Well...this is it. This is the last installment of Plum Wings & a Midnight Dirge. I was closer to the end than I thought, really. I, personally, think I could have done a better job, maybe I could have made this longer. But, I have kept you all waiting too long already, so, I did not start over. :p Regardless, I hope you enjoy this, and I hope you have enjoyed the rest of the story. Thank you all so much for sticking around and staying loyal to the story, it was way longer than I anticipated...I love you all! Thank you so much!

I do not own Kingdom Hearts...and this is the last time Im going to have to type it for a long, long time.

PLUM WINGS & A MIDNIGHT DIRGE - EVERLASTING

It was hard to think that after all of the years that had passed, that Demyx's mother and father had found no sympathy in telling him that they were moving. Any other pair would for a child they love, even my own mother and father, who usually have nothing to do with me, would have concern. But not his parents, not at all. It made me question them. What did they favor more? They availability of wealth, and status, when they already had financial stability? Or the feelings of their only son, who would lose all he had come to know and love? There was a place in my heart that nearly hated them for causing Demyx so mush despair. I only wished that the day would come sooner that we would be prepared to leave. Because leaving when desirable and leaving when ready are two different situations. And we were going with the most unfavorable of the two.

I was ready by eight the next morning. I went over to Demyx's house, but did not knock on the front door. I went around the side, and tapped on Demyx's window. He was sitting at his desk, for once, he was ready on time. When he saw me, he smiled and stood up, exiting his room. I walked back to the front of the house and leaned against the wall next to the door. I could hear them talking on the inside.

"Ill be back later," Demyx said. But his mother stopped him, as I expected she would after what happened the previous evening.

"Where are you going?"

"With Zexion, we're going to go hang out at the station with some friends," Nothing else was said, so I assumed all was well. When Demyx came out of the house, together, we walked close into town. There was usually bits of the newspaper and advertisements posted on two boards in Twilight Town, and we looked at the one in Tram Common, which had the better paying jobs. When we decided to go for it, we called the numbers given and asked when the soonest date was that we could do the job they wanted done. Demyx had chosen a two-day, one-night long pet sitting ordeal that was going to pay him very well in the end. I, on the other hand, took on an "advertising" job, where I had to stick posters around town for a certain event. I did not get as much from that as Demyx would from his pet-sitting, but at least it was something.

Each day we had different odd jobs, and our stock of munny was slowly building. At the end of three days, we had totaled 3600 munny. It wasnt really much as it was, but for a span of three days, it was very well done.

"If we keep going like this, we'll have more than enough munny to go where we want and find a place to stay at,"

"Get ready for another early day tomorrow, Demyx. We're not anywhere near the safe zone."

Sundays were the only days we couldnt find any work, partially because everything was closed. So, those were our days off. But, at the end of the first month, we had gathered a total of 26100 munny. It was more or less a large portion of funds for a couple of teenagers, but none of it could be spent yet.

I had gotten myself a part-time job at the Accessory Shop in the Tram Common. I was working Fridays and Saturdays, being paid a well amount of minimum wage, 500 munny an hour. Demyx would find work on those days, although the work was slimming out, we had taken most of it, and on the days that I was not working, the two of us would scavenge the town for more jobs.

Then, the time came. Demyx was a week from moving, and we needed a full plan before anything could happen. We had 55120 munny, and we were not going to run to a local place. If we did, we would be staying in the haunted mansion, or back in the ravine, at least until Demyx's parents had gone and we were home-free. We decided that we would go to Sunset Hill to stay, and possibly live, because it was the closest and most convenient thing. We wouldnt live in a house, instead, we would rent out a cheap hotel room, and then switch hotels after a time, to keep suspicion away from us.

I don't like to mention it, but I had a fake ID created for myself, in case we needed to be legal adults in order to book a hotel room. An old friend of Demyx and mine was good at illegal deeds, fake ID's included.

Soon enough, it was the second to the last day of Demyx's residency. My family had said goodbye to them, and we had worked out a way to build remorse in the hearts of Demyx's parents. When we said a final farewell, Demyx came up and wrapped his arms around me tightly, and I did the same. We hugged for a long time, it was an act we put our hearts into. But when the time finally came for Demyx to head to his own home, we let go, but held each other's hands until they fell, and Demyx would act devastated. I would act sad, myself, to give my parents their own share of the sorrow. And then, at night, Demyx would take two bags he packed, give one to me to hide as a sign that everything was underway, and then he would run off and hide in the mansion. I had my own things packed and ready for my own departure. But I needed to wait until the following morning, when his parents would become aware of his absence.

"Zexion, tell me you've seen Demyx," But I shook my head in fake shock.

"I...he's gone?" And so they searched everywhere for Demyx, only to find no trace of him. They left reluctantly, behind their plans. My parents paid their sympathies to both me, and Demyx's family, but that night I took the two bags I had packed, as well as Demyx's second bag and ran to the mansion to hide with Demyx until another day had passed.

In the mansion, we honestly felt right at home.

"Hey, Zexion? Why don't we just stay here instead of going somewhere else?" We were moving some old and broken furnishings away from the outside of a door, to see what was inside of the room.

"Too many people come by here, if we were seen going in, coming out, or walking around inside of here, that would either stir panic in the hearts of some, and demand investigation, or, we could get lucky and they think we're the ghosts who live here. Also, there is the fact that we would have to find local jobs, and go to the local store, which means there is a chance my mother or father could spot us, and send us home. We have to be careful about every move we make, until we get out of here."

"Oh," We moved the last piece of junk out of the way, and I opened the door. A wave of musty air filtered out, and in the back corner, there was the mostly-rotted carcass of some animal, which had now been reduced to bone and little flesh. It was a gross sight to see, but the smell was worse. Closing the door, we agreed to never open that room again.

During the nights we slept with sleeping bags that we had hidden in the mansion prior to our official stay, and we slept in the most sound room we could find, the library. It was extremely quiet, as well as very clean, making it the best place for sleeping, and living. Unfortunately, most of the books were too old for me to want to touch. They were already falling apart in the shelves.

"Zexion,"

"Yes, Demyx?" I was nearing sleep when he called my name, throwing me right back into alert.

"Why havent we, 'ya know, kissed yet or anything?"

"We have, remember?"

"Yeah, but that was the first time, and the only time. I mean, why don't we ever do it like, ever? It's been two months, and...we've done nothing more than hug," I sighed, sitting up.

"Demyx, come here." I made sure my tone was strong, almost irritated. I...wanted him to be surprised. He inched closer to me, and I could see his dark shadow in the room as he moved.

"Yeah?"

I cannot believe I am about to do this, I thought as I quickly measured the location of his lips, and pressed them to my own. We were there, kissing in the dark, for only a few seconds that felt like hours, and when I pulled away, he did not move.

"There," I said. "Satisfied?" And almost right away, he answered me.

"No," And he kissed me. I did not stop myself from responding, and I don't think he did, either. Once again our lips moved together, our hearts beat the same rhythm, our bodies molded together like that moment was meant to happen in perfection. It was unlike any moment ever faked, ever acted out. It was the kind of flawless moment one sees and reads about in fictional stories, only, it was real. It was happening to me, and I was sharing it with the one I loved.

In short, the three bases in any relationship were rounded that night.

I will not go into any details regarding the experience, the only thing I will say is that I am happy that I experienced it with the person I happened to fall in love with. Although I will say that it was strange, having done those things with a boy who had been my friend for my entire life. That...was probably why I had an issue with our relationship, in the first place.

But after that night, the two of us began our leave, packing our belongings once again and preparing to leave for the station, we were heading for Sunset Hill. But the timing needed perfection; we had to make sure we would not be noticed on our trek there. We were, though, not spotted, and we purchased the tickets successfully, boarded the train and acted like a couple of friends heading out for the weekend. If anyone was to question us about where we were going, we would respond with the reasonable excuse, "We're going camping with some friends, and we're supposed to meet them in Sunset Hill." No one ended up asking, but it was always better to be safe than sorry.

When we safely arrived at the Sunset Hill station, Demyx and I exited the train and went right in to town, and thus began the search for a motel of some sort. After having no luck, though, we had to ask a local or two. The cheapest and closest one we found was fittingly named the "Setting Sun." We booked it for a period of two months, which was less than the maximum amount of time, as to avoid suspicion. And from there, the next thing we had to do was find jobs, and that had to be done immediately. In fact, the day after we booked the room, Demyx and I set out on another "quest," as he put it, for employment.

I was more or less lucky. It was the third building I had found and inquired about. It was called "The Book and Bean." You can guess what kind of place it was, a bookstore. There was two levels to the building, the bottom was the place where the books were stocked and purchased and sometimes read, and the upstairs level was a small coffee shop, something similar to Starbucks, only very much smaller, and less expensive. It so happens that the owner was hiring, they had just lost an employee a day or two prior to my inquiry. I was to begin work the following week, after things were all settled in and I had some "training."

Demyx, on the other hand, had more trouble finding work.

We searched for most of the day, and found only one possible place. They were not currently hiring, but said that they may need a "helping hand" when the tourist season came, and that they would call us. That job did not end up coming through, and it took Demyx another few days to find his work, which was a part-time job at a place called "Sounds of the Wind," and his job was to go in on the weekends, Friday and Saturday, and take stock of everything. The first day he would have to count the amount of each item they had in the shelves and in storage, and then the next day, he would figure out how many of what object were sold, and when the time came, he would need to place the order for the things they needed to restock on. Needless to say, he did not enjoy his work.

Sooner than we hoped, though, summer was coming to an end and we needed to finish our education. We had moved hotels, and were occupying our new room for one month and ten days.

As for my schooling, I chose to enroll myself in the local home-schooling program, or, better called independent study. That is where I have my assigned text books, for six classes, and each week on a scheduled day and time, I meet with my one teacher. We correct the work I had from the week before, take whatever tests are needed, then receive another week's worth of assignments. That way, I was able to keep my daytime job and earn as much munny as possible. Demyx enrolled in regular school, and still went to work on the weekends. We were slowly on our way to living in an apartment, or, maybe even one of those smaller, comfortable cabins that were kind of out of the way of the rest of town. That was the only thing we hadnt decided.

But even still, when we spoke about the future and about our relationship and time together, only smiles came to our faces. We had many hopes and dreams, many aspirations and wishes. Our love, however secret, strong, open, or silent it may have seemed, was everlasting. Demyx and I were truly in love, and there are no words even now that can describe exactly what it felt like. Even I, who thought I would never be blessed with such an experience or feeling, now I believe in it. After all, with someone like Demyx always at your side, and then, finding that you loved him more than your own life...how can a human being not believe in love, everlasting?