Disclaimer: I do not own Kingdom Hearts or any related characters. This was written out of enjoyment of the series, and no profit is being made.
Rating: K+ for death.
Genre: Romance, Angst. If Fluff were a genre there'd be some in there too.
Spoilers: KHII - Second visit to Beast's Castle.
Ships: (Romance) Demyx/Yuffie. Mentions of one-sided Yuffie/Leon.
I Wrote You a Symphony
See Demyx. See Demyx patrol Hollow Bastion. Patrol, Demyx, patrol!
See Demyx see Yuffie. See Demyx fall for Yuffie beyond all logic. Fall, Demyx, fall!
See Demyx follow Yuffie around, trying to impress her and show her he's not out to steal her heart. Try, Dem-
Wait, what?
Oh, sh-
-x-
See Yuffie. See Yuffie going about regular reconstruction business. Build, Yuffie, build!
See Yuffie see Demyx. See Yuffie get practically stalked by Demyx. Freak out, Yuffie, freak out!
See Yuffie kind-of-sort-of-not-really-okay-maybe-really think he's cute.
Wait, what?
Oh, damn it.
-x-
"Alright, you."
"...Yeah?"
"I like you."
"Oh, yeah? Well, I like you."
"Well, this is great, let's go do something!"
"Okay!"
-x-
They sit on her window seat late one night, looking at each other with their backs leaning against the walls.
He rocks slightly against the sitar he cradles against his chest. "...You know we can't really go anywhere together, right?"
She tilts her head slightly. It's late and she doesn't feel much like thinking. "Why not?" she asks.
"Well, if your friends find out you're hanging out with a Nobody-"
"Then I'll get in trouble... And if the Organization finds out you didn't steal a heart when you could've-"
"I'll get in trouble."
They sigh and stare at the worn cushion they're sitting on. "And you know, I can't really buy you anything, either. The Superior or Xigbar would get suspicious."
She shakes her head hastily. "I don't care about that. To tell you the truth, I care more about those two names."
He picks at some yellow foam that's leaking from a tear. "You know I can't tell you that," he mumbles.
She bites her lower lip slightly. Oops. She forgot Demyx was still ferociously loyal to them; it's so late.
"And you know, I can't-"
"Demyx," she said. "I don't care about what you can't do for me." She yawned and poked his leg with her toe. "Get yourself a heart, but other than that, don't ever change."
He stops rocking and leans back on the wall. He stares down at his sitar in the meager light the streetlamps outside give off. "I can sing you a song, if that's okay?"
She smiles and settles into her seat. "A lullaby would be nice."
"Um...not sure if a sitar is the instrument for a lullaby, but I'll try..."
-x-
That night after he sang her the lullaby (her lullaby), Demyx didn't come back. Three weeks went by and he never showed up.
And she can't help but remember how he had described her in his song. How he had painted her movements, her hair, her eyes, her fingers, her laugh, her thoughts, her feelings in those shapes and colours that move behind your eyelids when you try to fall asleep. And she remembered thinking I can't believe it, he really loves me; I don't care if he doesn't have a heart before his song overpowered her and she fell asleep.
She sits and waits and sits and remembers on that window seat until she can't take it anymore and flings open the latches and feels the wind on her face. She jumps down onto the street and runs (tripping) through the streets, screaming his name in her head (because if she were to shout, someone would wake up and she'd be in trouble).
It's in the Bailey that her hammering heart start to make the shadows clump together and raise up from the ground and gain thoughtless yellow eyes.
She didn't bring her shuriken.
She runs all the way to the Ravine Trail before her legs collapse from exhaustion. So this is the end of the Great Ninja Yuffie.
Until the geysers cut across the plateau and clear everything away.
"Yuffie?" a voice echoes from the shadows.
She gets up and stumbles over her own feet into the Crystal Fissure and into his arms before even bothering to check if it's him.
"Where the hell have you been?" she asks, and is surprised to find that she's been crying.
"I..." He can't look at her. "It's getting complicated. One of the members left and - Yuffie, it's going to get really dangerous for you if I keep coming back."
She wraps her arms around black leather and buries her head in his scent of mist and sand. "Please don't leave again."
She wished he wouldn't hesitate before hugging her back. "I won't."
-x-
She leaps across the gap of open air onto the next rooftop. She turns back as he watches her hesitantly. "Hey, aren't you coming?"
He nods, still nervous. He backs up and takes a running start, but jumps over the alleyway and onto her rooftop just as easily as she did. She laughs at how much he underestimates himself; he's one of them, after all.
"Are you sure this is okay?" he says. "Aren't we going to wake up the people in these houses?"
She scoffs at him and starts cross to the other side of the roof. "'Course it's okay. Leon and Cloud and Tifa did this all the time when they were little. And what, do you think people sleep in their attics?"
He jogs to catch up and they walk side by side under the stars. He isn't much taller than her, and Yuffie wonders how age works when you're a Nobody.
She stops and tilts her head up to the pinpricks of light. He turns and looks from her to the sky and back.
"Demyx, is it dangerous, being a Nobody?" she asks.
He thinks. "I guess so. I mean, I hate fighting anyone. But Vexen said that we were all born with the instinct for a reason. He said that humans can go their whole lives and never have to throw a punch."
"...But Nobodies have to fight. For their hearts." She finishes, and looks at him.
He gulps and nods. "I guess so. Never really thought about it."
She smiles and rubs her nose. "I don't usually think about this stuff either. Maybe 'cause you mean so much to me."
He blinks and in the darkness she wonders if he's blushing. "I... huh?"
She puts her hands behind her back and walks up to him, slowly. "You know, technically, you're heartless, but you're still one of the sweetest guys I've ever met? I just really wanted you to know."
He hesitates (she really wished he would stop doing that). "'Kay."
"And another thing, since we're on the topic. If being a Nobody is really that dangerous, get yourself a heart real soon. But be careful about it, okay? I don't want you getting beat up. 'Cause I really look forward to your visits, you know? And I mean that."
He can't help but notice how close she's getting. "...'Kay."
"Ooh, and another thing," she says, and she's right next to him and her heart is straining so hard against her ribs that it's enough for the both of them.
She stood on her tiptoes and-
Chickened out and gave him an Eskimo kiss. "I never did thank you for saving me that night, did I?"
She runs away, trying to laugh out the butterflies in her stomach. She leaps onto the next rooftop and he starts sprinting to catch up.
"...You're welcome," he whispers to her echoing laughter.
-x-
"Hey, Xigbar?"
The older Nobody turns to look over the back of the couch and catches number IX come in, drenched to the bone in water.
"Uh... Hey, kiddo. What's up?"
Demyx's boots squeak as he sloshes across the room. "I've been thinking..."
"A dangerous pastime."
"I know," the younger smiles slightly, before commanding the water to lift off his skin and clothes and evaporate into the air. He sinks into the couch opposite Xigbar, frowning again. "Especially in the rain, right?"
The man shrugs. Lightning flashes through the windows, as if on cue. "You'll survive. So are you gonna tell me the deal behind your long face or not?"
"Well, how do I put this...?" Demyx leans forward, his elbows on his knees. "You've been patrolling the Land of Dragons right?"
Xigbar nods. "Recently, yeah."
"You know that girl who saved the Emperor? Fa Mulan?"
"Yeah."
"What if you saw her getting attacked by Heartless, and you knew she would lose? I mean, she's a good person, right? And she sort of guards that World from the Darkness, and if she got taken out, wouldn't the whole World follow?"
Xigbar stares at the ceiling in thought. "Hmm... That's a toughie."
After a thoughtful pause he continued, "Well, as fun as it is to be a bad guy, I guess I'd save her. Sora's providing us with enough hearts anyway. Why let a whole World die?"
"So... it's alright to save good people?"
"I say, 'why not?'" Xigbar scratched his chin. "Just uh, don't go spreading it around that I'm giving you anti-hero advice."
Demyx furrowed his eyebrows, and for a second Xigbar wondered if he was going to ask what an anti-hero was. Then he got up and summoned a portal in the wall, his boots still squeaking slightly.
"Hey, where do you think you're going?" Xigbar demanded.
"The Gummi hangar," Demyx replied before he could think of less suspicious place.
"Why?"
"Because I... have to..." he pointed wildly through the windows across the room. "Look! A rip in the space-time continuum!"
Xigbar wheeled, single gold scanning the storm outside as the other Nobody warped away. He looked back to a blank wall.
"Ah...Odin, damn it. Knew I shouldn't have told him about that."
--
"Yuffie!" He runs over the tiles to where she sits atop the weapon shop, her back leaning against one of the strange metal chimneys.
She whips her head around, looking panicked. She jumps over onto his roof and meets him halfway. "I told you running across the roof was okay, but I didn't say shouting was! What if somebody hears you?"
He grabs her shoulders and shakes her a little. "Yuffie, I just realized that... that I'm not going to let the Darkness take you."
"The Darkness-?"
"The Heartless, whatever, it's all the same." He grins wildly down at her, eyes shining. "I'm going to get my heart back. Somehow. And I'm going to do it for you."
She brushes his hands off her shoulders. "Don't do it for me, you silly goose. Do it for you." She pokes his empty chest cavity sharply. It sends a shock through him like a defibrillator.
He laughs and grabs her hand. She nearly starts to struggle under his intense stare. "Did you just say 'silly goose?'"
She smiles, uneasy now. "So what if I did?"
His grin falters and he leans back, staring at his boots. Overreacting again, Demyx, he reminds himself. "I just mean..." He smiles. "I need to get a heart so I can give mine back to you."
She thinks about slipping her arm out of his suddenly strong grip (Fighting instinct, he had said), but instead grabs his hand. "What do you mean?"
He looks down at the tiled roof, lips pulling back to reveal white caps. It makes him look almost ghostly in the threadbare moonlight. "There's a place called Valentine's Town. Not that far from here. And they have all these little heart shaped candies with little words written on them. And I always remember the time I got this one with 'I'll give you my heart' written on it."
"Huh," Yuffie said. "How big are these candies? 'Cause that's a lot to fit on one little-"
"In Valentine's Town? Those things can get as big as a baseball if you look hard enough.
"But that's not my point. Yuffie," he took both of her hands in his, "there was this one night after you fell asleep. ...You were dreaming, and you said you loved me."
The Great Ninja Yuffie stared. Then gritted her teeth. Then stared at her shoes. She started to blush. "...Ramuh, smite me where I stand."
Demyx laughed.
"Just one little lightning bolt?" she pleaded.
"Yuffie-"
Thunder rumbled.
The couple looked up to the sky, where clouds were rolling in as though Xaldin himself were chasing them.
"You've got to be kidding," Demyx said.
Lightning flashed within the storm front, as if to reply.
"We'd better get down from here. With all this metal stuff on the roof," Yuffie said, dragging him to the edge of the roof.
They both jumped and landed easily on the pavement, rain coming down in huge dollops. The air started to gain that odd summery smell of pavement and grass as the two dove behind the counter at the bottom of the weapon shop.
They watched as the rain poured down in silence, lightning flashing white and turning night into day for fragments of seconds.
"Demyx?"
"Yeah?"
They turn to one another, slowly, like dancing wind-up toys having their crank turned. Hesitant for the first time in her life, she cups his cheeks in both of her hands.
She imagines briefly about what this would be like if this was Leon she was holding. She used to do that all the time, dream dreams about Leon. The dream-Leon never shook, and Demyx doesn't now.
Dream-Leon never shook because he was brave. He's not afraid of Yuffie, not nervous.
Demyx wants to be afraid of Yuffie. Wants the heartbeats to shake his ribcage, wants to quiver under her damp fingers. But he can't.
She stands on her tiptoes again-
And kisses him.
If he was ensnared before, (he wraps his arms around her shaking shoulders and lets her warmth seep through the leather) the trap has gone off now.
Thunder rips through the air.
-x-
It's quiet now.
His boots echo, though he's not sure what the sound waves bounce off of. There's nothing here. Just whiteness.
Sometimes, as he stumbles, he sees images moving, projected onto the blankness from a flickering camera hidden somewhere. The film is moving too slowly, he thinks. The pictures don't flow together as smoothly as they should.
A grainy song begins, like maybe it's playing on the antique radio the scientists kept in their basement lab. It's a requiem, crescendoing until it presses on his eardrums, strains them until he worries he'll go deaf. It's horrifically depressing, this song. Filled with sour sitar notes (he wonders where his is) and a discord of badly tuned trumpets and trombones and who knows what else. It hurts so much to listen...
He blinks back the mist in his eyes and concentrates on walking. Through the pain in his head he catches a glimpse of her in one of the scenes. He watches it.
She smiles. She cries. She sleeps. She jumps. She runs.
He starts to run, too. "Yuffie..."
The film is always projected just in front of him. He can't reach it.
He chases. "Wait up!"
He keeps on going. Suddenly, there is a sound like a record scratching. The sitar notes straighten, the brass instruments tune themselves. He's leading some sort of amazing waltz. And it's just the right volume.
He can't stop smiling. Even when he sees the door.
Don't let this end. Hit the repeat button.
The door opens, and he chases her into it.
I love this song.
-x-
"So," Larxene takes a bite out of her cupcake and leans on the Silent Hero's shoulder. "What exactly is he doing?"
She refers to Demyx, of course. At this point he had been swaying up in the branches of their front-yard tree for at least two minutes, singing along to music that had started playing in the air. That was the Elysium Fields for you, though.
"I believe we determined it to be a 'musical interlude'," Lexaeus replied.
"Ah, no. There he goes again," the blonde said, motioning briefly as Demyx resumed his song.
"This is very odd," The scientist pondered. "It's as though he's singing in reply to someone else singing. Very far away."
"A girl, obviously." Larxene peeled off the wrapper of the desert to get to the stump. "Who'd have thought the dork could hold down a girlfriend?"
This takes Lexaeus off guard. "A girl? What makes you say that?"
"Have you been listening to the lyrics?"
As the former number V listened, he realized that the Nobody up in the tree could only be singing about a girl he missed. It was all about trying to find her, and how the distance was driving him into desperation.
Or something like that.
"Hmm. 'Who would've thought' indeed."
They continued to look on as Demyx swung up in the branches, sitting in the sky.
But only he could see the stars rearrange. See the constellation of the girl singing back to him across the impossible chasm of life and death.
AN. I'm not going to lie. I started shipping these two solely because of fandom. I'm not going back! :D
Just in case you've never played the Final Fantasy games (I haven't until this summer!) Odin and Ramuh are summons. Ramuh is, obviously, a thunder element.
Concrit is made of win!