Title: Headlines (5 of ?)
Author: Lost Experiment
Rating: PG-13
Word Count: 2400+
Pairings/Warnings/Spoilers: Axel/Demyx, AU, Other various minor pairings, language.
Summary: When Demyx, a poor reporter and worse writer barely clinging to his job is forced to cover the story of the death of one of his only friends, he decides to start fresh in a new world. His new boss is practically a criminal, his new colleagues are strange and he's stuck covering the very thing he wanted to escape in the first place.

Chapter 5

"Demyx! Are you there? Do you have Roxas?"

A figure was racing up the beach through the haze and the rain towards them. Demyx pulled Roxas protectively close, but relaxed when he made out it was Braig. He began to sob or heave, breathing hard and not quite sure if he was crying or hyperventilating or both.

"Shit dude, it's okay. Breathe." Braig's hands gripped his shoulders.

"It's not mine…it's not MINE!" Roxas started screaming just then, writhing hoplessly in Demyx's grasp but making no real move to free himself.

"What's no…oh. Fuck." Braig blinked over at the severed hand, lying on its bed of seaweed. "Christ Demyx, get Roxas out of here. Car's back that way."

Then Axel and the police had arrived. Demyx vaguely remembered the haze of doctors checking over him and Roxas at the health unit in the police station and trying to mumble answers to the cops who had interrogated him.

Presently, Axel, Sora and Roxas were asleep. Sora was stretched across several of the uncomfortable plastic chairs with his head in Axel's lap. Axel had his arms around Roxas, holding him protectively close. For whatever reason, the blonde was tolerating this. Possibly simply because he was too tired to have protested even while he was awake.

Braig was presently being interrogated in the next room. His loud voice issued through the door every so often..

"I dunno…I mean, everyone and their mother knows Axel's a total ass-pirate and all, but he's not the kind to have fruity pink luggage. Plus the kid says it ain't his…and that thing looked like it'd been down there awhile." A pause, during which the muffled voice of the cop replied. "Fuck if I know. I just found the dude shaking and holding the kid."

Demyx must have fallen asleep for awhile after that, as the next thing he knew, he was being shaken awake by Cloud. "C'mon, Demyx. The cops say you can come home with me tonight. They'll question you in the morning."

Demyx yawned and stretched, his back protesting the hard waiting room chairs. He was too tired to argue with his brother, even if he had wanted to. He supposed that judging by the now-empty station, Axel, Roxas and Sora had already gone home themselves..

"Thanks Braig." Cloud added, inclining his head slightly.

Demyx turned around too. Presumably, Braig had been sitting with him all this time, but that wasn't what caught his attention. The older man had his eye-patch flipped up, and was scratching violently at a disgusting mess of burned and scarred skin. Demyx had no medical experience, but it didn't take a genius to realize that he'd been badly burned there. Come to think of it, the ugly scar on the man's opposite cheek looked like a burn wound too.

"Now you know why I don't show the kids.' Braig said, when he caught Demyx staring. He shrugged and flipped the patch down and stood, a little too quickly. "See ya tomorrow, 'kay Demyx. Sorry your party got cut short."

"Mmm, sorry 'bout your date." Demyx slurred in his haze of tiredness, and nobody really managed to say 'goodbye' after that. Demyx fell asleep as soon as his head hit the pillow and he didn't bother to even so much as pull on a pair of boxers to sleep in.

Cloud didn't say a word when he found his younger brother sleeping nude the next morning, he merely turned up the shade so that bright sunlight poured into the room.

"Get up." He announced. He sounded exactly like a SOLDIER ranking officer, but Demyx who knew him well could sense a hint of what Cloud referred to as 'emotion' in the military bark. "We're going for breakfast at the Sandbar before we head to the police station."

Demyx flushed slightly and waited until Cloud had marched himself out of the room before rolling onto his back and laying there a moment more while he allowed all the memories of the night before to come flooding back in.

"Ten minutes" Cloud hollered from downstairs.

"Coming." Demyx heaved himself out of bed with an effort and threw on the first pair of shirt and trousers within reach, running a hand through his hair which flopped into his eyes. He didn't care what he looked like.

His brother gave him a funny look and the two got into Cloud's army jeep to head to the place in question. It turned out to be the same bar that he and Braig frequented every morning. Demyx had never bothered to learn the name. What was more – his friend was there to greet them.

"Rough night, huh?" Braig said with a smirk, taking a swig of his beer. Sometimes Demyx wondered if the man had a superhuman liver. He was almost constantly drinking whenever Demyx saw him, but he never seemed to be falling over himself like some of the men at the Christmas parties Xemnas had held.

"You could say that." Demyx leaned on his hand with a sigh and accepted the menu and cup of coffee that the waitress brought him. He noticed vaguely that she didn't offer coffee to either of the other two men – already the small community of Destiny Islands was beginning to penetrate his existence.

"Eh, just tell 'em what you know." Braig shrugged, slamming his empty glass on the table and signaling the waitress for another, something else that, since the very first time he'd met the man, he'd never seen him do – at least not in the mornings. "It ain't like you've got shit to hide."

Demyx poked listlessly at the plate of slightly watery eggs, bacon, fish and potatoes he was served, thinking about Axel, Marluxia and Axel's hands wandering all over him in Aerith's kitchen. He wondered how much he had to hide. Unfortunately, he'd never been all that good at hiding in the first place: Man is Open Book

The chief of police, an unattractive elderly man named Yen Sid, was there to greet Demyx when Cloud dropped him off at the station.

"Right this way." He pointed towards the same room that Braig had occupied the night before. A younger officer was already seated at the table, carrying a form and a pad of paper. He got up to introduce himself to Demyx and waved him towards a plastic chair across from him "I'm Inspector Leon. Please have a seat."

Taking the proffered seat, Demyx rested his arms stiffly on the table to calm the fact that he was shaking.

"There's nothing to be concerned about, Mr. Strife." Leon glanced at him. "The forensics tests we've already done on your discovery are more than enough to determine that you were not involved in any form of murder. All we need is for you to give an account of what happened last night. Please be as detailed as you can."

Demyx frowned, face scrunching into thought. "I was helping Axel search for Roxas. They wanted me to search in my boat, as I'd had the least to drink. I'm not even sure where I ended up – some sort of cove."

"You were all the way around to the north side.' Leon interjected. "You were on the private property of a gentleman named Marluxia, however given the circumstances he's not planning to press trespassing charges."

"Oh." Demyx said, his eyes flickering open in surprise. Leon gave him an odd look, and he hastened to explain. "We've met in passing."

This seemed to mollify the inspector. "Let's return to the subject of the night in question. When you found Roxas, what did you do?"

"I found him floating on his back near his overturned boat. There was a suitcase floating near him, and I picked it up because I thought it might have his clothes and things in it. He was unconscious so when I was up on the beach, I performed CPR and put him in the driest blanket I had with me."

"What about the suitcase? How did you get it open?"

"There wasn't a key, I thought it had fallen out of Roxas' pockets or something. I used a rock."

"Why did you decide to open it?"

"I thought maybe some of the clothes that were in it would be dry."

"Yet you knew it wasn't Roxas?"

"He was unconscious and then cold. He didn't tell me anything. He just started screaming when I opened it and that hand fell out!" Demyx blurted, agitated. Hadn't the cop just said they weren't planning on pressing charges?

"That's enough excitement, Leon." Yen Sid interjected. "Mr. Strife, you are free to leave. You will have to forgive us – we have no leads and Leon has become understandably frustrated. However, please take my card. If you find you can remember anything else about the night in question, please let us know."

Demyx nodded numbly and stood, shaking the Chief and the Inspector's hands, then stumbling back into the waiting room. Cloud stood as he entered.

"Ready to go home kiddo?"

"No, I think I'm going to go down and practice in my boat for awhile."

Cloud raised an eyebrow but said nothing. Demyx thought he knew what it was about; Demyx was infamous for running away from traumatizing situations and always had been. Last night's adventure would normally have been more than enough to put him off ever setting foot on a water faring vessel ever again. His older brother seemed rather impressed. "I'll leave out some hotdogs or chicken or something for you. General Sephiroth's got us doing drills until twenty-three hundred…or until we get it right." He shook his head ruefully. "I don't think the man has a definition for 'doing it right', so if you never see me again, you'll know why."

The car pulled out next to the pier and Demyx stepped out onto dock nine to undo the mooring on his already weather-worn boat. He cast off, if not expertly, then competently into the water and struck out for the north side of the island. Man does something righton the first try. Armegeddon Announced.

He dragged the boat up on the shore, a short way away from where there was still police tape and markers littering the area where he and Roxas had sat during the storm. Now that there was no rain to obscure the vision, Demyx could make out a rather large and impressive greenhouse building through the trees. He moved towards it, only to be intercepted at the door.

"Can I help you?" This was definitely the same Marluxia Demyx had een introduced to at Axel's house that first night. This fact was confirmed when the man pulled his eyebrows together in curiosity. "Haven't we met?"

"Yes, I was over at Axel's…"

"Ah. Axel's…babysitter." Marluxia cut him off and pushed open the door to his greenhouse, Demyx doggedly following him. "How's he doing?"

Demyx started. "Oh. You read about that."

"Most people read the paper. Particularly Heartless"

"Right."

In the dim light of the greenhouse, Marluxia cut an impressive figure, but he made no move to chase Demyx from his presence. "So what exactly are you doing back on my property?"

"I wanted to talk to you." Marluxia's eyes narrowed at him, and Demyx thought fast. "I found out that we were on your property last night and they said you were a biologist." This wasn't immediately true, but Demyx deemed it wise not to mention that Braig had volunteered the information about Marluxia's profession. "I wanted to…do a horticultural special for the paper."

"A horticultural special, you say?" The taller man looked mildly interested, much to the blonde's relief.

"Yes. I mean, I was out here…and I…I was starting to wonder you know, if you get all these violent storms, how does anything grow at all?" He was babbling and he knew it, but Marluxia just sat down on a work bench and pulled off his gloves.

"Most plants are quite resilient and their roots run deep. That's not to say the wind can't….' he paused. "I thought you were running a story. Don't columnists usually take notes?"

Demyx flushed and pulled out a pen and paper. As frightening as he found the man before him, he could only wonder what Axel was going to say when THIS story appeared on his desk Monday morning. He hoped the headline wasn't going to include the word "Homicide".

Tying his boat back up at the pier, Demyx nearly fell into the water when a shout echoed down towards him.

"Dude!"

"Hi Braig." Demyx waved over his shoulder once he'd regained his balance. Satisfied that the knots were in place, he turned around to greet his friend. "How's it going."

"Same ol'. You seem better from this morning. What were you up to?"

Subconsciously, Demyx shoved his papers from the interview down into the bag he'd been carrying them in. "Just practicing."

"What'd I say about you and a boat. You look good."

"Can I talk to you?" Demyx surprised himself. Wuss Makes Executive Decision Twice in One Day: Critics Surprised.

"Sure kid, what's up?" Braig pointed the way towards the pier, where they could sit on the dock.

"Why does…Marluxia live all the way over on the other side of the Island?" Demyx asked. "I mean, he seems to be all alone out there."

Braig, stopped abruptly, put his arm around Demyx's shoulders and began to guide him roughly back up the path towards the bar. "I think we need a different conversation environment." He said shortly, a stiff and angry note in his voice that Demyx had never before heard from him. It was strange, ever since the incident with Roxas, everyone's secrets seemed to be coming out.

"Alright." Demyx offered. "We'll get a coffee. I mean, I'll get coffee and you'll get Destiny Islands dark ale, right."

Braig seemed to relax a little and even laughed. "I see you've gone native." This mood lasted only until they had their drinks in hand. Braig didn't even bother to take a sip, but rather he gripped the glass as though he wanted to shatter it. An ugly scowl twisted his lips and stretched the scar on his cheek gruesomely. "Marluxia lives on the other side of the island because he knows damn well I'd beat the shit out of him if he ever came back."

Demyx's eyes went wide in surprise. Was Braig really that loyal to Axel?

"Oh no, this ain't got shit to do with Axel." The older man added, as if reading Demyx's mind. "I told you earlier that I knew Even, right? Well Even was kinda an ass, but he was a friend, and Marluxia and that bitch fucked him right over. I'd kill 'im, Dilan would, Luxord would too if it came to it. I'm expecting that the boss would too, but you can never tell with the boss."

"I guess you're sorry to see him gone then." Demyx peeled his eyes away from Braig's scar to focus on his eye.

"Well, yeah. He could be a douche, but he didn't deserve that, like I say."

Demyx fell silent then, which he masked with a few sips of coffee. It seemed like everything came back to this fire incident with Axel and Even. There was, he decided one more important thing to take care of. Axel left the paper office open, and all the news he wanted was in there. It was just a matter of finding the correct headlines.

To Be Continued…