"Storm" and the general concept of "Storm" is completely copyright Orin Drake 2006. All characters contained within are owned by Square-Enix and Disney.

Background: Not sure where it came from. It rained damn hard last night, and maybe that has something to do with it. I'm starting to be just a little afraid of the Demyx in my head. ...But in a fond kind of way. It's a kind of broken I understand.

Storm
by Orin Drake

There were some days when the vast majority of Nobodies simply got the insatiable urge to be elsewhere. It was like a ripple moved through them all--the initial droplet irritating the surface nearly always being Demyx by no small surprise. He got... "antsy", or so he insisted. Stranger still, no one really thought to question it.

Axel, a Nobody too full of motion to really understand the stillness that one could get bored of, rather appreciated walking around in an empty castle. There wasn't much of a challenge in looking through everyone's "private things" when there was no danger of being caught, though. When he'd grown quite disinterested in all of the nonsense books and notes and ridiculous personal items of days long turned to ash, he stepped out onto the large balcony atop one of the lower towers. It was a stunning view of the dead city, black and bright neon glittering even moreso in the steady drizzle.

--But that wasn't what drew the firestarter's eye. He caught the motion before he saw the telltale shape and color of the weapon coming down upon a group of Heartless. Again and again, swinging, crushing--a ballet of carnage with no flourish and no blood. No art, no music; merely tearing frustration. Never had he seen Demyx so... so...

Axel heard the hiss of a dark portal open behind him, a little too entranced by what he was watching to turn. Footsteps came right up next to him... and then Xigbar's chuckle upon seeing what was drawing all of the attention. "Kid's got a lot of rage in 'im."

The redhead raised an eyebrow at that, finally glancing over. When he got no further response, he pushed, "What do you mean?"

Number II smirked, gaze still locked on the killing figure in the rain. "Rage... it keeps a person alive, sometimes." He remembered. So vividly that he could almost taste the emotion. The irony of the words seemed as distant as a sunrise, somehow.

That... hadn't really answered the question. And yet Axel didn't really want to delve further.

Earlier that day, Demyx had caught the gunman sitting on another balcony, staring with a rather annoyed expression at the rest of the dark world. The kid sat, as he usually did, without invitation. The regular back and forth of slightly awkward conversation, the quips which made the musician huff and insist that he did too have a heart. It was all very "normal".

Right up until one of Demyx's longer silences shattered by his own soft voice. "I think... the longer we're Nobodies... the more we can't feel." Not that he expected a response--not even so much as an arguing word or a grunt--but when he got a blank-staring silence from the man beside him... he grew a bit concerned. "Xigbar..?"

Another moment passed, the stillness trickling down like stinging poison. At last there was one word, forced and cold. "Yeah." The freeshooter nearly whispered, though not in answer to his name.

There was again a long, almost painful moment where no one moved and nothing was said. Xigbar hadn't really planned to speak to begin with, but he found the desire to express oddly hard to deny. "Xemnas... he's been a Nobody longer than all of us." The rest remained unspoken. It was too dangerous to so much as suggest. You did not question the motives of the Superior... and you certainly didn't suggest anything other than perfect loyalty.

Demyx had reacted by complete and total non-reaction. Not a nod, not a blink--not a single indication he'd even heard. It would come later. Sometimes it took a while for a storm to hit.