiously loud weren't enough, after a few seconds of him squinting his eyes and the covers were soon removed and pulled away from him, exposing him to the accursed light and sense of reality. The cold air hit his exposed arms and legs, his senses springing into action without much of a choice.
"Morning," Larxene said with her all too cheery smile, hovering above him with the sheets tightly clung in her hands. Once again Luxord questioned as to how she had got into the house.
Luxord could only stare at her with a blank expression; his mind was still lost in that in between of awake and REM, a real shame since he really wanted nothing more than to give her a really hateful look. He could definitely see her standing above him, that all too pleased look on her face as she stared down at his tired body. He could definitely see this, but for some reason he just couldn't compute as to why she was here in the first place.
"…what time is…," he asked weakly, looking around as he tried desperately to remember where he put his alarm clock.
Larxene chuckled. "Three thirty," she answered.
Luxord looked right back up to her and just stared. In all honesty, he couldn't think of a reason as to why he was awake at this moment. He could literally believe that Larxene had snuck into his room early in the morning just to wake him up and cause some sort of disorder. He blinked a few times and wondered if perhaps this was one of those dreams…just a bit more deranged and twisted. If the case; he would gladly take action.
"In the morning," she then added. "Nice shirt by the way…"
Luxord just had to look down and stare at his watchmen shirt at that moment. And of course, he ended up reddening.
No; his mind wasn't that twisted as to have Larxene enter his dreamland.
Oh, what sin did he commit in his last life to have deserved this kind of punishment?
But as Luxord was about to question the next actions; whether it be to strangle Larxene or simply fall back asleep, Xaldin walked by the door, a ipod in his hand and the look of exhaustion spread across his face. He looked to Luxord, then to Larxene, and smirked.
"Good morning," he said to Luxord, giving a small wave before walking past the room, heading out to the hall and out the door.
"Don't insinuate," Larxene said angrily as she removed herself from her position and walked after Xaldin. "You know I wouldn't…"
"I wasn't insinuating a thing," Xaldin yelled back with a laugh.
Larxene frowned. She then turned around and looked to Luxord, who was still sitting in his bed with the dumbfounded look on his face.
"You got ten minutes," she said. She looked around the room and sighed. "Where's your shit?"
It was at this moment when the past activities of the last two weeks seem to all hit him in the head, the words "It's finally happening" hissing deep within his mind. It held a very hateful tone and the aftermath of the hiss seem to echo in his brain for several seconds. He groaned and shook his head, his hand covering his face as he then realized what today was.
It was Monday.
He was about to spend what would most likely be several hours in a car, and that was assuming he would have only three bathroom breaks, and would then have to spend a week trapped in a hotel as he tried desperately not to freeze to death all while bearing with the fact that there would be no laptop for him nor internet. And this was only the tip of the iceberg. Luxord was pretty good at nitpicking at anything that could possibly be a bad thing, and the past two weeks had been long enough for him to easily come up with a long list as to how awful the following week would be. He had all sorts of reasons as to why he ought to stay behind; being surrounded by tourists and having to wear heavy clothing only being the starters to his list.
"Luxord."
Luxord jumped from his bed and looked to Larxene, still tired and therefore frightened as hell.
"Your bag," Larxene questioned. "Where the hell is it?'
Luxord looked around his rather messy room, though it wasn't as bad as the regular guy's room, and stopped at a pile of what appeared to be filthy clothes. It actually was hard to tell if it was or wasn't clean, considering that he had to repack last night due to his prescheduled packing two weeks ago. This just proves that one shouldn't spend the last minute trying to get ready as he now couldn't help wonder what was actually clean and what was dirty.
"There," he said as he bent over and grabbed a pair of jeans that were so kindly enough to be placed right next to his bed. In reality, he had worn it the previous day and simply left it there, but Luxord was in that point of mind where what was real and fake had yet to be separated. He never woke up at three in the morning; he never woke up earlier than eight. He was three hours too tired…
He watched Larxene walk over and removed the huge pile of clothes, her face holding that semi look of disgust as she removed what she assumed to be dirty clothes as she made her way to his bag.
Luxord felt a warm feeling rise within him. It made him smile.
"Really," he heard her ask.
He turned and looked to her.
"What," he asked.
"You're going to wear that," Larxene said, pointing in disgust.
Luxord looked down and shrugged.
"You wore that all night long," Larxene said with a frown, her hand pointing to his shirt.
Correction, he had worn that all night long and the day before. But you know quite well Luxord wasn't going to tell Larxene that. Mind you, he wasn't normally this filthy. Luxord adored cleanliness just as much as the average human; he was just too tired to really give a damn now.
Did we mention he was tired?
"You said you liked it," he said in a desperate retort. He looked to the alarm clock, which of course was right where it belonged, on the drawer next to his bed. "It's been seven minutes…"
"You can change in three minutes," Larxene said.
"I need to brush my teeth," Luxord said as he hurriedly put on a pair of chucks. "Besides, you said you liked the shirt…"
"Don't be filthy," Larxene said.
Luxord got up and passed her by, grabbing on to his bag and giving it a good yank before taking it back from her clutches. He walked off.
"I'm getting you clean clothes," he heard her say as he made his way outside, doing his best to not go insane from the combination of her voice and the icy cold air. He managed to find a joke within all of this and smiled.
"Yes mum," he said with a half laugh before walking out of the complex area and out to the parking area outside. He looked around for a bit and found a Saturn Vue sitting alone across the street, lights turned on inside and two familiar faces within it. He hurried over, not realizing that the chances of him getting hit were literally one in a million at three in the bloody morning and made his way to the unfamiliar vehicle.
"Where's Larxene," Xigbar asked as he took the bag from the younger blonde.
"Picking out my outfit," Luxord said with a cocky smile.
"How adorable," Xaldin said as he pulled out on of his earphones. "And she tells me not to insinuate about things…what a hypocrite."
For some reason Luxord couldn't help but find what Xaldin had said to be hurtful in some way. He wasn't quite sure how, and he really didn't try to look too deep in it, as he was still very tired. He hardly ever thought about the strange dream of them ever getting back together, but when he did it really did control his very mind. Perhaps it was an instinctive hope of his that made him want to try to like what Xaldin said and believe in the thought that Larxene may want to get back with him. The reason; he could really care less, but hey…
And now he was awake…and his mind was flooded in his every popular brooded misery.
"I'll be right back," Luxord said as he walked back to the complex. "I need to get a few more things before we go out."
"Larxene specifically said you couldn't bring your laptop," Xigbar said with a smirk, "and you should know I'm in a particular snitchy mood right now."
"I know better than to end up being the one to wake up the whole neighborhood," Luxord said. "I just need to tidy up is all…"
"I told you," Xaldin said with a yawn, "set the alarm for three…"
"As if it would have done any good," Luxord said as he hurried off. He didn't make it very far though as he found Larxene walking out the complex, a small bag in her hand and a toothbrush in the other.
"About face," she said.
"Why?"
"I got your damn toothbrush," she said, holstering the blue piece of plastic up to him. "And clean clothes too, "she added. "You better change into them at the next rest stop-I won't have myself hanging around you smelling like you are…"
"If I do recall, you never mentioned anything about my current stench," Luxord said as he took the bag of clothes in his hand. He opened it up; not really trusting what may be inside.
"Don't worry," she said, "you'll look just fine for picture day."
"Oh thank heavens," Luxord said as he closed the bag.
"Come on now," she said. "We're leaving."
Luxord sighed as he headed for the car once more, trying his best to not go terribly insane and drop to the floor, crying and screaming and begging tom please stay home. He gave one last look to the apartment complex that he, for the first time in his life, really missed and loved, and frowned.
"How did you lock the door," he asked curiously.
"Oh," Larxene said. "I still have the keys you gave me."
"Oh…"
Well of course she did.
Nothing could really be said about the first three hours. Xigbar and Larxene took turns at the wheel, only changing when they hit a gas stop, usually for food or the need to relieve oneself, and would usually make small talk with one another, but for the most part it was a relatively quite ride. Xaldin and Luxord, both being used to staying up late and sleeping in, slept through these three hours and made not a sound as Larxene and Xigbar went at least twenty over the speed limit. It wasn't until the fourth hour, when the little clock struck seven thirty nine, did Xaldin start to stir from his deep sleep, the sound of Xigbar's play list overpowering his own. He eventually took the wheel at the third gas station, where gas was actually bought alongside the candies, and somewhere between Polysics and Flyleaf, Luxord finally awoke. There wasn't really much to say about this as the only action he really took consisted of him nursing on a coke and occasionally chewing on a liquorish vine.
It was sometime around eight forty did Luxord actually wake from his strange daze, and much like the way he awoke from earlier this morning; it was Larxene who took action.
"Change," Larxene said before stepping out the car door.
Luxord looked around, squinting his eyes as he looked through the window to see nothing but a few trees and a couple of buildings, all of these surrounded by a cluster of what just had to be a bunch of all too excited tourists.
As you can esily imagine it took awhile before Luxord gathered the courage to walk out the sanctity of the car. But the need to brush his teeth overpowered all, so it was done.
"They're selling sandwiches for five dollars," Xaldin said as soon as Luxord got out of the restroom.
For those who were wondering, nothing really happened in the restroom. He changed, he freshened up a bit, and he did it all without touching much of the building and its contents. Luxord did not enjoy it, but a detailed description of how he felt was not needed, there just wouldn't be enough time to go over it. But at least he was wearing clean clothes.
"And people will buy them," Luxord said as he made his way back to the car. He looked to Xaldin. "What kind of sandwiches?"
"Does it matter," Xaldin said, "I'm still in shock that there are sandwiches that cost more than the ones at my college."
"And people will still buy them," Luxord said with a smile.
"I already want to go home," Xaldin said. "We live in a shitty neighborhood, in an apartment that lacks a pool, and I want to go home…"
"You never know how much value something has until you've lost it," Luxord said as he opened the car door and threw the bag of clothes back in. "where are Xigbar and Larxene?"
"Probably walking about," Xaldin said. "You can only sit in a car for so long before you undergo the symptoms of restless leg syndrome." He looked over to one of the buildings and sighed.
"What?"
"Xigbar's looking at the food…the expesnive five dollar food," Xaldin said.
"Fast metabolism," Luxord said, "it has its cons."
"How much longer till we get to Bishop," Xaldin asked. "I swear to god I'm about to go insane."
"Anything particularly interesting about the town," Luxord asked. "Aside from it being a place of actual intelligence…"
"It's close to Mammoth," Xaldin said.
"By how much," Luxord asked.
"At least a hundred miles," Xaldin answered.
"Wow, you actually made me excited," Luxord said.
Xaldin got into the car.
"Go get those two," Xaldin said. "The sooner we leave the better."
Luxord nodded his head and walked off to where he saw Xigbar. It was about now that he realized just how great it felt to walk. His legs literally felt like they had been freed from some trap. The cool air and bright sunlight seem to have another effect on him too. He was now awake and refreshed; the only thing needed now was a decent meal and access to email.
"Xaldin's anxious," Luxord said, poking Xigbar's back in a half assed attempt to get his attention.
"This stuff is dry," Xigbar remarked. "Needs mayo…"
"Well then, next time you get back here you'll be sure to have condiments at hand," Luxord replied. "Though, considering you've been here before, I'm surprised you went ahead and bought the darn thing."
"Well, normally we'd get burger King," Xigbar said, "but Larxene wants something g that doesn't involve heavily clogging her arteries."
"Oh," Luxord said. "Speaking of which; where is she?"
"Probably in the restroom," Xigbar said, "chicks take forever…"
"Well," Luxord said. "The sooner we head out the sooner we get decent food."
Food was more than enough to get Xigbar to throw away the unsatisfying meal and heading out to the vehicle.
"I hear you," Xigbar said.
Luxord nodded his head and looked around the area once more. He couldn't see the young blonde in the wasteland of a rest area, and he figured Xigbar may be right about the restroom. He wasn't sure how it could take so much longer for her to get business done, but figured to wait around the area and get to her as fast as possible.
He only took a few steps before spotting the trademark antennas that belonged to Larxene. Xigbar had been right. He walked over to the young woman, already preparing himself for her ever wonderful words of wisdom.
"Well, you look nice," she said with a smirk.
"Yes, thank you for your wonder taste in fashion," Luxord said. "Xaldin's eager to get the gel out of here-and so am I."
"Wow, you're actually eager to get there," Larxene said with a small laugh. Luxord slowed his pace as he let the girl catch up to him and walk aside with him. Larxene hurried up and made her way to the car, Luxord parallel to her stride.
"Spending five minutes here is enough," Luxord said.
"Since when have you been so horribly antisocial," Larxene asked, looking up to him with a frown. "I mean yeah, you're a writer, but that doesn't mean you got to take the persona of one…"
"It's not that I'm antisocial-it's that I dislike those who dress in bright clothing and talk to everyone they come across to," Luxord said.
"I dress brightly," Larxene said.
"But do you dress in a quirky fashion that practically says the words "tourist"," Luxord asked.
"No," Larxene answered.
"Well then," Luxord said.
"My god you need to make some more friends," Larxene said. "It cannot be healthy for you to live such a life where you consistently stereotype everything you spot."
"It helped me avoid those who would easily corrupt my life," Luxord said in an ever so casual tone. "At least it did till you introduced me to Xigbar."
"Consider him the spice to your bland, tasteless life," Larxene said.
"Xaldin and Zexion are not bland," Luxord answered.
"Well," Larxene said, "maybe not Xaldin so much. He does have his moments…" She smirked, "but Zexion has the personality of a wet towel…"
"You're cruel," Luxord said.
"Axel, Xigbar, and Marluxia have been good to you," she said with a smile, "you just don't know it."
Now, Larxene had a way of picking out friends. And for some reason, everyone she befriended seemed to have some sort of disorder, at least in Luxord's opinion, which made them horribly unbearable. Axel was befriended during Larxene's eighth grade year, when she was alone and without her beloved sidekick, due to the boundary lines for schools. He was a quirky little thing that only seemed to grow skinnier by the year. Sometime during the eleventh year he got his face tattooed…with what appeared to be crybaby tears….that were green. Axel also had a thing for his hair, spiking it to the point were Luxord was sure it could be dubbed a landmark. He was also…a bit eccentric; Luxord never asked, so Axel never told. But he was a bit likable in some cases, during those rare moments when he wasn't being annoying as hell. Next was the bast-err, Marluxia. Marluxia was lost and found in the ninth grade during fashion class. Both of them didn't want to be there, and being that they both hated the fashion class that made them use safety scissors, it was only a matter of time before Marluxia followed Larxene around. Now, Luxord never really liked the pinked haired being, and for a good sort of reasons. Unlike Axel, who was obviously rooting for the other team, therefore making him as threat less as could be, Marluxia wasn't. Like Luxord, he was often said to be charming and quite likable, he was smart and athletic too. Basically, he was too damn perfect. And to top it all off, the two dated; therefore making Marluxia the biggest douche in the whole world-to Luxord.
Xigbar was the final. Luxord didn't know too much on the details other than the two took the same cross country period together in college and somehow ended befriending each other within the remarkable period of possibly ten minutes. The next thing Luxord knew; the guy was inviting her to go run with him. Luxord wasn't all too sure whether Xigbar was considered a threat or not for the longest time, never knowing what the mans initiative was when he invited her to go hang with him. But after being asked along one day to go to Six Flags, he soon saw the relationship the two shared and was able to accept Xigbar into the pool of friendship. They had a brother sister relationship-thank god. But what made Xigbar so hard to relate to at times was the fact that he really didn't know too much about him. He didn't know where he lived, what he did for money, anything about his life, his orientation (Luxord figured and guessed him to be preference free), just nothing. And it made him want to know even more…
"I don't see how they improved my life," Luxord said, "unless you count years being taken from my life a positive thing."
"You love them," Larxene said with a smile.
"No I don't," Luxord corrected. There came a pause and Luxord then realized something. "How is it that you couldn't drag Marluxia along instead of me?"
"What," Larxene asked.
"You said Axel was filling in for you at work," Luxord pointed out, "but you could have taken Marluxia along."
Larxene smiled.
"And what would you have said two weeks ago if I had told you that I was bringing Marluxia," Larxene said. She saw Luxord's confident expression fade a bit as he realized how he had just walked into his own predetermined trap. "Exactly; a week with me and Marluxia-it would have drove you insane."
Luxord didn't dare say a thing.
"Maybe I should have said something," she said," then maybe you would be more willing in this whole fiasco of mine…"
"How did you get Xigbar into this," Luxord asked as he opened the door to the car. "I mean, surely he thought this would be something of a waste of time."
Larxene chuckled.
"Not everyone takes the same approach to life as you do Luxord," she said as she sat herself in the back. "That's your problem, you know?"
"Hurry up you two," Xigbar said. He turned the keys and awoke the car. "I want to get to the hotel before noon."
"Whatever," Luxord uttered ask sat himself next to Larxene. He looked to her for a brief second before finally asking; "what does that mean?"
"Well," Larxene said, "if you have to ask, then you really don't deserve to know." She chuckled a bit before letting her smile fade. She kicked the chair in front of her. "Don't you dare!"
"I didn't say anything," Xaldin said.
"I can see your smile…"
"Just excited to be on this wonder trip with you," Xaldin said in a tone that was way too fake to even be called fake.
"Bullshit," Larxene said.
"Exactly."
Nothing could really be said during the rest of the fourth hour, nor the fifth. In fact, nothing really of value happened, unless you count I Spy…
"I spy…something…blue," Xigbar said.
"The sky," Luxord said.
"Nope," Xigbar said with a laugh.
Luxord frowned. "What the hell do you mean no?"
"It's not the sky dude," Xigbar said.
"there is nothing out here," Luxord said angrily, forgetting that the four of the were playing a childish game, "how can you spy something blue aside from the sky if there is nothing blue out there?"
"good job Xigbar," Larxene muttered;" now we'll never hear the end of it…"
You see, nothing. Eventually the group hit a town, though it wasn't the one Xaldin wanted. Nope, it was just a little town; a town with a line of stores that one would only see in one of those movies where the set was taken in a small little town. Never in Luxord's life had he seen so many family owned stored and so little Taco Bells and Starbucks. True, there was a Carl's Jr. and a few other chain restaurants, but it was a rarity within the town, and Luxord had kept his eye out.
Of course by now the group was feeling quite famished for a decent meal, one that didn't consist of sugar and sweets. Larxene suggested they wait till Bishop, saying she could recall a few sit down restaurants from back when she was in high school during running camp.
So the group endured for another hour, finally heading to Bishop at ten. Luxord was just as horrified to discover that there were little to no chain stores, in fact, he was sure there were even more family associated stores. But in the end, his stomach couldn't care less and food was the only thing he could think of. Now, they twiddled it down to the choice of two restaurants, and believe it or not, it was Larxene who was the one trying to get the group to pick her choice. But three hungry guys easily overpowered her and in the end they ate the high calorie, just as bad as fast food, country restaurant. We wont go too far into detail about their dine in, other than the fact that Larxene was being a bit nit picky, but they did enjoy their meals in the end.
"Oh god," Xigbar said as he took a bite out of his pancakes. "It's like a party in my mouth."
"Why," Xaldin said sadly, "why can't we have restaurants like this back at home?"
Luxord shook his head as he tried to refrain the urge from shoving copious amounts of waffles in his mouth.
"Am I the only one here who doesn't find this food orgasmic," Larxene asked as she stared disdainfully at the three men. "Seriously, is there something wrong with my meal, or are you guys just that dysfunctional?'
And they filled up on gas once more before leaving the town. With full stomachs, the conversations that took place within the car were much more cheery and the strains were nowhere to be seen. And sometime around eleven forty five the most remarkable thing happened.
"Trees," Xaldin said out of nowhere.
Luxord, who had taken shot gun, pulled out his ipod and looked around. For the first time since yesterday, he could see bright green, and not just in patches, but everywhere. He could see huge mountains and could see the bright white that covered their huge gray masses. He saw trees that he was sure head never seen in his entire life, and he saw a sign that had a Deer on it and the words "Xing" right below it. He had only seen that sign during his driver education class.
"Holy shit," he muttered.
"We're finally here," Larxene said.
"Just got to get to the hotel…"
And within the next few minutes, there was a transformation of some sorts. The dozens of tress that surrounded the car grew to the hundreds of thousands, and the grass faded a bit as the ground was covered with rocks, pine twigs, and small piles of snow. Stores took over and filled the areas, then rows and rows of hotels and suites, each one covered ina decent amount of white. Luxord saw people, lots and lots of people, more than half of them with dogs. He also saw tourists, each one oddly heavily dressed, not all too used to the cold weather. And speaking of the weather; it was cold. Very cold…the car had no air conditioning on, and it was freaking cold.
"My god," Luxord muttered. He sat himself back into his seat, not wanting to look around anymore. This all had to be one of most beautiful things he had ever seen.
He was going to hate it here.
I know there isn't much Larxene going on here, but there will be. I managed to have the whole ride take place in just one chapter, so I'm pleased enough. There's going to be a lot more going on in the next chapter, and I plan to skip around a bit, so things wont drag.
And lastly, I know Luxord seems to be something of a prick. don't mention it-its all part of character development.