The silence in the wake of Demyx's introduction descended on the room like a blanket of pure cyanide.
"What... did you say... you... raging idiot?" Marluxia questioned slowly, trying to keep his temper down.
"I said if you keep frowning like that, you'll get wrinkles. Didn't you hear me the first time? Well, at least I'd rather be stupid than deaf, then I'd have a better chance of picking up wisdom from others rather than forcing my superior ideas on them," the water elemental replied very placidly.
"Ego check, aisle nine," Larxene muttered under her breath, a half-smile forming on her lips.
Marluxia, on the other hand, seemed genuinely taken aback. "What... Who do you think you are?"
"What, me?" Demyx raised his eyebrows and blinked. "I'm Demyx, number nine of Organization XIII, element of water, and master of the Dancer Nobodies. My title is The Melodious Nocturne. Nice to meet you, are you new around here?"
Marluxia snarled something, a curse perhaps, before returning to glare at the younger man. "You're toying with me, aren't you? You think this is a game? I'd say I rank higher than you, number nine. The Superior even granted me possession of my own castle."
"What, Oblivion?" Demyx laughed. "Ho man, that rundown old place? That castle is quite literally in the middle of nowhere. You should've seen the Superior's face when we first found it, he was mortified that he'd actually sought to acquire it. Oh that's right, you couldn't have seen the look, that was before you joined. Well, have fun with that mismatched pile of junk. I, personally, would rather have my own Nobody type and stay here. At least here has its own climate control. That castle is just perpetually freezing."
Marluxia's frown deepened. "I still believe the Superior gave me that Castle as some sign of favor to him-"
"Really? I'd swear it's because you're a thorn in his side and he wants to get you out of here," the water elemental interrupted, chuckling.
An eye twitch from the pink-haired man. "Whatever the case may be... Larxene, I still need to speak with you."
"Can it wait?" She asked plainly, obviously not willing to move.
"No, I'd need the answer by tomorrow. I wasn't going to ask, but..." dark blue eyes shot towards the man smirking from the chair, then snapped back to the only female in the room. "Something or somebody-"
"Nobody. I'm a Nobody," Demyx interjected, watching with satisfaction as Marluxia's eyebrow jumped again. "Don't stare; you're one too."
"Has driven some sort of a wedge between us," Another glance at the Nocturne. The younger man's face remained neutral, but he was obviously struggling not to say something else out of turn.
"You're the one that's driven the wedge, Marluxia. However, seeing as I don't think anyone from the Organization will be sleeping tonight if I don't hear what you have to say, then I suppose I have no choice but to listen to you," Larxene replied without much hesitation.
The pink haired man remained quiet for a short moment, then closed his eyes and sighed. "Then, if I may ask that we please not discuss this in front of your... toy... as it doesn't directly concern him."
"Oh, don't be mad, Marly. We haven't engaged in any illicit activities yet," Demyx interjected, placing careful emphasis on the final word and accompanying it with a very obvious wink in Larxene's direction. The blond woman's mouth twitched up into an amused smirk.
Marluxia ruffled at that, his lip pulling up into an angry sneer that the Nocturne would have to laugh at when the other man was out of earshot. The look was the perfect definition of the word 'snooty'. He then turned around and began to walk out of the room, Larxene following after him with a defeated sigh.
Demyx watched them both go, his somewhat arrogant smirk fading down to something almost sad. He turned back to the windows after they had both passed through the door, watching the rain outside. Several minutes ticked by, or at least what passed for several minutes, before the water elemental decided that kneeling on his chair like that would not be the best way to pass time before his companion returned.
He watched the storm rage outside for a moment more, then slowly stood up and walked for the door, shedding his shirt, shoes and gloves on the way. He threw open the doors, closing his eyes for a moment to listen to the sweet melody of the drenching rain before finally subjecting himself to it. It was cold, it stung with its ferocity, but at the same time it was calming to him. He walked forward to the railing and leaned against it, enjoying the feel of water surrounding him, and the playful dance of lightning amongst the clouds. As he stood there, he let his thoughts wander around, and wasn't surprised when they came back to the last week of his life. He would never complain about what had happened, but damn if it wasn't strange.
"Oh come on, Nocturne, I finally get dried off and now you're going to make me come out in the rain again?" Larxene's voice tore him from his thoughts and actually succeeded in making him jump slightly.
Demyx turned around and smiled at her, but the look quickly faded into one of shock when he realized she'd taken off his coat. Rolling her eyes, the lightning elemental closed the doors behind her and walked to the railing, taking a place next to her male companion.
Silence reigned for a long moment, neither quite feeling it was the right time to say anything yet, though Demyx was quite curious as to what it was Marluxia wanted to discuss with her. He got his answer in a sudden sentence that once again took him off-guard.
"He wants me to go to Castle Oblivion with him," Larxene said finally, sighing, though the sound was lost to the pounding rain. "He says I'm in too deep to back out now, but that he'd give me the choice in any case."
"Not much of a choice if you're 'in too deep', though I have to ask, what are you in?" Demyx turned to look at her, eyebrow quirked.
"I'm... Marluxia is rather unhappy with the Superior's decisions as of late. He doesn't think that Xemnas is leader material... that he's not going fast enough to get our hearts back," the lightning elemental answered.
"Wha-"
"He wants to take over the Organization."
Demyx took a step back. "But... that's... Larxene, the punishment for mutiny is death!"
"I know," she sighed, leaning farther on the railing.
"And you're in on that? If-if Xemnas finds out, that's it!"
"I know! I know, I know. I get it. But... I don't want to go to Oblivion. That's where Marluxia is planning on staging the final part of his betrayal."
"An- no. We can't tell anyone about that, can we? If Xemnas finds out Marluxia is doing that and gets him for it, he'll tell you were in on it, too."
"Yeah... but I can tell Marluxia I'm not going, and I don't think he'll try to stop me. If he does, someone'll find out what he's plotting, and he'll never get the chance to go to the other castle. I think he'd bank on being able to succeed with his little plot in order to get back at me later."
"If you're not going, his plans will never work."
"What?"
"I don't know if you know it yet, but the Superior is... somewhat afraid of lightning as an element. It's powerful, but too unpredictable for him. And the fact it has the potential to do as much damage to the wielder of it keeps Xemnas from using it himself, even though he uses all the rest of ours any other time."
"I actually never knew that."
"It's kind of weird, but it's the truth. That's why the Superior has his room well above cloud level, so he doesn't have to be around it. Without you, Marluxia doesn't stand half a chance. I wonder if he knows that."
"Probably, he seemed very... friendly when explaining the situation, as if his charisma would somehow influence my decision."
"You're not going?"
"Not a chance. Why should I do that when I've got a perfectly good setup here?" Larxene laughed, and nudged Demyx with her elbow. Once more they found themselves enjoying the lack of speech between them in favor of watching the fury of the storm. The wind was actually not that bad, so the rain itself wasn't too unpleasant.
"Hey, what's going to be the first thing you do when you get your heart back?" Demyx asked suddenly, turning to look at the lightning elemental.
"I never actually thought about it. It's not like it's a car or something where you could go drive around for a while, and run the errands you never did," she laughed. "Maybe track you down and drag you home with me."
The Nocturne's grin returned. "You promise?"
"Well yeah. As long as you have your heart still. If you don't... well... depending on the situation, I'd help you look for it," Larxene replied, smirking back and nodding her head.
"Oh, how sweet and nice. What's the catch?"
She began laughing, hard. "Oh... nothing. I'll figure out my payment for it later."
"Yeah I thought so."
Quiet again fell upon them, the storm seemingly picked up.
"Ah here's a question, your obvious inclination towards music leads me to believe that you were a musician of some sort in the past life. However, I must ask... why'd you keep on being one even after you lost your heart?" Larxene asked, finally.
"Well, that's actually a fairly easy question to answer. See, I've always been taught that real music comes from the heart, then flows out into the instrument. However, I wanted to prove you didn't really need a heart to make music people would love. That and... it's the only real connection I have left to my past life. My goal, before I get my heart back, is to get a song together that I can take with me over and people will absolutely love," He smirked.
"Strange goal," the blond woman said.
"It keeps me from being idle when I'm not doing a mission or anything else," Demyx replied. "This is still taking time out of my life, being a Nobody like this. No point in wasting the time I have to spend as one."
"You're such a dork, Demyx," Larxene rolled her eyes.
"Heh. Oh, if you don't mind my asking..." he looked away for a second, swallowing hard. "How old were you when you lost your heart?"
"You ask that to everyone?"
"Well, yeah actually I do. I was surprised to find Axel was a year younger than me."
"How old were you?"
"Uh, if I remember correctly I was twenty two."
"Well, you've got me beat as well, by somewhere in range of... two to three years, I don't remember exactly. I think I made myself forget."
"You're kidding," Demyx stared at her, eyebrows raised.
"Ah, nope. Similarly, I can tell you Marluxia was almost twenty six."
"Holy... anyone else?"
Larxene laughed. "You like knowing this information? The only other one I can tell you would be Roxas is like fourteen or fifteen, I forget which one, but he announces that to like everyone."
"He keeps saying he's almost fifteen," Demyx rolled his eyes and laughed.
"That's probably why I could never remember. Now I have a question for you," the lightning elemental said, looking at him.
"Shoot."
"Why are we still out in the rain? It's hard to talk without yelling over the sound."
"Because I like the rain, and besides, you didn't have to come out here."
"Well what the hell was I supposed to do? Tell you to go into your own room?"
"You could've and I would have listened."
Larxene rolled her eyes, and they were once again left listening to the dull roar of the rain falling around them.
"Well then, Demyx," the lightning elemental said, turning to look at him, and found her companion looking back at her, a strange half-smile on his face. The words she was going to say next never came, dying in her throat. "What are you smiling at?"
He quirked an eyebrow. "Well, I was going to ask the same question about going inside, but I think I might've come up with a better one."
"What could be better than getting out of this freezing downpour?"
"I was going to take up that offer on asking about kissing you," Demyx began, but never really got a chance to ask the question as he suddenly felt himself shoved into the railing, Larxene grabbing it on either side to pin him in place, while she pressed the line of her body into his, bringing their faces scant inches from touching. She was grinning the entire time, an almost unnervingly dark look.
"You don't need to ask the question when the answer is always yes. I thought you'd gotten that," she said quietly, lips brushing against his with nearly every word. "Apparently, you need to be taught."
Finally, she finished closing the distance and brought their lips into contact, raising herself more on her toes to get better leverage. It started out somewhat innocent, but quickly escalated into something that would easily be called hot, Larxene easily winning dominance over the mild-mannered water elemental, ravaging the inside of his mouth in a manner that left him weak in the knees. Or perhaps that was caused by her grinding her hips against his when she felt the reaction the kiss was eliciting from him.
They finally broke off, and Demyx was left gasping, mouth slightly ajar and chest heaving. "You don't do anything subtle, do you?"
She laughed, trying to calm her own breathing. "There's no fun in that." With that same, dark grin on her face, she backed up, and turned around and walked into his room, calling back over her shoulder. "Let's get out of the rain, yeah?"
"Holy... shit..." he gasped out, trying to pry his white-knuckled grip off of the railing and will his legs to move again. Though he was not one for vilifications, it was the only thing that came to mind. He'd honestly never had a female do that to him before, and dear nothing what he wouldn't give to have it happen again.
Finally, he managed to get his legs to move and shakily made his way back into his room, only to have Larxene throw him on the ground the minute the door was closed, planting herself very firmly above him.
"Ah... you really like taking things rough, don't you?" He asked airily, looking straight into her eyes.
She laughed. "Oh, this isn't rough yet, water-boy." She leaned forward to nip at his earlobe. "Rough is when I'll make you scream in pain and you'll beg for more."
Demyx didn't doubt she'd make good on her words. "And all I wanted was a kiss."
"That's a damn lie."
Silence, a short groan that couldn't have been pain.
"You're right."
-
A/N: This almost didn't get out today. This is technically one of the stopping points in the story before the next arc starts up, so it might take me a day or two to update again.
Read and review. I must say, I truly love you all. Thank you for the kind words before :D
By the way, sorry it's late.