"Oh, would you look at that,"

It was eight o'clock on Saturday morning, and the weak morning light was just beginning to penetrate the thin curtains hanging over the windows of the sitting room.

Inside, there was a whole pile of assorted bedding, and curled up amongst them were three sleeping bodies, all dead to the world.

Tifa carefully picked her way through the pillows, and lifted up the stack of empty pizza boxes to take out into the kitchen.

"That must be Marluxia," She whispered to Cloud, who was hanging around the door. She pointed to the pink-haired man whose arms were entangled with Vexen's.

Cloud nodded silently as Tifa approached the door, collecting up empty sweet wrappers and glasses as she walked.

"We'd better leave them be,"

---

Naminé absent mindedly flicked through the Saturday morning TV channels as she waited for Vexen and Marluxia to wake up. She vaguely contemplated disturbing them from their slumber, but they looked so comfortable cuddled up in each other's arms.

She felt a pang of envy run through her, but she ignored it. It was only fair that Vexen should have such a beautiful boyfriend; he'd been single his whole life, an extremely hard worker and also a wonderful brother. So instead, she smiled a little smile and, a few moments later, whacked him resolutely over the head with a pillow and ran for her life.

Vexen sat up, rubbing his head, Marluxia not far behind him.

"Ouch! What the hell was- Naminé!"

He grabbed the nearest pillow and dashed out of the door to follow his litte sister and extract revenge. Bemused, Marluxia picked up a pillow of his own and chased after Vexen.

They found her hiding in her room, battled her down onto the bed and proceeded on with the most epic pillow battle, ever.

Eventually, fully exhausted, the three of them collapsed onto the floor.

"I win," Vexen declared between pants as he tried to get his breath back.

"No way!" Naminé protested, heaving her pillow up one last time to throw it in Vexen's general direction. It missed and hit Marluxia in the face instead.

"Hey!" Marluxia threw the pillow back, without much conviction.

"Is anybody else hungry?" Vexen asked after the pillow had gone back and fourth about four times.

"I am," Marluxia replied.

Vexen picked himself up off the floor and held out a hand for each of Naminé and Marluxia. They made their way downstairs.

"I love your house, by the way," Marluxia said as they approached the kitchen. "It's really big," He ghosted a hand past a shelf in the corridor, which had a whole series of family photos. He picked one of them up.

"Is this Aerith?"

Vexen, half way into the kitchen, leaned over.

"Yeah. That was taken on my seventeenth birthday, just a few months before the accident,"

Vexen had told Marluxia about how his real mum had died in a car crash. Marluxia had been sympathetic and comforting, but Vexen had brushed it all off. In his opinion, Marluxia, who was estranged from both his parents, had the worse deal.

"I can see where you get your good looks from," Marluxia said, setting the framed photograph back down next to one of Cloud. Vexen shrugged.

"I look more like my dad," He said. "It's Naminé who really takes after her mum,"

"I can see that," Marluxia replied, glancing at the photo of Naminé currently on the shelf. She was sitting on the marble steps of some art gallery in a pretty white dress, tiny smile on her face and sketch book in her hand. He looked at the next one along - a black haired woman.

"This is Tifa?"

"Yeah. I'm sure you'll meet her later,"

Marluxia nodded and made his way to the kitchen. Naminé, already there, was pulling out a cardboard box from the larder.

"Pancakes?"

"Sure,"

Marluxia watched in fascination as the two siblings cleared the kitchen a little, then pulled out a frying pan, mixed up the pancake batter, and poured some into the frying pan.

"Do you want a drink?" Vexen asked once they were busy cooking pancakes. Marluxia, who had been staring at the notice board on one wall, looked up.

"Tea?" He asked, hopefully. Vexen went over to the kettle, filled it up and switched it on.

"I dunno if we have any herbal," He said as he rummaged around the nearest shelf in search of tea.

"It's fine; Earl Grey or something would be great,"

"English Breakfast?"

"Sure. Thanks,"

"No problem,"

Naminé was just flipping the first pancake. She tossed it high into the air, and caught it again expertly.

"That's just showing off," Vexen said. Naminé stuck her tongue out at him as she served up the pancake, covered it with lemon juice and sugar and rolled it up.

"Do you mind if I take this one upstairs?" She asked. "I have some stuff I want to do before I go out,"

"Why? Where are you going?" Vexen asked as he poured some more batter into the frying pan.

"Going out with Hayner, Pence and Olette, remember,"

"Oh yeah. If you want,"

"Thanks!"

She dashed off upstairs, pancake in hand.

"So," Marluxia said as Vexen served him a pancake dripping with lemon juice and sugar. "Mind if I ask you a question?"

Vexen shook his head.

"Well, when was it that you first realised you were gay?"

"When found out that I had a crush on one of the guys in my class, when I was thirteen," Vexen told him. "But I didn't want to tell anyone. Naminé was too young to understand, and I didn't feel like I had anyone else to turn to. My Mum was always really religious and I'd read that God didn't like gays... so I was scared to tell her. Eventually I told my Dad, and thankfully he was really accepting. He told me that Mum would always love me, no matter what I did or who I loved. But still, it was years before I could summon up the courage to tell her I was gay,"

"But you did?"

"Yeah. When I was seventeen. And Dad was right, she said she loved me anyway. She told me that the world needed more love anyway, no matter where it came from or who it was for. But I guess God didn't like that, because a few weeks later she had the accident, and..." He trailed off. It was still a painful memory for him.

"I'm sorry," Marluxia said quietly. "Still, at least you had the chance to tell her,"

Vexen allowed himself a minute smile.

"Yeah. So what about you?"

"When I first had sex, it felt... wrong. Like I was taking advantage of her. And then I realised I was gay. My girlfriend was pretty gutted, but she forgave me - eventually. We're still friends."

"That... That's quite funny, actually,"

"Yeah. We still laugh about it," Marluxia shuffled over on the table a little so Vexen could sit down to eat his own pancake. "Anyway, so I told Reno, my brother, the same day. And he laughed and said he'd set me up with one of his gay friends - of course he never did. He was also the one who told me to dye my hair pink,"

"What colour is it naturally?" Vexen interrupted.

"Sort of...reddish brown russet. Ish. Most boring colour in the world. Pink suits me much better - I've never gone back. Anyway, he did it for me and then when my Mum saw me, she asked my why on Earth I'd done it, because I looked like a fag. So I told her I was a fag and she threw a bottle at me. And a lamp. And almost a chair. I never went back home after that,"

"Oh... I'm sorry,"

"Don't be. I laugh about that too. I'm still amazed that she managed to pick that chair up. So anyway, after that, I crashed at my boyfriend's house for a while before his Dad caught us doing it in the shower - sorry. I'm going into too much detail,"

"No, it's okay. Carry on,"

"You sure? Well, we broke up after that and I lived on the streets for a bit because I didn't want to get fostered and have to move to some other place. About that time I started going out with Lexaeus, and he let me stay at his place. He had a huge family so it was a little cramped, but we made do. Anyway, his Mum was so nice to me, she's still practically family. More than my real mother. I thought that when Zexion came along and I set Lexaeus up with him, I'd have to leave because I was old enough to rent my own place by then. But Lexaeus' Mum let me stay on at least until I had a job and had saved up enough to rent, even when Lexaeus himself moved to Cornwall. Eventually I moved in here and I've paid off most of the mortgage. And that's my whole life story, give or take a few small details,"

"It's a lot more interesting than mine," Vexen said.

"But yours is the sweetest story I have ever heard. Mine is just vulgar,"

"Only the bit about doing it in the shower,"

"Hm. I'd say that was just the tip of the iceberg but I don't want to completely ruin my reputation," Marluxia said with mock concern.

"I don't think there's much more left to ruin," Vexen remarked.

"Don't worry, I'll take good care of you. Next question?"

"Sure,"

"Did you always want to be a scientist?"

"For a little while when I was small I wanted to be an astronaut, but quite frankly the thought scares me now. Other than that, yes. It's sort of my passion, if that doesn't sound too mad,"

"No, I think it's cool. I never understood science but I always liked how it could explain almost anything just with a few sets of simple rules. Except nobody ever told me what they were,"

"The problem is it all boils down to Quantum Physics, which is difficult to explain. Atoms, subatomic particles, things like that." Vexen explained. Marluxia gave him a blank look. "I always preferred Chemistry, anyway. What about you? You wanted to be an artist, right?"

"Yeah. The age-old story of badly timed failure. But before that, I wanted to be a singer. But my voice broke and I've never been as good. I still do it for fun sometimes, in the shower,"

"Not while you're having sex, presumably,"

"Vexen! That was dirty. And no," Marluxia grinned. "Well, not unless we're being really kinky at work,"

Vexen tried not to laugh.

"I don't want to know,"

Marluxia gave him an apologetic look.

"I'm sorry. I shouldn't have brought that up. That reminds me, I was going to call Xigbar today to tell him I'm quitting,"

"You don't have to," Vexen said.

"Of course I do," Marluxia replied, standing up. "It's not fair that I'm off having sex with other people if I'm going to be going out with you,"

Vexen pulled him back down into the seat.

"No. Look, I've thought about this, and I don't want you to go around giving up your job just because of one guy you hardly even know. Besides, it's just sex. And probably better sex than I could offer,"

When Marluxia didn't reply for several moments, Vexen continued.

"Anyway, the fact that you've even tried to proves you're serious and I'm not just some joke like I first thought,"

Marluxia shook his head.

"You're mad," He finally said with resignation. "And I love you for it. If you ever change your mind, just give the word, will you?"

Vexen nodded.

"So," He said. "Next question?"

"Go ahead,"

"How did you get into porn?"

Marluxia coughed.

"Long or short story?"

"Long, I suppose. We have plenty of time,"

"Well, I was nineteen at the time-"

"That's a bit young, isn't it?"

"I was legal," Marluxia shrugged, finishing the last of his pancake. Vexen went back over to the cooker to make them each another one. "But anyway. I was working in a gay bar-"

"Why am I not surprised," Vexen intoned dully. The comment made Marluxia frown.

"Don't. I hated it. Being young, even by their standards, I got pushed around a lot. Forced to do a lot of things that I didn't want to,"

"Oh. Sorry. But why didn't you just quit?"

"I needed the money," Marluxia sighed. "A lot of people wouldn't employ me simply based on my appearance. Still, there I was. I was single at the time, had a couple of one night stands but that was all. But one night, I wound up with some guy, I forget his name now, who said I ought to go into porn. Knew a guy who knew a guy, would get in touch, that sort of thing," Marluxia paused to take a bite of the pancake Vexen presented him with, and the scientist watched him in earnest. "I thought he was joking,"

"But you got a call?"

"Well, nothing come of it for about a week or two, so I went back to my old job, not expecting anything. But one Friday night, I'd been washing up some of the glasses from the bar when a voice says behind me: "What's a pretty thing like you doing skulking around in the shadows?""

Vexen nearly laughed out loud at the bizarre Australian accent that Marluxia had imitated.

"So here I am, dressed in a ridiculous schoolgirl outfit, with a pervert surfer behind me-"

Vexen had to press a sleeve to his mouth to keep from spluttering with laughter. It shouldn't have been that funny, but the sheer absurdity of the situation was just hilarious. Marluxia gave him a slightly concerned look.

"Carry on,"

"And I'd have probably the worst night of that entire ghastly job, and the last thing I needed was some old geezer trying to get me drunk enough to sleep with him. So what does the other man say? "Let me get you a drink, sweetheart,""

"Was this where your saviour figuratively galloped in on his noble steed?"

"I wish," Marluxia laughed. "No, I spun around, ready to explain very loudly and very obscenely just how much my life sucked and how he would very, very much not want to mess with me tonight because I was wearing stilettos and not afraid to kick him right where it would hurt the most - and found out I was shouting at a pirate."

"A pirate?"

"A pirate."

"That's...weird," Vexen finally managed. Marluxia nodded morosely.

"Momentarily thrown, I ended up just staring. And that was when he whipped off his feathery hat, bowed down and said "I have come to rescue you, fair maiden,""

There was a pause as Vexen vaguely echoed "Maiden" to assure himself that he'd heard right.

"Sorry to break it to you, I said, but I'm a man and this is a gay strip club,"

"What did he say?" Vexen demanded curiously.

"He said "Yes, I know. You are Marluxia Brooks, and you have been personally and at great length recommended to me for employment. My name is Xigbar. Let me buy you a drink and we shall discuss this further,"

"So he was the guy who the guy you slept with knew a guy who knew?" Vexen asked. The sentence was more difficult than he expected to pas.

"I do not to this day know why he was dressed up as a pirate that night," Marluxia enigmatically replied with a nod. "But it's been four years and I've never looked back,"

"That's some story," Vexen said.

"Yeah," Marluxia agreed.

"So you were still Marluxia Brooks then?"

"Yeah. Axel was the one who came up with the LeVine thing,"

Vexen laughed.

"No wonder you nearly spurted tea out of your nose when I said your name sounded like a porn star,"

Marluxia laughed.

"I really thought I'd been ruffled when you said that,"

Vexen shook his head.

"I honestly didn't realise anything was up until I saw the DVD in that store,"

"Must have given you quite a shock,"

"Yeah,"

"Did you buy it?"

"Marluxia!"

"Hey, I just wondered,"

"Why? What would you do if you found a porn movie starring your boyfriend?"

"I'd totally watch it."

Vexen, realising he had lost, sighed and shut up. He collected up the empty plates and teacups, and loaded them into the dishwasher.

He did not admit that buried at the bottom of his bag, wrapped in a cellophane packet, was the film.