Demyx woke late that night to see Axel walk in the room, covered in what seemed to be washing machine soap suds, oven grease and a lot of dust. He wandered over to the bed and lay across Demyx's feet on his back, legs dangling off the side of the bed, looking at the ceiling. He was obviously above sleeping on the floor unlike Demyx, but not so cold hearted as to kick the injured roomie onto the floor this late at night.

"Finished your damn stupid chores, never again!"

Demyx let out a quiet laugh, surprised he'd managed to complete any of them.

"Didn't destroy anything?"

He was lucky Axel was too tired to cuff him round the head for that. Axel simply sighed and closed his eyes.

"I didn't realise you did so much... Thanks Dem."

Demyx looked over at Axel, who'd fallen asleep as abruptly as only Axel can. He smiled briefly as sleep overtook him. Short thoughts flickered through his mind like since when did Axel ever say 'Thanks' and since when had he called him 'Dem'? It felt kind of… nice.

*

Axel woke in the morning to find Demyx gone. The quilt was draped neatly as possible over him, even though he still lay only half on the bed. Demyx must have gone to get some breakfast and tried to make Axel comfortable while he was gone. Axel walked to the kitchen, too tired to waste energy on a dark portal, and arrived to find Demyx trying to make pancakes one-handed. If he hadn't spent so much time in the kitchen before Axel was certain Demyx would have dropped them by now. He groaned and stepped past sprawled out chairs, the tell tale sign that the rest of the organisation had already eaten. Axel took the handle of the frying pan off of Demyx and pointed to a seat.

"Sit down before you hurt yourself."

"But…"

"Sit!"

Demyx sat down, wondering if he'd misheard Axel when he'd said the chores was a one off. Axel handed him a small plate of pancakes and made some for himself. When he turned round he saw Demyx practically drowning the his pile in maple syrup. Axel sighed and sat down next to him.

"You know it's no wonder everyone gets you to do their chores. With that amount of sugar in you, you'd be the only one with enough energy."

Demyx half smiled through a mouthful of soggy pancake.

"And you'll rot your teeth."

The smile faded and quietly, Demyx unscrewed the lid of the maple syrup and politely scraped some back in. Axel rolled his eyes and finished his breakfast. A dark portal sprung into existence in the corner of the room and Saix stepped out.

"Ah, Demyx, there you are. The superior wants to see you. Seems you have a mission today."

Demyx stopped eating suddenly and Axel covered his mouth to stop himself choking on the dry pancake. Maybe Demyx had the right idea with that syrup. But a mission. Not in his state he couldn't, he'd be lucky to make it back alive. Without a single word of protest, Demyx created his own portal and with his head bowed like one waiting for execution, vanished. Axel glared daggers at Saix… as soon as he wasn't looking.

*

Xemnas spun round on his chair when Demyx entered the room.

"You wanted to see me superior?"

Xemnas had to hold a sigh. Demyx was the only one that still said this as a question and not a bland statement.

"Yes, you have a new mission. It's in a place called 'Underworld', ruled by a Haideas… Hairdos or something."

Xemnas frowned at Saix's handwriting and rotated the sheet of paper to face Demyx who lent over to read it.

"Says Hades."

Xemnas turned the sheet of paper back and scrawled something over Saix's writing, spelling it right.

"Anyway, I hear you're good with animals."

Demyx thought about this carefully.

"I had a pet goldfish… once…"

Xemnas slipped the page into his side drawer and nodded.

"Close enough. That Sora who's been destroying all the heartless for us seems to be headed towards that area. There's one problem with the Underworld and that's it's guard dog…"

He got the slip of paper out again and peered closely at it.

"…Curdrust"

Demyx leaned over again.

"Cerberus."

Xemnas sighed and scribbled over the word and rewrote it.

"Yes, quite. Anyhow, this dog might slow down the keybearer and stop him killing as many heartless. I want you to go to the Underworld and get this mutt out of the way. Put it to sleep with your music or something, I don't care how."

Demyx nodded and with a slight spring in his step, thinking how easy a mission he'd been given, to tame one little dog, and left to fetch his Sitar from it's hideaway.

*

Later that afternoon, Axel left the living room (though he still wondered as to why they called it that, since nobody in there was technically living) and made his way to Demyx's (and his) room, to see if he'd made it back from his mission yet. Worry pulsed in his skull like some annoying headache, not that he should worry, or even care. But the water weaver had somehow begun to grow on him.

Suddenly, from halfway down the corridor, he heard a screeching coming from the room. It sounded almost like Dem's sitar, but more like it was being tortured than how Demyx played it. He ran to the room and swung open the door, ready to burn anyone who'd touch Dem's Sitar in his absence, but stopped in his tracks at the sight laid before him.

Demyx sat on the bed bent over his sitar. His fingers were red from playing but every not they struck came out sour, clashing. His arm shook at the effort of trying to produce the right chords. He looked up slowly when Axel entered the room and Axel could see his face was streaked with tears of frustration. Silently Axel closed the door, walked across the room and sat on the end of the bed, holding out his arms for the distressed nocturne. Demyx laid down the anguished instrument, leaned gently into Axel's arms and sobbed quietly into his shoulder. Axel let him finish shaking before he held him gently by the shoulders and pulled him round to look him in the eye.

"What happened? It's alright, you can tell me."

He was letting his upset room mate confine in him, what was this world coming to? Demyx looked away briefly before deciding that if anyone knew, it might as well be Axel.

"Well, I went to the Underworld… like superior asked me to… and looked for this dog. I found him, Axel. Cerberus. About four times your height, vicious and hungry. The worst part was the heads. There were three of them!"

Demyx paused to shudder and catch some more breath he'd lost from crying.

"I tried to play music to it, I really did. But every time I picked up my sitar, something went wrong in this arm."

He pointed to his injury.

"I couldn't play the notes steady and they all went discordant and sounded terrible. I think I made it mad, because it jumped at me and snapped. I feel so ashamed…"

Axel gave his shoulders a small squeeze, to let him know he was still listening.

"What happened, what did you do Dem?"

There, there it was again. Dem. Axel seemed to be in a nice mood, he could trust him, right.

"I…I…I ran away."

He buried his head in Axel's shoulder again and trembled as he tried to hold back more tears. Axel wrapped his arms around him in a comforting embrace, though he still could not fathom why he was being so nice, perhaps because Demyx had given up his room, kept quiet about his injury and still tried to help out.

"It's okay, I won't tell anyone. I think I'd get a little scared too if a great big mongrel ran at me in a world of the dead."

Demyx shook his head vigorously.

"It's not just that. I tried to defend myself. Without the use of my sitar, I can't summon water properly."

Axel clenched his teeth to stop a gasp, which would only agitate Demyx more. He couldn't imagine how he'd feel if he couldn't summon fire. To lose the contact, even briefly, of one's element was like losing your left hand or your ears. You could live without it, but you felt incomplete. Dem would get his water back, but not till his arm healed. Blame hit Axel hard like someone had just slapped him.

"God Dem I'm so sor…"

Axel shut his mouth. Apologizing wouldn't help. The best he could do for now was try to take his mind off it.

"I know, Luxord is having a 'games night', why don't you join us, that'll cheer you up right?"

Demyx gave a weak forced smile. Everything would get better, go back to normal eventually… right?