Chapter 3: Snooping

Marluxia slumped on the table as he walked into Axel's house. It was Thursday and he was at his wits end. All week he's tried everything he can think of. He dropped his pencil and flirted a bit the other just handed it back and went to his class. When the blond was on his way to class, Marluxia timed himself to bump into him, pressing him into the nearest wall and give him the big puppy eyes trying the whole "innocent loving" act. Third attempt was a bit cheesy. In a way, it was romantic… if it was Valentine's Day and the mark was a girl. When the teen unlocked the metal door, balloons lifted and glitter and streamers decorated the inside. But the reaction was completely different from what Marluxia had planned. He pictured the young man being happy and throwing his arms around the pinkette and them making love like rabbits. Instead, the blond just pulled out his books in what would be a record time: .5 seconds. Marluxia never saw anyone storm away so fast.

He let out a long sigh. "Why the hell am I trying so hard for this guy?" He looked up as Axel dropped a bag of chips in front of him. "Here, you need to eat."

Marluxia pushed them away. "No, Axe, I don't want to eat. I did everything to get this guy to like me but he's just…."

"Scared of you?"

He looked to him and glared. "I was going to say resilient but thanks for making me sound worse." He sighed and hit his head on the table. "That's it; I give up."

Axel chuckled and rubbed his head. "There, there. You shouldn't give up on Luxord like that."

Marluxia shot his head up and looked to him. "What did you say?"

The tall redhead sat by him and pulled out a notebook. "Since you were so desperate, I went ahead and did a little digging. So I did the first thing you didn't. Find out the guy's basic name." He opened the book and read from it. " 'Name: Luxord. Age: 17. Junior. Has best grades in Math, Statistics & Probability. Is on the soccer team and is on the… Chess team'? That's weird. But that's what I got. I got what I could before the teachers caught me. I went around to everyone I knew and they had no idea who the guy was."

In the blink of an eye, the other had the book and was trying to memorize every detail. "No, this is enough. Thanks, Axel. I can use this to get him." His smiled quickly faded and he hit his head on the table. "Ugh, but I'm at my limit. I have no other way to get him."

Axel looked to him and stood, pulling Marluxia's arm. "C'mon, I have just the way for you to relieve that stress and to relax."

Marluxia moaned and shook his head. "No, Axel. I'm not in the mood…"

"Oh yes, you are. You either can get up and move or I'll carry you." He looked to the pinkette to see if there was any reaction. "Alright, then." In one quick movement, Marluxia had a view of what looked like Axel's lower back.

"Hey, I said I wasn't in the mood!" He protested, flailing to get down.

"No, Let's go." He chuckled and headed down the hallway.

Marluxia was lost deep within his thoughts. "Gawd, why do I keep doing this to myself? I get depressed and I end up right here… It's usually over the same thing. I date a bunch of confused l-losers… Maybe it's cuz I was turned down that I want that guy. It took a HUGE blow to my ego, that's for damn sure. Mmmm… Though it wouldn't hurt to be held in those arms… I hope its just my sex drive wanting to show its dominance… Hmm but it would be… really nice… So nice…." "Ahh, Luxord…."

"I told you it was an accident." Marluxia lay in bed looking over at Axel. Things were a bit awkward after a certain someone said a person's name while sleeping with someone else. He can honestly say that had never happened before.

The redhead shook his head as he messed with changing the channel. "And I told you, don't worry about it."

"I will because you're mad at me. When you're mad at me you get that damn twitch in your eye."

"I'm not mad. If you would be quiet, I would tell you what I'm thinking of." Once he heard a sigh, he took that as a sign everything was generally okay. "Now listen, I was thinking that maybe, just maybe, I'll help you get this guy. I can do some snooping and tell you about him, what he's like since you're obviously interested in him to say his name while having sex."

"I said I was sorry. Can't you just forgive me?" Marluxia buried his face in the pillow. He was already embarrassed enough over what happened he didn't want to be reminded of it.

Axel chuckled and hit him with his own pillow. "No. I'm doing this for you, not for me. In all the times we had sex and you dated other guys, I never once heard you say someone's name. You could say I'm almost impressed. You, Dear Marluxia, are genuinely in love. Though I never pegged you to be the kind to fall in love at first sight."

Blue eyes looked up and narrowed. "I'm going to kill you."

Axel just chuckled and pinched his cheek. "My cute li'l Marl's all growed up. Aren't you the cutest?"

Marluxia growled a bit and pushed himself onto Axel. "You are such an ass and I hope you rot in hell!" He growled as he reached for Axel's neck. "I'll send you there myself!"

"GAH! It… was a joke! Seriously, I'll help you!"

Marluxia looked to him and slowly let him go. He needed this guy around… For now. The second he had his way, this guy will be the first to die. "Okay you get to live for now…"

Axel coughed and rubbed his neck. That was going to be sore in the morning. "Thanks…. I think."

Marluxia nodded and sat back. "Now, I'm gonna go home and think about what to do for next week and tell you. If we're gonna get this guy to notice me, we have to start somewhere."

"Yeah…" He looked over to his friend as he watched him get dressed. It wasn't a creepy stalkerish, "I like watching people dress" it was more of thinking and the person just happened to get dressed before him. "Hey Marly?"

"Yeah?"

"Quick question. Now, bear with me on this. Have you ever actually just thought of talking to him? You know, not flirting? You may have a better chance of getting close to him and seeing if he likes you."

Marluxia stopped halfway through buttoning his shirt up and stared into the wall. Of all the things he's tried, merely walking up to the guy and talking to him was… just stupid. "Axel, that was the stupidest thing you have ever said. Talking to him would take forever. I just want to get him to like me so I can feel better about myself. He humiliated me and I want to prove that no man can resist me."

"So you wanna sleep with him? Okay that I can manage but still I think you should just talk to him."

He rolled his eyes. "Fine, I'll talk to him tomorrow. Now if you don't mind, I have to get home. See ya tomorrow, 'kay?"

The redhead nodded as he pulled on his own pants. "Yeah okay." He walked after Marluxia to lock the door. As he turned to go back to his room, he noticed that his notebook was gone from where he thought he left it on the table. He chuckled to himself and walked on. "That guy's insane."

Friday rolled around and so did school. It was the last school day of the week and Marluxia's last chance to try and get Luxord to at least give him the time of day. He thought to do what Axel did: follow him and try to get some idea into this guy. After grabbing his things, he waited around the corner he knew Luxord was going to pass to his first class of the day. The second the blond past, the pinkette trailed him. They walked to the room far on the other side of the campus (far from Marluxia's class mainly) and to the English side where Luxord walked into Mr. Saix's room. From behind a bush, the (very bad) spy peered at his target. The blond casually slapped high fives with the two biggest losers in school (according to Marluxia) Xigbar and Xaldin. He huffed as he watched them. It was just unbelievable that this cool guy hung out with these two… gentlemen. Marluxia may not have liked them but he knew to be considerate at all times when dealing with people he didn't care for. He watched them act chummy and head inside.

He stood from his hiding spot and leaned on the wall. A grin spread across his face as he thought. "Perfect. The best way to get to him is through his friends. Surely they'll get him to at least ask questions about me. Oooh, I'm a genius!" The moment of basking in his plan was short lived when he felt a hand on his shoulder. He looked up to see the disciplinarian of the school, Mr. Lexsaus. "Uh… Hello, Mr. Lex."

The older man said nothing but handed him a slip of paper. The red words labeled detention only meant one thing: no convincing Luxord's friends. A groan admitted from his throat as he begrudgingly headed to his class. Mr. Vexen was bad enough with his badgering for him to care about what makes up the human body as opposed to himself. (needless to say Marluxia said caring about himself was the same thing but Mr. Vexen didn't agree).

"Ugh, I hate homework… Why is it the teachers that teach my worst subject give me more of it?" Marluxia whined to himself as he walked into the library for detention. All he had to do was sit and do his homework for an hour until he was allowed to leave. When translated meant he was going to sit and pull his hair out trying to figure out the first problem. Once the he pulled out his books, the library door opened. Marluxia didn't bother to look up to the door but a few words fell on his ears.

"…club was canceled but they asked me to come in and tutor people…"

"Okay, help that one. When he's in here, he struggles. A bit stuck up but it's just his pride that keeps him from asking for help."

Marluxia chuckled to himself. "Great, some dumbass is going to have his hand held while in detention. Oh this is going to be good. Probably some big ogre that can barely form a sentence with more than 2 syllables. It'll be nice to have some entertainment in here. It'll be like trying to get a dog to sing a score from Mamma Mia!" A bag plopped by him and the chair scrapped across the floor. Marluxia looked up and his mouth dropped slightly.

"Hey, I'm gonna be tutoring you today." Luxord sat beside him and started to open his bag. He pulled out his binder and looked to him. "Ready?"

"Mama Mia… THANK YOU, GOD!"