Just as Vexen had predicted, it was late one Saturday morning that Larxene became the first Nobody to reclaim her heart. Vexen didn't make a big fuss over it; he simply briefed her on what was going to happen first, and then, taking the shining orb - it was functional only, and not heart shaped or anything poetic like that - in gloved hands, pressed it into her chest.
There was a lengthy pause. Larxene, perched disrespectfully on the edge of the lab desk, thoughtfully lifted her hand up to her heart.
"Is... is that it?" She finally asked.
Vexen nodded curtly as he tugged off his gloves.
"Yes."
"I don't feel any different," Larxene protested irritably, despite her heart's new steady under beat. "In fact, I don't feel anything at all."
"That's because you don't have any emotions yet," Vexen huffed. "What's inside you is just the core and the shell."
"What's the use of a heart with no emotions?" Larxene asked. She hopped from the desk and stalked around, apparently displeased already. Vexen resisted the urge to lower his head into his hands.
"It's complicated," He said. "And I doubt you'd care to know. The point is that emotions work separately from the heart, if you will, so you'll need to collect them before your heart begins to function properly. It's a gradual process."
"Oh," Larxene said dully, picking at her nails. "Well, that's anti-climatic."
"I'm not one for drama," Vexen scoffed derisively, pulling Larxene back for a few final tests before letting her free to wander. She stuck her tongue out at him, the ungrateful little bitch.
A few hours later, the ever inquisitive Marluxia popped down.
"Larxene tells me that having a heart is boring."
Vexen had been writing up the last of his experiment report, but now he turned with an exasperated sigh to face the newcomer.
"Larxene has no regard for the finer nuances of science," He sighed. "Or, in fact, any of the nuances of science, period."
Marluxia chuckled, drawing up behind Vexen to peer at the report.
"She is rather preoccupied by the flash and bang of the real world, I'll admit."
Tempted to snap that science was far more 'real world' than whatever insanity Larxene partook in, Vexen resisted and simply rolled his eyes instead.
"She doesn't understand and nor does she care to, yet she still finds it within herself to complain."
"Was the experiment successful?" Marluxia asked, his tone of voice amused, his hair very nearly tickling the top of Vexen's head.
"As far as I can ascertain," Vexen replied blankly. "Although the true results won't be apparent until Larxene actually collects some emotions."
"You mean she hasn't already?"
Vexen waved his arm around vaguely.
"This place is devoid of emotions," He explained. "Didn't you know that?"
Caught out, Marluxia stepped back from his post behind Vexen, shrugging.
"I see."
"I'll be accompanying her off-world later," Vexen continued, wrapping up his last sentence and laying down his pen."She'll likely be flooded with emotions, which could initially result in confusion, nausea and loss of consciousness."
There was a moment of silence that made Vexen want to squirm uncomfortably.
"But..." Marluxia said slowly, "Larxene's already gone."
In these circumstances there was, regrettably, only one thing to say.
"Shit."
"Shit."
"Do you know where she went?" Vexen asked, hissing as he grabbed his Organisation coat and pulled it onto his shoulders. Marluxia was doing the same, dragging the heavy zip up to his neck.
"Land of Dragons."
Vexen thought to grab a first aid kid as Marluxia threw a portal open.
"There's no time to waste."
Darkness swelled around them for a brief second; then there was nothing but the faint murmur of Marluxia's body in the utter absence of anything, and then sunlight enveloped them in South-Eastern China, a few miles out of the towering walls of the largest city of the Empire. Aside from the bustling city below, there wasn't a soul in sight, and certainly no Larxene. Immediately, Marluxia set off at a run towards the city, Vexen struggling to follow behind.
"Slow down!"
"We need to find her," Marluxia growled, slowing his pace a little - but not much. A heavy apprehension settled into Vexen's bones. He'd accidentally put Larxene in danger. Marluxia was going to be angry. And Marluxia was his superior, and nobody knew better than Vexen what happened when superiors got angry.
"She can hold her own," He yelled back lamely. His toe hit a rock on the uneven path and for a moment he was grateful that Marluxia didn't see him stumble. Thrown out of his element, he really did seem incompetent.
"Not if she's unconscious!"
Vexen swore under his breath, wheezing already. He wasn't cut out for this. He was a scientist, not an endurance athlete.
"She'll be fine," He managed through gasping for breath. "Do you have to run?"
Marluxia stopped suddenly and sent Vexen careening into him. Then he twisted elegantly, grabbed the taller man around his waist, and threw him over his shoulder.
"Honestly."
Vexen managed, impressively, not to scream as Marluxia began to run again, down through a leafy thicket and across a shallow stream.
"If you were Larxene, where would you go?"
Vexen had already squeezed his eyes tightly shut and was not planning to open them until Marluxia put his feet safely back on the ground.
"Hell if I know!"
"And how long would those effects you talked about last?"
"I don't know!" Vexen screamed. "It depends on how fast the heart collects emotions, and the intensity of those - a lot of things could affect her body's response to the emotions!"
"R... right."
They reached the walls of the Imperial City in good time, where Marluxia set Vexen down and irritably pulled his heavy coat from his shoulders. Vexen shuddered, regaining his balance with a little difficulty as Marluxia strode through the gates.


Two hours later, they'd split up and were still searching. Larxene was nowhere to be found and Vexen was wringing his hands with worry. He'd lost Larxene, and now she could be in danger. Marluxia seemed to be keeping cool - for now - but his patience was clearly waning and Vexen had no desire to taste the cruel flash of the Assassin's blade. So, backed by the painful knowledge that the traitorous weasel Zexion and his stony bodyguard could decode the reports he'd left with ease, rendering him useless, Vexen toiled well into the afternoon checking alleyways and asking questions in search of Larxene. Nothing. Vexen was panicking by the time he caught up with Marluxia again. The pink haired man's lips were drawn into a tight line, and Vexen, heartless though he may have been, truly feared shaking his head at Marluxia's questioning glance.
"Damn it."
Vexen stooped and wrung his hands a little more as his mind attempted to quickly fathom some way to lay the blame on anyone without the possibility of a pink scythe being aimed rather neatly at his face.
"She can't have got far," Marluxia reasoned; "This place is highly populated with people. She'd have portaled into a secluded place, which means she'll probably be in an alleyway."
Vexen chose to nod and humbly agree. God, he was a coward; but he couldn't fight the lick of fear that swelled inside him. Even had never been like this, he dimly recalled: his heart had once been strong - strong enough even to grant him second life. Vexen in comparison was weak, all too acutely aware of his own faults and inferiority to those who held power over him. Namely Marluxia.
He realised after a moment that the man was curiously watching him.
"Y-yes?"
"You don't need to pretend to care about her, you know," Marluxia clarified gently. Vexen was quick to shake his head, smoothing his expression into more emotionless contours.
"I was just thinking," He said honestly, and decided not to elaborate.
"About?"
Vexen vaguely waved a hand in the air.
"Just. Things."
"Fine."
Marluxia left it at that and moved on. They found Larxene - eventually. She was wandering the city in a daze; Vexen caught up with her first, quickly pulling a potion from the first aid kit should she have come to harm. She appeared to be physically fine, although her expression was one of displaced intensity that didn't seem quite sure how it had got there.
"Larxene-" Vexen began, but he was interrupted by a violent slap to his cheek, then a kick planted firmly on his gut that sent him reeling.
"I hate you!" Larxene screamed at the top of her lungs, flinging a knife that easily pierced Vexen's shoulder. A few inches to the left, he thought weakly, and it'd have been instant death at his neck...
"H-hey! There's no need for that!"
He scrambled unsteadily to his feet, clutching his injured collar bone. "I warned you that you might have side effects, if you'd just-"
"Shut up!" Larxene cried, more knives shooting towards Vexen, only just deflected by a hastily summoned shield. "I hate you so much! You stole-"
She stopped abruptly, fire averted. Kunai fell from her fingertips, crackled to nothing before they could clatter to the floor.
"- Marluxia."
Vexen twisted to see the man himself watching the spectacle - just like everybody else in the square - with a blank expression, a little distance away.
"Careful," He began, hoping at least to prepare Marluxia for Larxene's inexplicably violent demeanour, but suddenly a knife was buried in his stomach, sparkling ferociously. He crumpled.
"Marluxia," Larxene was saying fiercely, somewhere in the near-far distance. "You egotistical, shallow bastard, don't you dare leave me for..."
Vexen didn't catch the rest. Darkness loomed in the fringes of his vision and with his last reserves of energy he reached out to grasp the potion bottle, dropped in shock to the floor. When he'd recovered a little, Larxene was unconscious in Marluxia's arms, and the Assassin appeared to be wiping... lipstick? ... from his cheek. Vexen blinked - hollow fear curling once more - and the apparition was gone. Marluxia walked him through a portal and back to the labs in silence.


Twenty minutes later, Vexen was ready to bite through his own tongue worrying about what Marluxia was going to do to him. Larxene seemed to be okay - apart from her violent outburst to Vexen - but it was the principle, and Vexen feared principles almost as much as he feared death. As he worked with his equations and formulae, they talked in hushed whispers in the opposite corner of the lab. There was a lot of wild gesturing and leaning in for words so silent that Vexen could not even hear a murmur of noise. He plucked out a few words - but none of it made sense.
"You know I couldn't."
"Get a heart, and then tell me that you-"
"It's just an illusion."
"Trust me, it isn't. I know, Marluxia. I fucking know."
"- doesn't matter anyway."
Vexen tried to pretend that he wasn't desperately listening in, but he discovered little and nothing of use. Eventually, Larxene left with a downright murderous glare in Vexen's direction. Marluxia paused for a moment, appeared to contemplate a mystery something, then warily approached. Vexen froze a little, memories of being punished for his failures rising all too suddenly to the forefront of his mind. Whatever Marluxia was going to do, he thought, he was going to do it now. Vexen took a deep breath and mentally prepared himself.
"So."
Vexen nearly jumped, and hastily calmed his frayed nerves again. Marluxia drew up a stool, sitting beside Vexen and curiously eyeing up the stack of reports.
"Explain."
There was no malice in Marluxia's words - but how was Vexen to his true intentions?
"I think that the emotions overcame her," He quickly began. "My hypothesis is that after so long in an emotionless state, her... inhibitions would have been diminished. She ought to recover; if not I'll remove the heart. As for her actions themselves, I don't know."
"I know why she acted as she did," Marluxia replied dismissively. "I'm just curious."
Curious, Vexen thought, resisting the urge to hide his face with his hands. What on Earth could he infer from that? A hundred meanings.
"I'm sorry," He said, bowing his head as a word he loathed and a promise he never kept rose to his lips. "I won't fail you again."
Marluxia appeared to be surprised by this. Then an odd sort of realisation passed across his face.
"You're scared, aren't you."
Vexen swallowed thickly, flicking a pen across the desk.
"I put Larxene's life in danger."
"The only life you endangered appears to be your own," Marluxia stated philosophically. "You're not seriously injured, are you?"
Vexen shook his head - his stomach was still stinging, but he was unwilling to admit such weakness to Marluxia.
"Larxene can't be the easiest person to work with," Marluxia continued idly. Vexen said nothing, neither wanting to agree or disagree. "At least we found her."
Vexen nodded curtly.
"Yes."
Sensing conversation a lost cause, Marluxia stood and calmly made his way to the door.
"I'm not Xemnas, you know."
Before Vexen could reply, he was gone. The anxiety remained, biting into Vexen's being as he toiled furtively well into the early hours of the morning. What the heart couldn't afford was a flood of emotion. It needed an equilibrium, a gradual rise, in the right proportions - but each would be different depending on the nobody. Emotions, Vexen was forced to sullenly conclude, were far too complex for his mind to comprehend. This, he remembered thinking as, at five o'clock in the morning he toppled onto the floor into a deep sleep, was a problem. A big one. He'd take Larxene's heart out first thing tomorrow, and-


The next thing he remembered was waking up in a bed, feeling ill. His room. Somebody had come in the night to cart him off to bed. A dusk, maybe. Lexaeus? Perhaps, on a rare stroke of altruism.
There was a mug of coffee on the bedside table, gently steaming. Vexen was grateful for it even if it was rather too milky sweet, and in a small number of gulps he'd downed it. The rush of caffeine seemed to focus his addled mind. Larxene. He needed to find Larxene, and not be brutally murdered this time. He showered quickly, ignoring his pounding head and burning stomach, and dressed in his Organisation coat before setting out into the maze of the castle in search of the Organisation's only female. He found her lounging in the Grey Room, looking bored out of her mind.
"Larxene. I need you for a moment."
She bluntly gave him the middle finger.
"Fuck off."
Affronted, Vexen felt his face fold into a scowl.
"There's no need for that," He huffed. "I need to remove your heart. It's affecting your behaviour."
"What, like I'd remove the balls that affects yours?" Larxene snapped. "Of course my heart's going to affect my behaviour. That's what it's supposed to do, you moron."
"But you tried to kill me!" Vexen protested. All he received in return was an agitated sigh. "Look, you said you'd help me so you have to at least cooperate."
"Vexen," Larxene said slowly. "For once, actually fucking listen to me, okay? You're so wrapped up in your own academia that you probably haven't taken in a word I've said for months. Didn't you think that once we've got hearts, yes, we're going to change?"
"But-" Vexen began, but Larxene interrupted.
"Which means, you grumpy old cow, that you're going to have to get very used to being very unpopular, very quickly."
That blow hit hard, and maybe it was just the close proximity of blazing emotions in Larxene's heard, but Vexen could have truly sworn that she'd hurt him somewhere deep inside.
"Trust me," He said as he turned away to stalk back to the labs; "I already am."