Hey, Ive updated like you asked! And that sure was fast, wasnt it? Yeah, things are starting to get pretty exciting, it's just about the climax! You'll have loads of fun, and you'll have even MORE fun if you've read Burning Twilight, which is another fanfic I wrote before this one. Because an event in here is mildly related to Burning Twilight, but it's not DIRE to read Burning Twilight in order to understand this, so don't worry. You'll just have a bit more fun. :]

I do not own Kingdom Hearts...but oh, do I wish...

PLUM WINGS & A MIDNIGHT DIRGE - PANIC

My heart was racing with panic when I looked outside of my dorm room window and saw the thick snow on the ground. It was already a foot deep...and it was still coming down from the sky! My first thought was Zexion, I wanted to know what he was doing and if he was okay or not, whether or not the snow had stopped on the canopy or if it buried him at night. What if he was suffocating under pounds of snow? What if he was freezing to death? What if he couldnt see anything? What if he couldnt find any food to eat? What if the shelter broke? He only has one arm! He wont be able to do anything alone!

"Zexion!" I cried out his name in pain, my heart was screaming to help him, but what was I supposed to do? I was locked in the room from the outside, and the only way out was to ask the guard outside if I could leave, but then he had to take me with him...there was nothing I could do...absolutely nothing...

I fell to my knees, staring wide-eyed at the ground in front of me, using my arms as supports.

"Zexion..." I couldnt stop thinking about the bad things that could have happened, my brain was only focusing on the worst things, I so wanted to think and believe that he was okay and alive and well, but I...I couldnt...! "Zexion, Zexion, Zexion...Oh, Zexion, I hope you're okay, please, please, please be okay..." I closed my eyes tight and felt the tears come out. They hit my hands and rolled off onto the carpet. My eyes snapped open the next second, and I found myself slowly standing and walking towards the door. I knocked on it and the guard spoke to me from the other side.

"Yes?"

"I want to go to the office."

"Why?"

"Because I need to tell them something about the revine." The guard was quiet for a second before unlocking the door and letting me out. He grabbed me by the arm as he usually did and led me to the front office. When we got there, I was greeted with stares and a glare from one of the secretaries. I sat down in one of the chairs and waited patiently for the first time in a long time.

"Demyx, what is it that you want?" The secretary was mad at me. I looked straight at her and told her what was on my mind.

"Have you looked outside yet today?" She gave me a look that said "that's the weirdest question Ive ever heard" and answered a second later.

"Yes, I have,"

"What is on the ground?" Again, the same look.

"Snow. What do you mean?"

"That's right, there's snow on the ground. There is snow...on the ground..." I paused, calming myself.

"Demyx, please tell me what you need and-"

"There is snow on the ground." I repeated firmly.

"Yes, I am well aware that there is snow on the ground. What are you trying to get at?"

"I told you ahead of time that if we did not get Zexion out of that revine that it would snow, didnt I?" She stayed silent, eyes wide with alert. "It has snowed, and Zexion is still in the bottom of the revine. No one has done a damn thing about it and I want him out of there right now before he dies down there." She sighed.

"Listen. You said to us that it would cover the canopy, right?"

"Yeah,"

"Right. There is not enough snow here to do that. So, you were just wrong, and you're going to have to wait until we can get him. We are trying as hard as we can."

"No, you're not. Id bet that if it was your kid down there, he would have been out already. And the cliff starts at the top of a mountain, which means there's more snow up there. That could mean there's more than just one foot of snow, and I need Zexion back here," I was saying everything as calm and powerful and demanding as I could muster myself to, but even with all that effort I felt tears build up after I said that I needed Zexion.

The woman only sighed, now giving me the look of apology.

"Im sorry , Demyx. But I can't do anything more than what I already have. Now, it's up to the police, and to the rescue team they are putting together. The school is no longer in charge of this situation. Im sorry," She had been standing before, and now she calmly took her seat and went back to doing her work. The guard took me back to my room, and I had no problems with that. When I was back inside and locked in again, I sat on my bed with my head hanging.

"I guess there's nothing left for me to do..." I fell back on my bed, letting the mattress bounce under me for a second before it settled. I thought empty thoughts, but every once in a while I would catch a memory of Zexion and I, back when we were together, before we came to the school. After we had joined the stupid academy, everything seemed to go wrong from the very beginning.

I got up after a minute and just started to walk around the room. I stood in the spot I used to sleep before I was officially moved into Zexion's dorm, and I remembered the time I tripped and stubbed my toe, hurt my knee and then bonked my head on Zexion's bed and books and elbow in the beginning of the year. It made me smile and laugh for what felt like the first time in a long time. But then I got nostalgic, and then a little upset. Sighing, I sat down on the corner of Zexion's bed. My eyes were closed, but they opened when I heard a thump on the ground. I looked down to see a small, hard-cover journal at my feet that hadnt been there before. Leaning over, I picked it up and flipped it over. On the front, scrawled in sharpie or pen or something like that was Zexion's name, and that's all.

"Is this Zexion's...?" I flipped it over and over in my hands, really wanting to open it. I looked around the room and brought it close to my face and opened the cover with two fingers. Inside, there were lined papers, and a lot of them had writting on them, but there were no dates or anything, so it couldnt have been notes. "Should I really look at this?" I wondered out loud to myself. I flipped to a random page in the book and saw more writing. I read a few sentences before figuring out what it was. It was a diary, Zexion's diary. I felt my face get hot from blushing, I had just read something from Zexion's diary...!

"Oh, boy, umm...huh, I guess I should just...put this back," I got up and turned around, and stuffed it forcably under the mattress. I thought that's where it came from, anyway...but I was staring at the spot a minute later, really wanting to read it! "Well..." I reasoned. "He's not here...and what harm could it do...he's my friend, I think I have at least somewhat of a right to go poking around a bit..." I lurked over to the spot and pulled out the diary, flipping to a few pages from the end. When I found a page that I thought looked interesting, I began reading it. Zexion's handwriting was so nice!

I have not been so actively writing, recently, due to some events that won't seem to leave me alone.

To say the whole truth, after the incident with Xigbar, my mind has been rather mixed. I cannot

say what my real thoughts are towards most things, nor my feeling towards those same things, and

the same goes for anything that concerns Demyx. It's hard to even write the possible mixed emotions

that I have that in turn created this one.

I have also found it hard to even be around Demyx too often. The only thing I can think of for all of

this strangeness is that I may have some sort of attraction to him other than friendship. Because of

this, though, I do not feel like I can tell him about it. He is my only friend, and losing him now would

surely mean the end of anything meaningful in my future life. But maybe that outlook is also due

to the feelings I have for him. Could I really have that sort of mentality about Demyx? I can't answer,

myself. I think I just need time to think about it. But that time means I will have to converse less

with Demyx, and that is going to be harder than I planned at first, partially because he is now my

dorm mate.

I do hope that my thinking does not interfere too much with the relationship we have now. I don't want

Demyx taking any sort of rash action, like I would expect him to. I need to be careful, that's all. And

hopefully Ill have an answer for myself soon. But...in all honesty, as I sit and write this down, I can't

help but feel like I would be fooling myself if I thought about Demyx as just a friend, or even a brother.

I think I am indeed falling for him.

I closed the diary, that was the last thing I read, that line.

"Zexion...loves me?" I was quiet, sitting on his bed and thinking about what I had read. I was smiling, my heart was racing with happiness. Zexion was in love with me! I laughed out loud, I couldnt help it! "Zexion, you, you love me! Zexion!" I heard the guard bang on my door.

"Hey, keep it down!"

"Oh, sorry," I giggled under my breath. "This is so cool!" I hugged the diary as if it was Zexion himself, for once I was happy. I spun around and landed on my bed with the diary at my side. I slid it underneath Zexion's bed a minute or so later, and I couldnt get the smile off of my face. It was so awesome! Zexion loved me, even though he only said he liked me, and I had told him that I liked him when...

"When I think I love him, too," I smiled the biggest smile I had in a long time, and probably ended up falling asleep with a smile on, too.

A few days passed, and then a week passed, and every day I read those pages Zexion wrote, just to keep me happy. After all, I didnt think Zexion wanted me to be sad, and he would do anything to make me happy, so if this was what made me happy, I didnt think he would have too big a problem with it.

"Besides," I said aloud. "He would have to confess his undying love for me sooner or later!" I put the diary back where it went and just kinda sat around for a while. There was nothing to do when you're by yourself in a dorm room, especially when you have nothing to really keep you from getting stir-crazy. I was only allowed to go outside every so often, to get breakfast or to shower and stuff, but I definitely wasnt allowed to go wandering about the school, even with a guard keeping hold of my arm.

I sighed, and looked around. Then I remembered that I had brought my guitar with me, and it was in my closet. Smiling I got up and opened the closet, reaching in and pulling out my blue and white guitar. I had never really learned how to play anything solidly, and I always just kind of made up what I played. I did have a bunch of music tabs and stuff, but I had no idea where they went. So, I let my mind roam free and let my fingers do the playing like I always used to.

At one point I opened my eyes and listened to what I was playing, and I felt a meanginful rush go through my entire body at the sound of it all. I felt like I had created God in a song, from how wonderful it sounded. I made an effort to remember what it was I played, and I let my fingers move to the chords and sweep along the neck of my guitar with no effort at all...and before I knew it, the sky outside was dark and it was time to be asleep. Smiling, I put my guitar down on the floor next to my bed and shut off the light to go to sleep.

"What is this? Am I asleep? Yes, of course Im asleep, I dont remember waking up yet. So, am I dreaming? But this looks and feels so much realer than other dreams..." I was speaking, but there was another voice that I could only hear if I wasnt trying was talking to me, too. I was surrounded by white, just kind of floating in the middle of nothing. I looked down, and in the middle of the empty white ground I saw a black guitar with all of the strings broken, and the guitar itself was all beat up, with chips in the paint here and there. I was on the ground, now, looking down at the guitar, wondering about it and why it was there. Then I saw Zexion in the distance before me when I looked up from the guitar, and he held the same guitar in his hands, with the strings still broken. "Zexion!" He didnt say anything to me, he didnt even look excited to see me or anything. I looked at me feet, and the guitar was gone, so obviously he was holding the one that used to be there. "How did you get that so quickly? I didnt see you take it. But how is he doing that? All of the strings are still broken." Zexion was playing the guitar, he was playing the song that I had been playing earlier, the one that meant something to me when I played it. But the strings...they were snapped still, so how was the music coming from the guitar if there were no strings on it? "Zexion, how are you doing that?" He did not answer me and the more I tried to walk towards him the farther away he got. I tried walking backwards, but nothing moved. I stood still in one place and called out to him. "Come home!" The next moment he was in front of me, handing me the guitar, but all of the strings were fixed and the guitar looked brand-new. I smiled and thanked Zexion, and he smiled at me. "Someone told me this needed fixing," He said.

I was awake, remembering the dream. It was so weird...I never had something like that dream happen to me before. I wondered what it meant? Because that guitar in it wasnt mine, so what was it, really? I shook it off and checked what time it was, then asked the guard if he could take me to get food. The whole day, the dream kept bugging me, I really wanted to know what it meant! When I got back to the room, I looked through all of the books Zexion had brought and found a dream dictionary.

"Thank you, Zexion, for you and all of your interests in these things!" I flipped through it and looked up "white," "guitar," and "song," but song wasnt in there, so I went with "white" and "guitar." White meant purity, wholeness, innocence, or cleanliness. It also could mean a new beginning or a blank slate, and in European areas it could mean mourning for the loss of something. When I saw the whole "mourning" part I got a shiver and a little panicked. But under "guitar," it said that if the guitar was unstrung or had broken strings, it meant disappointments in love life. It said that if music was being heard, that emotions were being expressed in a healthy way. All in all, I didnt really know how to interpret the dream any more than that...

"Demyx," The guard knocked on my door, and I closed the book immediately and put it back where it belonged.

"Y-yeah?"

"You have someone here to see you." That surprised me a bit.

"Uh, who is it?" There was a silence outside of the door and a muffled voice or two before I got an answer.

"They would rather not have their name said, they just want to talk to you."

"Well..." I thought, but really had no thoughts going through my head in the first place, and then figured, Why not? "Okay, they can come in." The door knob turned and when the guard stepped to the side to let the person in, I watched them come inside and then watched the guard close the door behind the person. Whoever they were, they were tall and skinny, but other than that I couldnt see any real features about them.

"Who are you?" I asked, standing up from my sitting position on the floor next to Zexion's books. They did not answer right away, instead, they looked behind them like they were afraid of something, then took a few quick steps towards me and took off the hat they were wearing, which had also been covering their face. A flurry of red hair fell out of the cap, automatically falling into its normal placement, stiking out in spikes. My jaw dropped when I saw his green eyes.

"Axel?" He jumped in surprise and quickly covered my mouth with a gloved hand, and put another finger to his lips to shush me.

"Shh!" He said, "You gotta be quiet, Demyx, they don't know Im here,"

"Why are you here? I thought you ran away!"

"I did," He said, now taking off the white and red jacket he had on and tossing it to the floor. He had one of his normal black tank-tops on, with his thin and muscley arms completely free. I have to admit, Axel had some sexy arms!

"Well, then why are you here now? And why dont they know, yet?"

"Because..." He paused, thinking, maybe. "Because I kind of wanted to find Roxas. I figured you'd know where he was, because it's not like I can just go wandering into his classes. Oh, yeah, and I heard in town about you and Zexion disappearing and stuff, and how you were found but Zexion is still somewhere. Is that true?" I nodded.

"Yeah, we fell off a cliff and we were living in a revine for four weeks," I said. "And, Axel, Roxas was kicked out. He...doesnt go here anymore."

"What!" He cried out, clearly forgetting that he was supposed to be quiet. "When, why! What happened!"

"Well, Roxas got all depressed after you left. He didnt talk to any of us for a long time, and then I guess his grades slipped so far that he was kicked from the school. I don't know where he is, anymore. What happened between you two?"

"That..." He sighed. "That's not a story for now, Demyx. I dont want to talk about that. Im more interested, now, in how the hell you and Zexy fell down a cliff!"

And so, I told him the whole story. How his running off gave me the idea to run, and how Zexion ended up following and everything. He listened the whole time, never interrupting me, which I was very glad for. I guess I needed to get it all out. But I told him all the way up until that conversation, excluding Zexion's diary and that dream I had.

"Wow," Axel said, falling backwards onto my bed next to me. "You guy's've sure been through a hell of a lot, then, huh?" I nodded. He sighed, and then got up. "I probably should get going,"

"Where have you been all this time, Axel?"

"In that mansion in Twilight Town, 'ya know, that abandoned one."

"Oh," I said. "You know, that's where I was gonna go at first, but something told me not to? That's why we ended up on a cliff,"

"Really? Wow, well, I probably wouldnt have been too friendly towards you at the time, anyway. I havent been in the best mood."

"Im sorry,"

"Nah, it's fine. Well, it was fun talking to 'ya. Ill be going. See 'ya, Demyx. I hope Zexion comes out alright." He began the process of getting his hair stuffed into his hat, which took a pretty long time. I asked him another question, while I watched.

"Axel, what happens if he dies down there?" He looked at me with serious green eyes. The kind of eyes that looked almost disapproving, but helpful at the same time.

"Then he's dead, and people will be sad."

"No, I mean, what happens to me if Zexion dies?"

"Well," He started, fitting the final spike into his hat successfully. "That all depends on how you feel about him, and what he really means to you,"

"Oh, okay."

"Demyx," He had one hand on the doorknob, and looked back at me, a smile on his face. "You make sure you have hope for Zexion. After all, you wouldnt want to lose someone you love that much, would you? His hope is in you, if I ever knew that kid." He winked at me, and exited the room. I stared out the window and watched him go, walking off campus.

"Love that much..." I repeated three times. "I...he, how was Axel able to tell? How did he know..." I fell back on my bed and looked right up at the ceiling. "...that I loved Zexion like that?"