"I'm home!"

Vexen kicked off his shoes at the doorway and threw his bag down on the floor, glad to be back in familiar territory. Not that he hadn't enjoyed his trip to see Marluxia, but the train ride home had been so deathly boring that he was glad to be back with at least a computer and a number of games consoles to keep him amused.

There was a pitter patter of feet running down the stairs and a moment later Naminé exploded into the hallway, grinning.

"Vexen!" She exclaimed. "You'll never guess what I-"

"Hello to you too," Vexen said sarcastically.

"Oh, sorry," Naminé said, regaining a little of her usual shy composture. "Have a good time?"

"Yeah. It was nice seeing Marluxia again,"

"As gorgeous as you remember?" Naminé asked as Vexen wandered into the kitchen to raid the fridge.

"More so,"

"Grab some pictures?"

"A couple. I'll show you in a minute,"

"So, are you officially going out with him yet?"

Vexen paused, a yoghurt in his hand.

"I guess so," He finally said. "I suppose we're both going to humour ourselves as long as we can until we have to admit that there's no way this relationship will ever work,"

"Don't say that," Naminé chided. "I bet you can make it last, just as long as you keep trying,"

"I don't know," Vexen said quietly, sighing. "I'm just worried. I mean, he said himself he's not very good at holding down boyfriends, and I'm terrible at pretty much any human interraction,"

"Hey," Naminé said. "Stop. Look, he likes you, right? And you like him. So why shouldn't you go out, just because you're different or live at opposite ends of the country or whatever?"

"Well, I-"

"Vexen, do you remember Roxas? That guy in the year above. I really, really liked him, but I never had the courage to tell him what I felt. I missed my chance, and then he moved away and I haven't seen him since. You have the perfect opportunity with Marluxia, I bet. Don't let it slip through your fingers,"

"I suppose you're right," Vexen finally admitted.

"Photos," Naminé suddenly said. Vexen stood up, and fished out a memory card from his pocket.

"Is your computer on?" He asked. Naminé nodded, pulling him up and all but dragging him to her room.

It only took a moment to plug in the card and open up the files. The first was Marluxia smiling over his polystyrene cup in the cafe.

Naminé gasped.

"Oh God," She said. "He's gorgeous. I didn't think people like that actually existed in real life,"

Vexen couldn't help but swell with pride. Marluxia really was that beautiful, and somehow this perfect man had chosen him to love.

Naminé clicked to the next picture, Marluxia sprawled on the bed with his shirt off. Marluxia holding a controller in his hands, laughing. Marluxia curled up amidst the pillows, asleep. A few of Kairi's photos; Marluxia in a smart suit and top hat with a cup of tea, Marluxia sprawled comically over the floor with a lot of fake blood, Marluxia hanging upside down from a bunk bed wearing not very much at all.

"He looks just like a movie star," Naminé said, awe in her voice. "God, Vexen, how could you ever doubt somebody who looked like that?"

"He just seems too good to be true," Vexen muttered.

"If I were you, I'd just enjoy it as much as I could and not even think about it,"

Just then, the phone rang. Vexen ran out and picked it up.

"Hey there, sweetheart. Arrive home safe?"

"There was a bit of a delay on the second train, but nothing else,"

"Good, good," Marluxia replied, and Vexen could just imagine his smile. "I'm about to go out - we're going down to the Isle of Wight for some filming, and I'll be there all next week. I thought you ought to know,"

"That's a little sudden, isn't it?" Vexen said.

"Yeah; they sprung it on us right out of the blue. There'll be a phone and an internet connection there so we can still chat,"

"Oh, that's good," Vexen was relieved; he didn't want to have to have gone a whole week without talking to Marluxia.

"Also, since I'll be half way there already, I was wondering if we could meet up next weekend in Plymouth? Not that I want to impose on you-"

"That would be great," Vexen interrupted, aware that Naminé was lingering behind him. "My little sister really wants to meet you,"

"Really?"

"Yeah. I showed her some pictures of you. She says you look just like a movie star,"

Marluxia laughed.

"We'll be finishing the filming on Friday afternoon, so could I meet you in Plymouth city centre sometime in the evening?"

"Yeah. I'll have to ask dad if you can stay here on Friday evening, but that should be fine,"

"Great. I'll call you as soon as we land in the Isle of Wight, okay? And we can fix the arrangements then,"

"Yeah," Vexen replied, not even bothering to suppress his grin.

"Also, good luck with tomorrow if I don't manage to catch you before you go to work,"

"Thanks,"

The was some kind of commotion at the other end of the phone.

"That's Axel. I gotta go. Love you!"

"I love you too," Vexen replied, and Marluxia sent a kiss down the phone just before he put it down.

"Well?" Naminé said.

"If he's allowed to stay over, he'll be coming round on Friday,"

"Really? I can't wait!"

---

Vexen was amazed to find that the first thing he did at work on Monday was blow stuff up. It turned out that the man he was replacing needed to have retired several decades ago, and was completely insane (he even came in to check that Vexen was suitable), so for the past few months they'd been forced into conducting tests on various materials by almost exclusively trying to make them explode.

The others seemed to be glad for a little bit of normality back in the lab once the crazy octogenarian left for the last time.

"As great as explosions are," One of them explained, "They do create one hell of a lot of paperwork. As the new kid around here, you'll probably be forced into doing most of it,"

Vexen didn't mind. Paperwork was something he was good at. Although perhaps he shouldn't have voiced that opinion, because after that he was shackled with it all, including the filing system which was a mess. He even ended up staying late after work to sort it all out.

Somebody handed the phone to him halfway through, saying it was a certain Marluxia LeVine.

"Hi,"

"I take it you landed in the Isle of Wight fine last night," Vexen said as he shifted through a stack of papers, phone firmly wedged between his ear and his shoulder.

"Yeah - sorry I didn't ring you. The phone line was down and we only just got it fixed,"

"It's okay. How did you get my work number?"

"Your dad. I'm surprised you're not home yet. It's nearly nine o'clock,"

"Really?" Vexen had lost track of the time. "Their paperwork is a mess. I've been sorting it out for them,"

"Do it once and they'll always expect you to," Marluxia warned Vexen.

"I think they already do," Vexen replied. He set down the finances for last month with a sigh. "But anyway, how are you?"

"Exhausted," Marluxia replied. "We started filming as soon as we arrived. We have a whole film to do in a week, and half the people I don't even know. A load of them are from America and they can't seem to comprehend-" He stopped. "Ah, it doesn't matter,"

"No, carry on," Vexen prompted Marluxia, curious.

"Well, I had to do this scene with one of them and he just didn't understand what he was supposed to do. Just some pretty airhead. None of them can act for shit,"

"Why are they actors then?"

"Because our sponsors will hire anyone with a pretty face. Talent doesn't even come into it. It really gives us people who can act a bad name in the trade,"

"That must be annoying,"

"Yeah. And Americans have some freaky obsession with British accents. I mean, I don't even have an accent and they kept on swooning over it,"

"You do have a nice voice, though," Vexen said as he finished the finances for the current month. Somewhere he'd acquired an old shopping list that had got mixed up with orders for thermite and liquid nitrogen.

"Thanks," Marluxia said, his tone a little lighter. "But I really shouldn't complain, because we did get to do this one scene with a huge cake and a whole lot of whipped cream about four times because we kept messing up our lines,"

Vexen laughed.

"What kind of films do you make?!"

"Vexen! You're nearly as perverted as I am. It was a food fight,"

"Sounds like your day was a lot more interesting than mine,"

"What did you do?"

"We exploded a Teflon saucepan. Then somebody dropped a wotsit into the fire and it exploded, too,"

"And you'd rather be smothered from head to toe with cake and cream?"

"At least you didn't have to do half a ton of paperwork afterwards, trying to explain how the experiment may have been "biased" because we dropped a wotsit in halfway through,"

"I'm sure there's some poor sod who'll have to write out a form claiming for four cakes and how much cream was it?" There was a pause as somebody answered Marluxia's question. "Thirty two cans of whipped cream. That can't be right. We didn't use that much,"

Vexen laughed as he put the last of the forms and paperwork into the right trays. That done, he wrote a little note explaining his new temporary filing system, cleared up the last of some mess from an earlier experiment, and went upstairs to the ground floor, phone still in his hand.

"I have to go now," He said. "But I'll be on MSN later if you can be,"

"They're using the computer right now; one of the Americans has brought along some random Japanese computer game. But I might be able to wrestle it off them later,"

"Not literally, I hope,"

"You never know," Marluxia replied with an ominous air about him. "Anyway, talk to you later, I hope. Can't wait until Friday!"

"Me either," Vexen said, leaning against the counter where the receptionist was snoozing. "I love you,"

"Love you too, sweetheart," Marluxia replied, and there was laughter on the phone as he hung up. Vexen gently nudged the receptionist awake and handed her the phone, then left.

The night air was cool and still as Vexen wandered home, through Central Park. It took him about half an hour to get home, where he quickly reheated dinner and ran downstairs to load up his computer.

He nibbled on microwaved pasta as he waited to log on, and finally MSN started up. Marluxia was online.

A message popped up.

Hey babe

Hi

Everyone's watching over my shoulder, so I can't say anything personal Marluxia typed. They all want you to go on webcam

Vexen laughed.

I don't think they'd find me eating out of a Tupperware very interesting He wrote.

I don't know. They might be fascinated.

Weird.

I'm not kidding when I say they really are!

Weirder than you? Vexen couldn't help but tease. Marluxia sent through a pouty face.

Don't be so mean, or I'll sign off

Lol, sorry.

Anyway, I've got another scene to do in a minute, so I can't talk for long

More cakes?

No, this one's in a swimming pool

I'll be interested to see this film when it's finished... Vexen said. After all, what kind of a film would include both a massive cake fight and a swimming pool scene?

The others are saying all kinds of rude things now. I gotta go

Aww…

I'll call you tomorrow! Promise!

Fine.

Marluxia signed off.

---

Friday seemed to take forever and a day to arrive. Vexen was up to his elbows with work right from the word go, and Marluxia never seemed to be alone when he called, so they didn't really get any privacy to chat.

Vexen was walking home from work on Friday (they'd finished early, so he had time to go home and change before meeting Marluxia) when he just happened to pop into an old DVD and video store to see if there was anything interesting to rent or buy. He had several hours to spare, so he decided to while away the time by browsing.

He was looking at the Sci-fi section when a flash of familiar pink on another shelf happened to catch his eye. Thinking it must just have been some girly film in a pink DVD case, he ignored it, but it kept bothering his peripheral vision.

He glanced at it again and the face on the front of the video case was unmistakeable as Marluxia's. Head thrown back, eyes closed, lips parted, entirely naked...

Vexen peered at the cover, not quite wanting to believe his eyes.

No. That was definitely Marluxia. And that was also, quite definitely, porn.