On his way to the front gate after school to meet Axel, Roxas was stopped by Demyx and Zexion. It was to the point now that Roxas didn't expect to ever see one without the other somewhere close behind. He wondered if they even had all of the same classes…

"Axel is at his locker so he'll be a few minutes," Demyx said. "In the mean time, we'll walk with you out front. I'd like to talk to have a little talk with you."

Roxas wondered how come Demyx always seemed so happy and easy going when around his two friends but, when talking to Roxas, seemed so serious and anal. But he agreed to hear Demyx out nontheless.

"Axel seems to have taken some sort of liking to you," Demyx started.

Well duh….. already figured that out…

"I just want to tell you… not to hurt him. He's been through a lot. It's been a while since he met someone… who he actually wants to tell his story to. I don't want him to regret it."

Roxas stared blankly. "Um… sure?"

What was with these people? Why's everything they say so incredibly confusing? At least everything would be explained shortly…

Axel was waiting for them. He looked anxious.

"We'll meet you at home, Ax" Demyx said. He and Zexion walked off, speaking to each other in hushed tones.

"Hey," Axel muttered.

"Hey," Roxas responded, equally as quiet.

"Our place isn't far. Half a mile maybe."

Roxas nodded. "Yeah that's fine. I don't have a problem walking distances."

"Barely a distance," Axel almost chuckled.

The walk was spent mostly in silence. Axel seemed terrified for some reason. What could be so bad about his past? Unless the rumors were true… and he really had killed a man. No no, that's silly.

The house was small, but looked cozy enough. The white paint was chipping, but in an antique sort of way. This was obviously one of the first houses built in Twilight Town. Just thinking about all of the people who must have lived her made Roxas anxious for information.

No, bad, Roxas. Don't you remember the saying? Curiosity killed the cat. You're need for fact will be the end of you someday…. Leave it be.

The two walked through the iron fence that guarded the house, the gate making a satisfying, homely squeak. Roxas heard it squeak again a moment later and assumed that it was Demyx and Zexion following up close behind.

Axel opened the front door to the place without knocking. Made sense, he did live here after all. The living room wasn't very furnished. A cushy looking couch, a couple mismatched arm chairs, a table, and a TV on a stand were all that the room held to offer. A Playstation controller peaked its way out of the TV stand's cabinet which led Roxas to believe that the entire system was attached.

"Cloud, we're home!" Demyx called. Roxas jumped a little, he hadn't heard the other two boys enter the room.

"Kay," came a response from upstairs. "Axel, would you please come up for a second? I wanna talk to you."

Axel groaned. Threw his backpack on one of the arm chairs and trudged upstairs to answer the call.

"He's not in trouble is he?" Roxas asked Demyx.

Demyx shook his head. "I called Cloud earlier to tell him you were coming over. He's just giving Axel the whole shpeal about 'you're sure you want anyone else to know? Blah blah blahbity blah.' Cloud doesn't know Axel like we do but he still has a fatherly instinct for him. But, he also hasn't gotten a grasp on the fact yet that Axel is always sure."

Roxas nodded and stood there, clutching his back pack strap so hard that his knuckles turned white. He looked around the room, taking in what little there was to take in. Zexion sat in the arm chair not occupied by Axel's backpack and Demyx sat at his feet.

"You can sit down you know."

Roxas was startled to find that it was Zexion who had spoken. He then found how silly it was to be so shocked. Of course Zexion could talk. He saw him talk to Demyx and Axel all the time. His words were just never directed towards Roxas himself so he wasn't quite used to the quiet voice yet.

"Well?"

Roxas realized that he was still standing dumbly and plopped down on the nearest piece of furniture. He unconsciously scooted as far against the armrest, trying to take up as much space as possible. For some reason, he felt the environment to be rather hostile.

A few minutes went by and no Axel showed up.

"Cloud must be giving him one of his role model speeches again…." Demyx sighed. "Well... as long as we've got you here alone and since it seems like you're going to be around from now on, let us let you in on our stories. Since Axel will be serving his monologue later we might as well join in on the fun." A grin spread from ear to ear.

"Uh… sure…" Roxas replied.

"Great!" Demyx clapped his hands. He was way to excited over this. "It's not often that someone is here to sit down and just… you know… listen. Cloud is always holed upstairs in his room doing got knows what, and Axel and Zexion and I pretty much already know everything about each other."

Roxas nodded.

"Well, well, where to start? Well, me and Zexion have been bestest of buds since we can remember. We did everything as kids. Played dress up, had tea parties, etc."

"Aren't those sort of girl things?" Roxas asked, hesitantly.

"Demyx has always been this special," Zexion muttered.

"Zexy, shut up. You did it to."

"Not willingly. Now just get back to the story, Demyx."

"Fine. God." Demyx took a moment to re-gather himself. "Well, when I was 12, my parents got a divorce. I went to go live with my dad and had to move away from Zexion. It was the hardest thing of my life."

"What about Cloud?" Roxas asked. "Where did he go?"

"Cloud was 22 at the time. I know, he's such a geezer right?" Demyx giggled a little. "He was from my mom's first marriage so he was way older. He had already graduated college and moved out to Twilight Town at that point. Back to me though. I lived with my dad for a couple of years. Me and Zexion wrote letters to each other but it wasn't enough. I needed him back. I ran away."

"When you were 14?!" Roxas couldn't believe it.

"Yeah. I hitchhiked my way back home. I didn't tell my mom that I was there. She had already remarried and had another baby—the skank—and wouldn't want me around. She'd just send me right back to my father. My only priority was Zexion."

"He broke in through my bedroom window," Zexion said, taking over for Demyx, who was not very happy about his spotlight being stolen.

"My story!" Demyx whined. "But yes, I climbed the drainpipe and made a very sneaky entrance… after falling twice and bruising my ass to where sitting was the most pain I'd ever felt. I don't even remember how I did it, but I somehow convinced Zexion to run away with me. We went to Hollow Bastion and pretty much lived on the streets. But we didn't mind as long as we had each other. After a few months of living off table scraps and sleeping in shelters, a carnival came through town. It was nothing special. A few rides, a freak show, and a stunt show. We snuck in to the place and it was the first time since we'd gotten to Hollow Bastion that we had anything that even resembled fun. It was my first time on a ferris wheel and there was a bearded lady and a strong man and a fire dancer."

"Axel," Zexion supplied.

Axel was a fire dancer? Roxas chuckled on the inside. Rather fitting.

"We ended up getting caught sneaking in again the next night," Demyx continued. "The security took us to the head honcho. The carnival owner. A guy named Xemnas. He threatened to have us arrested. But Zexion was real quick about it. He said that him and I would be workers that would travel with them to work off the punishment. I didn't argue. It was a place to sleep and we would get three square meals a day. At least we would survive. Xemnas agreed to it. We worked there for a couple years. We became casual friends with Axel, nothing special though. There was a guy there who we got really closed to… a guy named Riku."

"Riku…" came a voice from the hallway. Roxas turned to see Axel with his side leaning against the wall, his arms crossed. How long had he been there? "Riku, Riku Riku."

"Axel!" The jovial tone in Demyx's voice had vanished. Worry filled his voice and was very apparent in his eyes. He made a move to stand. "We can leave if you want."

"No," Axel said, shaking his head. "You already started. Finnish your story."

"Um, ok." Demyx slowly sat back down.

"Who's Riku?" Roxas asked. Whoever this guy was seemed to raise a lot of tension.

"Riku is… was…. My ex boyfriend," Axel explained.

"He was a great guy," Demyx said quietly.

"Was?" Roxas wondered why all the past tense.

"We'll let Axel tell you that part," Demyx explained. "When we get to it. Anyways, Zexion and I were making a living. We weren't paid munny. We worked for food and shelter. There were a few other runaway kids like us. Like Axel, for instance. We were there for no more than a year when the position arose for a knife thrower. The old guy, Xigbar, ended up loosing an eye in an unfortunate chocobo herding incident in the petting zoo and couldn't throw accurately with such limited eye sight and was let go. Zexion jumped for the job. He practiced day and night for weeks until he was even better than the last guy. Xemnas gave him the job, no hands down, and Zexion started would be paid Xigbar's salary. He said that he would save it up so he and I could get a place together. But the thing was, they needed a new assistant as well. The old one left with Xigbar. So naturally, I was willing. I trusted Zexion. He was good, better than good. He was great. I knew that he would never hurt me."

Zexion's vision went downcast and he clenched his fists.

"We performed together for a year. He would strap me to a wooden target, very stereotypical, and throw a dozen or so daggers at me, occasionally an axe or two. I was never afraid that he would hit me by accident. But one day… at a stop in a little broken town… there was this kid in the audience…" Demyx voice trailed off.

"It was the grand finale." Zexion had taken over for Demyx, who seemed to not want to tell any more of the story. "I was throwing three knives blindfolded. The aim was to get one on either side of Demyx' head and one in between his legs. I never missed before and never in my wildest dreams did I think I would. But there was this little fucker in the audience. Apparently it wasn't 'extreme' enough for him. I managed to get the two on either side of his head just fine. No problem. But on the final throw, he decided to do a little throw of his own. He threw a god damned little soda can at me and hit my throwing arm. But it was too late, the knife had already left my hand. It hit Demyx in the left side of his ribs…" Now it seemed as though Zexion couldn't speak anymore on the subject either.

Roxas watched as Demyx pulled up his shirt. There was a white scar three or four inches wide running diagonally below his left pec. The skin looked risen and mangled as though not very much care had been taken in removing the weapon.

"They shut down the carnival," Zexion continued, his voice even quieter than usual. It was almost a whisper. "But the kid had already bolted. No one could find him. I was blindfolded at the time so I didn't even know what he looked like. It kills me that I don't even know the face of the asshole who did this."

"I—I'm sorry," was all that Roxas could muster up to say.

"It gets worse. Xemnas wouldn't pay to take Demyx to the hospital. The cheap bastard was so greedy that he couldn't even spare enough to save a boy's life. At the time, Demyx was in so much pain that we didn't think he'd make it. Security just brought him to him room and layed him on his bed, knife still in and all, just expecting him to die. And they would have let him. I sat there with him. There was no way that I would let him die by my own hand. I took the knife out myself, but the edged were so rusted and jagged that I think I did even more damage taking it out than when it went in. I found a needle and some thread and did my best to stitch up the would as I could. I tried to disinfect it with some soap and water because it was all I could find. It seemed to do the trick because no infection showed up that I could tell. Demyx was bed ridden for weeks. And I stayed there with him. If he had died… I would have died too, no questions asked."

"You would have killed yourself?" Roxas asked, he was so flabbergasted by this entire situation.

Zexion's only response was a nod. He seemed to be done talking for the moment.

"Zexion didn't want to work anymore," Demyx said, picking it back up. "But Xemnas wouldn't let him quit. All performers were confined to their jobs unless something arose where they were no longer capable to work. The only reason Xigbar was allowed to leave was because of his eye. So… Zexion… went down the same path. He gouged out his own eye so that he didn't have to perform anymore…"

Roxas looked to Zexion. The violet haired teen brushed the hair behind his ear that he was always so careful to keep draped over his eye. There was a scar running from his eyeball down to an inch below his bottom lid. The eye itself was closed but it sagged in such a way that it was apparent that there was no eyeball behind it. It was a horrific sight that made Roxas' stomach churn. Even more so than when Demyx showed his wounds. It made Roxas wonder, if these two had such scars, what was it that Axel was hiding?

"Xemnas still wouldn't let Zexion leave though," Demyx said. It seemed hat though these horrors just weren't going to stop. "He said that, because the injury was purposeful, that Zexion was still bound to travel with them. It seemed Xigbar was only let go because it was accidental. Because Zexion and I were now down for the count when it came to performing, we instead went back to being stage hands. Zexion hasn't been the same since. Believe it or not, he wasn't always such a downer as he is now. Zexion used to smile…. He used to laugh… I miss it so much…" Demyx's voice cracked and his eyes began to water. Zexion put a comforting hand down on Demyx's shoulder and massaged it soothingly.

"Xemnas was an evil man…" said Axel. Roxas jumped at his voice. He was forgotten about the red head standing in the entry way. "He's done things to all of us… that most people wouldn't believe… Now it's my turn to tell you my story."

~*~*~

A/N: Ain't I a little stinker? Well, at least some of the mystery has been revealed. In the next chapter comes Axel. And it is fucking complex. I don't even know how I'm going to do it . But do not fear!!! I will be done!!!

And this is my longest chapter yet (2,756 words). I'm so proud ^_^