Luxord grinned quietly to himself as he wiped the kitchen table clean. It was the best place to play cards, and with it being the only table big enough it seemed suitable. He loved his 'games nights' that he set up once a week (whenever he needed some extra cash) and the fact that, even if they were going to lose their munny, the others still showed up. Most likely nothing better to do. Only a few didn't attend the games nights most of the time.

One who didn't come was Marluxia, who needed his munny very much so, especially since he wasted most of it on plant food as well as his own snacks. Another was Roxas, who made the least munny as it was and plus Xemnas said he was too young to gamble. Xemnas himself had too much work. Vexen showed up on occasions when he remembered what day it was, and Zexion only showed up when he felt like it, he did seem to have the best game face though. Demyx wasn't really allowed, firstly as it was a little unfair at how he always lost, and anything that involved Demyx and alcohol was forbidden by Xemnas. Demyx had only gotten drunk once, he was never good with his alcohol, and the castle had ended up flooded. His element was hardest to control when drunk.

He laid out glasses and some vodka, having arranged before hand that as well as losing munny, the worst hand would have to down some vodka, the punishment being a hangover the next morning.

The door opened and Axel walked in with Demyx. Axel pointed to the fridge and spoke quietly to Demyx.

"Go get yourself something from my shelf, I've got to talk to Luxord a sec."

Demyx sniffed and nodded, not looking up from the ground, and wandered slowly towards the fridge. Axel took Luxord by the shoulder and dragged him to one side.

"Look, I know this is asking a lot, but could you let Demyx in the game tonight?"

Luxord frowned and glanced over at Demyx who was poking half-heartedly through Axel's shelf.

"You know I can't do that. We're having a drinking game tonight and plus the poor guy always loses anyway, he'd just go back to his room broke."

Axel thought about this carefully, scratching the back of his head in annoyance.

"How about this, he drinks juice instead of alcohol and you 'let' him win a few and go to bed with the same amount of munny he started with. Think of it as a small 'payment' for the fact that he makes your breakfast almost every morning."

Luxord looked up and scratched his chin in consideration.

"I suppose I could let him have his munny, but the others won't like it much if he's the only one that doesn't have to wake up with a hangover."

Axel grinned, having already thought of this as a problem.

"But you could explain that he'd be the only one getting up every ten minutes to go to the toilet. A 'false hangover' from lack of sleep, if you would."

Luxord sighed and gave a nod. He turned round to carry on setting up the table. Demyx walked over to Axel, having spent a long time rooting through his shelf. Axel knew what he had in there and rolled his eyes when he saw Dem had picked out the blue lollipop buried under all the boxes of chocolates and packets of biscuits.

"Of all the things, you pick that? Never mind, I got you in the game, and don't worry, you'll be having juice instead of vodka. That should take your mind off things, right?"

Demyx forced a smile through his treat. Axel's eyes began to wander as Dem's tongue wrapped gracefully around the top of the lollipop. Suddenly he wanted the lollipop that he'd neglected to the bottom of the pile, but maybe it was only because it looked so appealing now. Luxord tapped the fire manipulator on the back, jerking him out of his trancelike state, that thankfully neither of the others had noticed.

"I'm finished setting the table, could you go fetch the others, I think most of them are in the living room."

Axel nodded, not completely eager to leave, and summoned a portal before turning to Dem once more.

"You stay here Dem, I'll be back in a minute."

Axel vanished into the darkness and Luxord turned to Demyx, hoping to question him as to how Axel was suddenly being so nice and why he'd called him 'Dem', but the water weaver had already sat down and was fiddling with the lolly stick.

*

Luxord finished dealing out the cards, around halfway into the game now. Apparently letting Demyx keep his munny was easier than he thought. Every round Demyx put in the minimum amount of munny possible and seemed relatively happy he hadn't lost or had to drink anything yet. Axel on the other hand was not so pleased. He was losing, by a lot. He rolled his eyes, guessing this was Luxord's way of keeping things 'balanced'. If Demyx wasn't losing when he was supposed to, Axel would have to lose instead. He didn't mind losing too much, munny seemed to be easy to find (or steal) for him, but he was starting to feel intoxicated already.

The game began to draw to a close, Demyx having won only 10 munny (that munny which Axel had to lose) but was quite happy with that and was smiling, at least a little. Axel had trouble seeing which cards he had, which only made more losses. By the end of the game, he deemed himself lucky he could see where he was going. Tomorrow, when his words weren't slurred, he'd have a talk with Luxord about spreading out loses a little more evenly.

Demyx helped Luxord clear away the table, careful to only use one arm and just as careful not to make it obvious. Axel was beyond noticing this and just slumped in his chair, watching his roomie help out. Axel glanced at the ceiling. How long had it been since he'd gotten this close to someone? A long time. He wasn't really the clingy sort, but things had just been too lonely recently. He looked back over at Demyx. Maybe it was just the drink, but he was starting to look quite cute. Axel blinked hard and shook his head, dizziness hitting him suddenly. He couldn't start thinking like that… could he?

Luxord waved Demyx away after he'd dropped the deck of cards for the third time and demanded he lead Axel back to their room. Demyx nodded, smiling briefly, and helped Axel to his feet with his good arm. Axel slung his arm round Demyx's shoulder and they began to zigzag slowly towards their room. Axel stumbled one way, and in the attempt to hold him up with his bad arm, Demyx would stumble the other. Eventually, after some walking into walls, they made it back to the room and made their way to the bed. Demyx sat down and at the same time lowered Axel to sit too.

Axel turned to Demyx with a rare smile, small, but a smile.

"That was fun wasn't it? You did… hic… pretty well."

Demyx nearly laughed at his companion's absurd behaviour.

"You're drunk, Axel. You should get some sleep."

Demyx began to stand up, okay with sleeping on the floor again to ease Axel's 'soon to be' hangover. He stifled a yelp when Axel grabbed his sleeve and pulled him back down. Demyx fell on the bed, rolling on his bad arm and winced. Axel didn't seem to notice as he bent forwards over Demyx, almost nose to nose.

"I'm drunk? Maybe, but you're cute."

Demyx's eyes grew wide and he tried to sit up, to no avail. Axel straddled him and leaned in towards him. Demyx opened his mouth to protest but quickly found it being taken into a drunken kiss. Axel was a little messy when he was drunk, but Demyx found he couldn't help but enjoy it. He stayed still, obediently at some silent command, as Axel began to unzip his cloak without breaking the kiss. Demyx pulled his arms out of the sleeves, one more carefully than the other, and wrapped them slowly round Axel's neck. He moaned into Axel's mouth when he felt one of his warm hands slid up his vest. Axel slowly broke the kiss and leaned closer. Demyx tried to catch eye contact, expectantly, but Axel's eyes were out of focus, closing slowly. Axel merely got closer until he lay across the water weaver, lay his head on his chest and began to snore loudly.

Demyx blinked, trying to figure out what had just happened, when he realised Axel had fallen asleep on top of him, he couldn't move and Axel would most likely wake up in the morning, not remembering a thing. One thought seemed to blank out all the rest though, and that was… Axel still had his hand up Dem's vest. Dem's cheeks flushed a deep pink as he tried to calm himself down enough to get some sleep, though he doubted it would work. If Axel didn't remember any of this in the morning, he was dead meat.