Axel sat at the end on Demyx's bed, chewing on some red liquorice he'd found on Vexen's shelf of the fridge. Xemnas wouldn't know. Most of Vexen's snack foods went past their best before date without him touching them. He spent far too much time in his lab with his experiments for anything else, but then why should all that good food go to waste.

A dark portal appeared in the corner of the room and Axel grimaced, knowing it would be Demyx, and swallowed the rest of the red liquorice whole. Demyx stepped out of the portal and instantly Axel knew something was wrong. He was visibly covered in bruises and his eyes, normally with that annoying sparkle, were strangely dull. He stood on the spot and swayed slightly. Axel stood up.

"Hey, Demyx, what's wrong?"

He didn't get a reply as Demyx crumpled to the ground. Axel leapt forward on impulse and caught the melodious nocturne inches before he hit the ground. He turned Demyx's head round slightly. His eyes were still open, he was conscious, but barely. Axel lifted him into a sitting position on the bed, leaning him against the backboard.

"Whoa, Demyx, you look awful, what happened?"

Demyx looked up and shook his head slowly.

"I didn't tell them."

Axel looked confused.

"Tell who what?"

Demyx shook his head again. Axel rolled his eyes and began to unzip Demyx's cloak. Demyx edged away in protest but Axel held him still.

"Stay still, I'm going to look at these bruises."

Axel lifted Demyx's arm though one sleeve then reached out for the other. Demyx whimpered and pulled away. Axel snarled quietly and held Demyx's arm still as he pulled it out of the sleeve. Demyx bit his bottom lip as the sound of leather peeling from wet flesh reached his ears. Axel lifted the wounded arm and began to look up it at the bruises. When he reached the dark burn wound he dropped Demyx's arm with a gasp.

"Dem, is that… did I… do that?"

Demyx nodded slowly, trying not make any eye contact with Axel. Axel slumped down, his head balanced on one hand.

"That fireball, oh god Dem I didn't think I'd hit you! Is this what they wanted to know?"

Demyx nodded and clutched at his arm.

"Marluxia… and Larxene…"

With that Demyx's head slumped to one side as he passed out. Axel lifted his head with fury blazing in his eyes. Sure he wasn't really friends with Demyx, but what Marluxia and Larxene did was unforgivably heartless. He gently (gentle for the first time in a long time) laid Demyx out on the bed and covered him with a blanket. He had a few guesses as to why Demyx would hide such a wound. The most probable was to protect him. Demyx always did have the strangest way of wanting to help everyone at the same time. With a growl Axel stood up and slammed the door as he left the room. Larxene and Marluxia will pay.

He found them in the living room, Larxene figuring out how to rig the cards in Luxord's games, Marluxia reading a book on weeding. Axel slammed the door behind him and all faces in the room turned round to look at him.

"Everyone, out! I need to talk to Marluxia and Larxene."

Zexion simply closed his book and walked out, suddenly deciding the room was too crowded for his liking. Lexeus frowned, but knowing what Axel was like in these moods, left in no less of a hurry. Once the room was empty save the two torturers, Axel picked up Marluxia by the cloak and lifted him straight into the air. Larxene took a step back, much liking to stay on the ground.

"You two. You did something to Demyx. What did you do!?"

Larxene sighed and with a short movement, pulled Marluxia back to the ground, where he frowned and rubbed his sore neck.

"Calm down Axel, we just wanted some information out of him."

Axel let go of Marluxia's cloak and glared daggers at Larxene.

"So you shock him senseless? What were you thinking, you know what electricity does to him!"

Marluxia stepped backwards quickly. Unlike Larxene, he did fear Axel, especially his fire when he got mad. Plants and fire don't mix well, whereas Larxene had more of a fighting chance.

"He wouldn't talk. We had to try something."

Axel tried to keep himself calm as he felt the fire building up inside him.

"What did you want to know!"

Marluxia straightened out his cloak and stood next to Larxene, hoping together they might stop Axel burning the whole castle down.

"We want to know what you did to him. Yes we know, something's going on. First he gets up late, very unlike him, secondly he misses breakfast, then he's late for a meeting and when we try to find out what's happening, he refuses to speak."

Axel clenched his fists and let a small burst of fire ripple down his arms.

"I've done nothing!"

With that he stormed out of the room, leaving Marluxia and Larxene looking at each other knowingly.

He reached Demyx's room and sat on the end of the bed, watching the exhausted sitarist sleep. No doubt Demyx would have already talked to Vexen about it, but Vexen wasn't the only one who knew how harmful his fire could be. If Demyx did too much work, the burn would just get worse, Xemnas would find out, Axel would be dead meat. He'd have to do some things for Demyx if just to make things easier. But if he did that, it would look suspicious and he couldn't have anyone else finding out what was going on.

Demyx began to stir and opened his eyes gradually. He sat up quickly and tensed when pain shot up his arm. Axel put one hand on his shoulder and pushed him back to the bed.

"You're resting, don't sit up."

Demyx glanced over at his arm and saw it had been, very poorly, bandaged up with a short dressing and then a loose layer of toilet roll. Axel never had been good at first aid.

"Axel I… what happened?"

Axel scratched the back of his head, unsure of how to put it.

"You walked in here, dead on your feet and passed out on the bed. Don't worry, I told off Marly and Larxene for you."

Demyx tried to sit up again but Axel held him down fast.

"You… helped me?"

Demyx swore he saw a smile flicker across Axel's face, a rarity anywhere.

"Well, don't get used to it. Now you rest or you'll never heal. I'll take care of the rest of your chores today, but don't expect it to happen often."

Demyx smiled weakly and sank back into his pillow as he fell asleep again. Axel sighed and left the room to try and get Dem's chores done before the members got back from their missions.