Demyx groaned and rolled over on his stomach, the clanging of something heavy and metallic falling on the hard floor of his room echoing throughout the large space, followed closely behind by some very choice words. Another clang, another stream of curses.
"Larxene," Demyx called groggily over his shoulder as he turned his face away from the pillow it had been buried in. "We need to work on your skills in subtlety..."
"Hey! Screw you," the blond woman called back, her head appearing in the doorframe to the bathroom, glaring angrily.
Demyx finally pushed himself up into a seated position and stretched, yawning. "You did that last night. I've got the cuts to prove it."
Her eyes narrowed even farther, a scowl warring with the glare. "You're a bastard, you know that?"
The water elemental yawned again. "Only when I'm woken up early." He swung his feet over the edge of the bed and stiffly stood up, pulling his boxers up in the process. Yes, Larxene had complained about him wearing anything to bed, but no he wasn't going to sleep naked- he'd be willing to bet the rest of the Organization would appreciate that if they needed to wake him up for an emergency.
With all the grace of a pregnant bovine, Demyx ambled his way into the bathroom, coming to a stop against the door jamb, and leaning on it heavily. "What are you doing, by the way?"
Larxene scoffed. "The towel rack broke. I was trying to fix it."
The water elemental blinked and looked to where she was pointing and staring at flatly. The towel rack had indeed been put back into place, but even the towel surreptitiously placed in the middle couldn't hide the slight bend to it.
Demyx sighed and laughed, slinging his arms heavily around Larxene's shoulders and putting enough weight behind the motion that it caused her to stumble, and curse again. He took note that she had taken his coat again, and wasn't wearing anything under it, at least from what he could see in the reflection of the mirror.
"Well, not only are you a bastard in the mornings, you're affectionate to boot," she noted as his lips grazed the side of her neck.
"I told you..." he murmured, causing her to shiver. "Only when people wake me up early."
"Well then I should do that more of-" Larxene began, but didn't get the chance to finish her thought as Demyx began to drag her backwards and towards the bathtub. "What... what are you doing?!"
"Shower... need to wake up..." was the grumbled reply.
"But I already took one and I have to go soon!"
Demyx looked very flatly in her direction, before unzipping the coat. "The Superior never said what time you have to get in there, just that you had to go today. So relax, you have a few hours of time to get ready."
The lightning elemental grumbled, but let him pull her. "Xemnas is not a patient man."
"Yeah well... if I'm going with you I want to be able to at least protect myself rather than get caught sleeping on my feet," he flicked the water on and adjusted it without once sticking his hand into the stream.
"What? You can't go... he never gave yo-"
"I have nothing to do until tomorrow, and it gets so boring in here if you're not around," another lever twist and the shower head itself began spitting out water.
"I never heard you complain about it before," Larxene teased, throwing an arm around Demyx's shoulders and leaning on him. He laughed and took the hand, bringing it up to his lips and kissing the knuckles.
"Things change when someone else is brought into your life," he replied simply, and she laughed.
"Such a sentimental dork," the blond woman backed up, slipping the coat from her shoulders and promptly sending it flying into the back of his head. Demyx yelped, trying to catch his coat before it ended up in the shower. It worked, partially. He managed to toss the coat out of the path of water just before the mat slipped out from under his foot and sent him tumbling into the bathtub.
Larxene laughed, pulling the doors to the shower back far enough for her to see in before propping her foot up on the lip of the tub and leaning over. "Awake yet?"
--
Things were going terribly. The main bargaining chip had been lost in an act of machismo that had somehow seriously irked the Keybearer, and from what Axel had been telling, Lexaeus had just been lost. Not that he minded that, but it didn't bode well, especially considering from what Axel had said Lexaeus died while Xaldin was fighting the Keyblade holder.
That meant there were two of them in the Castle. That had put Marluxia in a bad mood, which was exactly why he was pacing around the upper floor of the Castle, growling angry curses at nothing at all. Namine stood against one of the pillars in the room, arms wrapped tightly around herself as she stared at the floor.
"Naminé," Marluxia's voice was soft and gentle, as charismatic as it had not been but a few days prior. The young girl cringed and tried to back up into the pillar. Marluxia's face fell slightly into a scowl and he seized her jaw, pulling her face up to meet his, but her eyes averted.
He sighed and his grip became painfully tight. "Naminé, you will look at me when I speak to you." His voice barely contained a threat. She relented, looking up at him finally deciding it would be a better idea to go along with his wishes.
"That's a good girl," he cooed, lightly kissing her on the forehead and delighted in the shiver that racked her body. Naminé wasn't sure that she should be this petrified with her lack of a heart, but it didn't change the fact this man in front of her completely terrified her.
Marluxia laughed darkly and backed up, elegantly spinning on his heel before finding his usual pacing place in the middle of the room.
The seldom-heard sound of one of the Nobodies' portals opening filled the hall, and from it drifted a distinctly female voice.
"You know Marluxia, I was wrong about you," it said, and from the shadowy substance Larxene stepped.
The pink haired man smiled slowly and uttered a very simple response, "I see." He walked over to her and placed his hands on her shoulders, smiling. "And what was it you were wrong about?"
The woman laughed. "I wasn't too young for you, like I always thought."
He smiled at the lightning elemental then, his slow, cocky smile. "Of course not." He stepped forward, wrapping his arms about her shoulders. Suddenly he stopped, tensing, knees faltering and causing him to sag against her. A hand lightly trailed the side of his neck before seizing it roughly and Larxene shoved him backwards hard enough that he stumbled and fell, revealing a bright yellow and blue knife shoved into his chest under his ribs.
The lightning elemental laughed again, her sadist's laugh. "I wasn't too young for you Marluxia, I was too old. You're a psychotic bastard."
Grinning, Larxene wasted no time walking around Marluxia and up to Naminé, where she lightly hooked her finger under the younger girl's chin, forcing the blond head back and the pale, frightened face to look at her.
The older female grunted disapprovingly. "Dump me for lusting after this?" She scowled at Marluxia before a smirk slowly replaced the look, and she shoved Naminé into one of the pillars. The Assassin had since stood up, the knife missing from his chest.
Demyx appeared then, frowning at both of the former lovers, and slowly approaching the small form trembling on the cold, white ground. She shrank away from him as he approached, curling into a ball even as she held her shoulder.
The water elemental blinked in surprise, before slowly kneeling down in front of her, making himself as small as possible. "Are you alright Naminé?"
She whimpered in response, huddling even closer to herself.
"I'm not going to hurt you," he said quietly, holding his hand out and ignoring the now rather heated argument that had started between Larxene and Marluxia.
Naminé shook her head and buried her face in her drawn up knees, wrapping her uninjured arm around them as she trembled and whimpered. It was then he noticed the probable cause for her fear. Thick pink lines cris-crossed her wrists, accentuated here and there by a healing scab. Demyx felt his jaw drop slightly. Her upper arms still bore bruises vaguely in the shape of fingers, and he didn't even want to think about why there were bruises on her shoulders and neck. His stomach did a slow flip at seeing a particularly nasty set of scratches that started on the back of her shoulders and disappeared under the white dress she was wearing.
He backed up suddenly, face contorted into a look of pure disgust, one that slowly infected with anger and caused him to stalk over to Larxene. He gently placed a hand on her back, leaning in close to her ear.
"He got her, Larxene..." he whispered just loud enough for her to hear. She stiffened only slightly, scoffing and glaring at Marluxia. Just as she was about to berate the Assassin for being a pedophile, Demyx spoke again, knowing his next words would strike a chord with her as a female. "He tied her down to do it."
The Nymph went perfectly rigid, lips pulling back into a feral grimace, accompanied by a vicious snarl. The air around her crackled and sparked, punctuating her next statement to the Assassin, one that was spoken in only the deadliest venom. "You sick fuck."
Demyx took a step back, a feeling of grim satisfaction spreading through him, and causing one side of his mouth to twitch up ever so slightly. Marluxia was about to get his.
"You couldn't have just smooth-talked your way, could you?" Larxene continued through her clenched jaw. "Is she somehow immune to those smooth words of yours that somehow managed to make Xaldin come with you?"
"That would be my fault," a voice wheezed from somewhere to the lightning elemental's right. She turned in time to see Axel appear, clenching his stomach tightly. "I kept telling her not to fall for it... by the time someone started to get desperate, I realized that what I kept telling her would just hurt her more when the inevitable happened..."
Marluxia snorted in a surprisingly dignified way before turning a disapproving look on Axel. "It was your fault as I'd suspected. No matter, from the looks of your state now, elimination shall be a simple process as soon as I deal with our beloved Savage Nymph and Melodious Nocturne."
"Guess again, Marluxia. Sora is heading up here as we speak, he should be bursting through that door for a final confrontation any moment now," Axel laughed, voice tight with pain.
The Assassin blinked, before his face twisted into an ugly scowl. "Well then, I'll have to eliminate the lot of you quickly."
"You really think you can pull that off, Marluxia?" Larxene snapped, hands unclenching just enough to allow knives to appear between her fingers.
"Easily," was the arrogant reply. He reached behind him and seemed to pull his scythe from nothing.
Demyx and Larxene exchanged a look, and she lowered herself into a sprinting position while the water elemental summoned his sitar, snatching it out of a short column of water.
The blade of the pink scythe began glowing, before Marluxia suddenly turned and sliced through the air, sending a wave of energy not after the two Nobodies closest to him, but rather right at Axel. It distracted Demyx, but not Larxene, who took the long follow-through of the attack and used it against him, throwing her knives right into his side, four of them sticking out like yellow and blue porcupine quills.
Marluxia snarled in pain and turned back, ignoring Axel for the time being (whom had just barely managed to get out of the way of the attack), to focus on trying to harm his ex girlfriend. While the two of them began settling their differences, Demyx jogged over to where Axel was leaning heavily against the wall.
"What happened?" the water elemental asked, leaning down in order to get a better look at Axel's face.
"Sora..." the red haired man gasped out. "Marluxia... tricked me into going out there after Xaldin died... made me fight the kid again. He's strong, Demyx. Really strong... he just keeps getting better." He leaned against the wall, rolling his head back as he looked over the other man's shoulder, when suddenly the Nocturne noticed a strange look crossed his face.
It was almost a second too late, both Larxene and Axel crying his name to get his attention. He twisted around, fortunately in the direction that just barely managed to get his sitar across him and prevent him from being cleaved in half by a particularly vicious scythe arc. Even as the blade buried itself into the neck of the sitar, Demyx's feet from his strange maneuver caught Marluxia's and sent them both into the ground.
There was a short moment of stunned silence out of all those involved, before Marluxia began growling and promising violent, painful death on the water elemental. In response, Demyx smirked through the strain of trying to keep the scythe from slicing into his chest.
"Hey Marluxia," he grunted out. "Now you can say you know the view Larxene gets every night..."
Realization slowly dawned on Marluxia, and in the very brief pause it took for the Assassin to process the Nocturne's words, Demyx had drawn his feet up, and delivered a violent kick right into Marluxia's stomach, shoving backwards at the same time while also summoning up a spray of water. The larger man went flying backwards, Larxene jumped on him before he hit the ground, planting her hands onto his chest and using the water as a medium, sent a brutal charge of electricity right into him. She launched off his stomach, driving him into the ground, and disappeared, reappearing a second later between Naminé and the two Nobodies near the wall.
Demyx slowly stood up, grinning darkly. He flicked his wrist and the sitar that had been laying on the ground dissolved into water. Another flick of his wrist and it was in his hands, completely repaired.
The doors took the opportunity to burst open then, and through it strode one short little kid, what may or may not have been a dog, and a duck. Larxene and Demyx quickly grabbed their hoods and threw them on before the kid even managed to get his bearings.
Sora's face fell upon seeing four of the Organization- or at least what looked like the Organization in one room. He wasn't looking forward to this fight if it was indeed the final battle. Keyblade drawn wearily, he stepped into the room.
Larxene exchanged a look with the water elemental, and they both nodded. Demyx grabbed Axel, helping him limp towards a summoned portal, while Larxene turned and headed for the still-cowering Naminé.
"Leave her," Axel said, his voice hoarse. It was more of a plea than a demand, but it stopped Larxene all the same. "Please."
A tense silence followed while the lightning elemental seemed to mull it over for a moment. Sora said nothing for once, simply watching them carefully for any signs of attack or ambush. Marluxia groaned and began standing up, causing Demyx to sudden pull Axel along faster, urging him to go faster, resuming fighting would just lead to someone dying.
Larxene took one more look at Marluxia, knowing he couldn't see her under her hood, and glad for it as she felt something akin to pity looking at him. "It's a pity I won't see you on the other side, Marluxia."
"Oh you will," he groaned, slowly rising.
She laughed, turning around. "Keep telling yourself that. Maybe it'll actually happen." Then she too, disappeared through the portal, the black mass closing behind her.
Marluxia turned to face the Keybearer, who was now looking a lot more confident and bearing down on him, weapon drawn. He sighed, and laughed. "So this is how I end... not with a bang..."
---
A/N: HI GAIZ LOL. No seriously, school is kicking me around like the red headed stepchild and giving me Not As Much Time To Write As I'd Like. Which means my production has slowed a tiny bit. Beyond that, though, I hope you enjoy this chapter. Read and review and all that jazz still.
There's a couple things I'd like to say on a parting note: I had no idea Ryan O'Donohue is actually 22. How funny I aged Demyx the same.
Our little Kovu's all grown up and still sounds like he has a sinus infection! -awww-
Also, if there's a Mr/Miss/Ms Kill All Flamers in the audience, may I direct you to my author page and to a story called "Perfection" I wrote the other day. I was on your author page the other day and noticed you had a challenge up for a Demyx/Aerith. "Perfection" isn't a complete story, but I thought I'd point it out to you.
ANYWAYS! Keep reviewing, it keeps me smiling. I'll see you all around in a few days.