Disclaimer: I own none of the characters in my stories, they just appeared in them, unbidden...
Some Things Are Meant To Be: Of Shopping, Soccer and Small People
Demyx slept better than he had in more than three years, well since he'd last shared a bed with Axel. From the moment he woke up, he had that 'whee!' feeling, that people in new relationships, or with a new crush have, when they think they are about to see the object of their affection. Every part of Demyx's body was singing it out loud. When he got out of the shower, and went to his case, he flung everything out before he realised he had nothing 'Axel-worthy' packed, and began to feel deflated. His bottom lip was just beginning to tremble, when Olette called to him through the door.
"Come in," he shouted to her, from where he sat on the bed with a turquoise towel wrapped round his waist. Apart from the hangdog look on his face which made him look closer to 12 than 21, she had to admit he was a very good-looking guy, notwithstanding his trademark haircut, which strangely suited him.
"Dem, we're all going for a walk down the beach, before they set up the stage for tomorrow's rehearsals, wanna come?"
"Can't," replied Demyx, looking even more forlorn, if that were possible, "I haven't got a thing to wear!" he announced dramatically. Given the fairly huge pile of clothes at his side, Olette found that rather unlikely, but she'd seen Demyx in this kind of a mood before and knew there would be no reasoning with him.
"Well, looks like you and I will just have to hit the designer boutiques, instead. I certainly have no problem taking Riku's munni for a spin, I haven't been shopping in ages, and not at all since Lux's new designer mall opened."
Demyx, had visibly brightened up, and after a little persuasion, agreed that a plain deep turquoise T-shirt, and designer pants the same colour, would do to wear, at least until they hit the first shop, IF they went by car. Olette had no idea what had brought on Demyx's sudden lack of confidence in his extensive designer wardrobe but she seriously liked her normally fun-loving, (except when facing a major performance, or someone mentioned Axel's name), friend, and wanted to cheer him up. It would also give the others a chance to plan his birthday surprise, and possibly to meet up with Axel and Hayner.
No sooner had they left than, Roxas had exactly that idea. "Hey, if Olette's at the mall with Dem, why don't we ask Lux and the boys to come with us. Kills two birds with one stone – keeps A and D apart and we get to spend some time with Ax! Amidst general agreement a call was made to Lux and pretty soon all the males were gathered at the beach, the girls having decided to sit it out, have coffee and discuss those things that only new mothers and pregnant women, find remotely interesting. The boys had brought a ball with, male bonding sessions seeming to require one, and despite the various stages of inebriation of Luxord's team, were attempting to play beach soccer, three on three.
As night began to fall, and Luxord's crew's drinking habits had finally caught up with them, a 12-0 scoreline attesting to the fact that alcohol and soccer don't mix, they all lay sprawled out panting happily on the sand, but Axel was about to take their breath away completely.
"What do you think the chances are of Dem apologising to me for everything?" he piped up.
Four heads, whipped round to where the voice had come from, Luxord having already heard it was not quite so taken aback.
"How about there's more of a chance of me marrying Maleficent," replied the young Mayor.
"You think? That unlikely?" queried Axel sounding a bit downcast. Those who knew what was actually going on in Demyx's head were desperately trying to catch each other's eyes, in the dusky light, unsure of what direction to steer the conversation in, and looking to each other for help.
Luckily for them, fate intervened, in the form of Riku's mobile. "Sure thing, sweetie, we'll be there in two shakes," he informed the caller.
"Sorry to have to break this up, but the wife's back and the girls want us to get home and get ready for this evening. Official mayoral engagement," Riku admitted slightly sheepishly, "Harbourmaster's Dinner, and Mr WideAwake over there," he said pointing to Sora's inert form, "is supposed to be my security for the evening!" Roxas lobbed the ball at Sora's stomach, and they all laughed when he responded with "Whassup?! Kairi, I didn't do it! Where am I? Oh, yeah, shit!"
As the small party broke up, Axel still had one more surprise to throw at them. "You could mention it to him you know. He can be quite suggestible, sometimes," he said slyly, thinking of the numerous times he'd persuaded Demyx to do something Dem knew would be better left undone, and chuckling, "Anyway, just thought you might give it a shot," he repeated, as he trailed off a little unsteadily behind Lux and Hayner.
"If only he knew," Roxas said, shaking his head. "Seemed a bit insistent, or was that just the drink?" wondered Sora. "Well, some things never change," noted Riku, "as usual, they both want or expect the exact opposite of what they're going to get."
The next few hours passed off without any incident. Demyx and Axel kept taking sneak peaks out of their balcony shutters whilst they were getting ready, but never at the same time, to their immense upset – and relief. Luxord's house went off to his nightclub, and Riku, Sora and Co went to the Port Building for dinner.
In fact it wasn't until everyone had settled down for the night, Demyx had even bought himself new pyjamas, in case of a balcony appearance, that anything happened. The first thing Demyx remembered was being woken by clattering up and down the stairs, "Olette, where are the car keys? Olette, call Sora's mother, he'll have forgotten." "Go!" Clattering of feet, and back again, "Olette, where's my mobile?" "If you don't go now you'll be looking for more than your mobile!" Olette positively screamed from the door of their room. Once again he heard Riku running off, across the hall. By now he was up, and he opened his door to see Olette in the doorway of hers, somewhat dishevelled, and grinning stupidly. "Sora rang," she announced as if it explained everything. When Demyx looked none the wiser, since he was still half asleep, she spelt it out for him. "Kairi's having the baby, idiot, and Riku's driving them, since Sora can hardly take her to hospital on a motorbike!" The penny dropped, and Demyx face also broke into a huge grin. In two steps he'd grabbed hold of Olette and was swinging her round and round.
In a bit of a hurry, Riku managed to clip the gatepost backing out, which was loud enough, compounded by his quite vocal swearing after, to alert Luxord, who was just coming in, after closing the club. He pulled his classic cream sports car level with Riku and shouted, "S'up, kid?"
"Kairi's in labour, we're going to the hospital now."
"Right, I'll switch cars and give Olette, and Namine a ride up to the hospital."
Riku thanked him, without really thinking things through in his panic, and shot round to pick up the expectant mother.
Luxord, parked up, and went in to get his other car keys, to find that his houseguests, far from being asleep, had found one of his numerous decks of cards and were having a game of poker.
"Hey, Lux, deal you in?" Hayner queried waving the deck in his hand.
"No time, got to go get the girls and take them to the hospital, Kairi's having the baby."
"What?" "No way!" "Hey Lux, take the bus," Axel said, jokingly referring to Luxord's people carrier, "no way are we missing out on this!"
The three of them piled into the front benchseat, and raced round, first to Sora's because the car had been facing that way.
However, Namine was in no rush to go anywhere and made them come in for a coffee and an inspection of the nursery, explaining that it would probably be a very long night since first babies could take quite some time. When she finally couldn't take their group pacing any longer, she agreed to go and they went off to collect Olette.
Roxas heart was in his mouth, even in the dark and partly hidden by a headrest, Axel's hair positively glowed, there was no way that Demyx wouldn't notice straight away that he was in the car, and hell knew what would happen then. All their carefully laid plans, about to be screwed up by someone who wasn't even born yet. He began to laugh in spite of himself, 'trust Sora's kid', he thought. Olette and Demyx were waiting by the door, and Roxas couldn't believe it when Demyx got in the back, carrying on the conversation he'd been having with Olette, and apart from breaking off to say "Hi all!", apparently oblivious to the flaming red hair on the front seat. He knew it couldn't last, even though Demyx was now sitting facing him and with his back to the driver's row.
The peace lasted the whole five minutes it took to get to the hospital. Lux parked up and as they opened the doors a voice they all knew so very well, especially when it was used in semi-mocking tone, asked, "Dem, had any time to work on that apology yet?" When some strange noises resembling a strangled cat was all that issued from Demyx's mouth, he glibly continued "Guess not, or did these guys forget to mention my little request to you?" Hayner who had already exited the passenger side, now reached in and grabbed his boss, before he could make matters any worse, if they could actually be any worse. It was obvious Demyx's happy mood had changed as there was now water in the vehicle, it was emanating from the air around the blond, and everyone was making a dash to get out and keep dry, except Demyx.
When he first heard the sound of Axel's voice, his heart had jumped and he'd been prepared to forgive him there and then, Kairi's big happy baby day and all – then he heard Axel's words and nearly choked on his own tongue, hence the strangled cat noises, and then he had gotten very, very angry. He would not ruin Kairi and Sora's big day, but there would be payback and there would not be forgiveness. He sat there until Luxord, resigned to having a wet interior, pointed out that he wanted to lock the vehicle, and if Dem was coming to see Kairi, now was the time. Axel had been rapidly pushed into the building, suffering withering looks from his friends, and querying "What did I say to upset all of you? I just wanted to make peace with him. I thought you'd have mentioned the apology. Honest!" When everyone was still silently looking daggers at him, he got up from the waiting area and quipped, "Suit yourselves. I just wanted peace. Got it memorised?" and went off in search of some coffee or other liquid, as his overindulgence in alcohol was beginning to make him very thirsty.
Demyx trailed in and sat on the chair Axel had vacated, just as Sora dashed into the waiting area, actually on his way to get some ice from the vending machine, and was dumbstruck to see them all there. "Back in a minute," he yelled, on the run. "Just getting Kairi some ice!"
A couple of minutes later, and with the ice delivered, he came out to give a progress report and told the girls they could go in for a few minutes if they wanted. The speed at which they disappeared said they wanted. He then attempted to field the questions from the others which came twenty to the dozen, except from Demyx. Once it was established that there were still some hours to go, and no, he still didn't know if it was a boy or a girl, things quietened down and Sora, who had bumped into Axel at the vending machine, asked Demyx to take a walk with him.
When they arrived at the machine where Sora had told Axel to wait, he turned to face them and with a face he almost never used because it was in complete contrast to his usual smiley one, announced, "I'm going to say this only once. You two - WILL - get over yourselves. You will not ruin today for me! You will not ruin today for Kairi! But, most of all, you will not ruin today for my kid! Got it memorised? You're both adults, more so than anyone here except Lux, but you're acting like toddlers and have been for the last three years! So, either behave or butt out! I'd like you both to stay, but only if it's on my terms!" and Sora marched off back to the labour ward, without a backward glance.
Demyx felt miserable 'cos he hated when his friends chewed him out for stuff. Axel felt ticked off, that little boy sunshine, was all grown up, telling him what to do, and stealing his catchphrase. Both of them, had been kind of looking floorward after Sora's rant, but now Axel peaked up from under ridiculously long dark lashes to see what Demyx's reaction had been, just as Demyx was doing the same from under equally long and incongruously dark lashes.
"Dem, forget what I said – for now! Sora's right about one thing, today is kind of their day, so what do you say we call a truce, till after we've got a looksee at sunshine boy's offspring?"
"I agree – with Sora, about today, anyway, and so truce it is. Just for now."
When they entered the waiting area together, if silent, and separated by several feet, (you could have cut the air between them with a knife), it nonetheless, surprised the rest of the gang enough to silence them too.
"Lighten up, you lot!" Axel said, after a moment, "I'm about to become an uncle, Uncle Axel! Got it memorised?" he asked with a cheeky grin. Everyone chuckled and began trying out the sound of the new nomenclature on themselves. Aunty Olette laughed herself silly at the idea of Uncle Riku, or Uncle Lux.
By 11 o'clock, they could hear the screams from the waiting room, and they were becoming more frequent, Sora hadn't popped out in quite a while, and whilst everyone looked worried and talked in muted tones, making the yells seem louder, Namine looked even paler than usual. The yells turned into very loud, screams of abuse, directed at no-one knew who.
"Hell, I didn't know Kairi even knew that word," Roxas commented after a particularly loud stream of invective from in the labour room. Suddenly, a loud cry, louder than any of Kairi's screams, broke into the silence, and they all looked at each other, from face to face, grinning like idiots, Axel and Demyx even high-fived out of pure pleasure, for an instant going back in time to a place where they both had shared a lot of happy moments.