New chapter? Already? Yay! I'm on a roll! haha. This one is pretty long. Now you guys will finally be able to see how I'm beginning to tie things together * mischievous laughter* Depending on how lazy I get about length of chapters, I can estimate about 5 left or so. Sad, I'm going to miss this when its done T_T for now though, ENJOY!

At an all girls school it can be assumed that gossip travels fast amongst the students, and rumors that 'Namine' had finally found a way to wrap Axel around her middle finger were no exception to the verbal wildfire. The teachers, on the other hand, were unexpectedly accomplished gossips as well. It was lunch, but rather than heading to the cafeteria, the administrative citizens of HBGA gathered in the teachers' lounge to sip coffee and chat each other up on all things inappropriate for student ears.

"So Demyx," the young teacher looked up at Zexion, who was watching him with a mildly uninterested demure. The dirty-blonde boy felt the hair on the back of his neck bristle and his mouth run dry. If you asked him, he'd tell you he wasn't gay. Demyx did not like men. What Demyx did like, at least since staff orientation over the summer, was an English Literature teacher named Zexion.

"Um… Yes?" He encouraged, uselessly.

The sleight-haired man, fewer years than can be counted on one hand older than Demyx, absently ran a finger around the rim of his disposable cup. "You're friends with Axel, right?" he inquired. The normally monotonous drawl that he reserved for lectures held inflection and curiosity, but only barely; it was everything in moderation with Zexion. The blonde nodded silently. Zexion pressed the conversation forward, "So what's the scoop on him and the new girl?"

Demyx coughed to keep himself from choking on his coffee. It was his first year as an administrator of any kind, but in his past few weeks he'd never witnessed first hand a teacher taking interest in students' personal lives. Then again, the age gap between himself and most of the other instructors was usually plenty enough to bar him from conversations of any sort, let alone trivial ones about the drama amidst high-school girls.

"Yes, I've been hearing these rumors too," Marluxia calmly pulled up a chair between Demyx, who'd been seated on a beaten old couch, and Zexion, who stood at an adjacent counter next to the coffee pot. Demyx wasn't pleased with this. He just couldn't trust men with pink hair, let alone ones who had things for creepy science teachers. No one had outwardly accused the history teacher of having any sort of romantic feelings, let alone a relationship, with Vexen, but Demyx knew. He had no proof, but he knew.

Not missing a beat, Marluxia continued, "The girls in my classes say the redhead and Namine have been dating for two weeks. I've even heard of some betting pools on how long it will take for them to get fucking out of their systems and break up."

Demyx could feel his jaw drop. There had to be some sort of legal violation when a teacher talks about his students fucking, but hey, what's said in the lounge could stay there as far as he was concerned. The teen didn't much like where the conversation about his friend and his student was heading, but he had never given anyone an excuse to call him a prude, and he wouldn't start today. So, instead of jumping up in outrage at the vulgarity, he let his mouth hang open like a moron as Zexion sipped his coffee and casually returned his gaze from Marluxia to Demyx. Marluxia's eyes followed.

The blonde glanced back and forth between the older men in slight alarm. What did these people want from him? Well, inwardly he knew he'd probably give Zexion anything he wanted if he'd take his shirt off, but Marluxia alone wanting anything was enough to alarm him.

Demyx swallowed again and stammered, "I-um, what do you want to know exactly?" He chuckled nervously as he waited for them to begin interrogating.

Zexion answered him plainly, "Well, what do you know about their relationship?"

Demyx frowned and looked between his two colleagues, but eventually gave in to sighing and decided to just go along with it. "As you guys seem to know, Axel usually just goes on a date or two with girls before he seduces them and moves on. Most girls know this routine going into the relationship, if you can even call it that, but you get the occasional idiots who think they can 'change him' or whatever," Demyx added air quotes for emphasis.

Feeling a tad more relaxed, he went on, "If you ask me, and I'm his best friend so I would be the first one you should ask when things involve Axel, I will tell you that he's a bigger romantic than he lets on, despite his appearance similar to that of a hard-on with opposable thumbs. The thing is that ever since he got over his last real girlfriend dumping him, he's been waiting for a girl who'd say no to him before he could consider getting serious." Demyx paused. Zexion and Marluxia waited. They masked their curiosity fairly well, but Marluxia looked about ready to jump out of his chair and Zexion's finger was getting dangerously close to rubbing through the lid of his coffee cup.

The blonde smiled, sort of enjoying the attention, and continued, "You see, people always think that the guy is the user, especially if he initiates the relationship; but guys like Axel, who can get practically any girl they want, almost have a worse problem than girls do when it comes to people just liking them for their looks," Demyx shrugged, "but this is all just my theory. I've never really asked him because he'd probably hit me and tell me I'm a faggy dumbass."

Zexion smirked. Marluxia had left his chair in favor of pacing, but kept his vision glued to Demyx. The pink haired man approached the couch and sat on the arm opposite where his colleague sat before asking, "But what about now? If Axel's dating Namine just because he thinks she won't let him do her, where has that left them thus far?"

Demyx leaned forward and made an odd gesture with his hand, "Well their first date was about a week ago. From what I hear it went well until…" As Demyx trailed off, his face folded into a frown. He wasn't sure when the two had moved, but Marluxia and Zexion were now standing over him, looking down anxiously. Freaking gossip whores.

"Go. On." Marluxia demanded.

Demyx glanced up, but his eyes were on Zexion as he replied, "Well, Axel said they went to a local arcade, and she loved it, which is strange, isn't it? Even he wasn't sure why, but she's strange enough in her own way that he was willing to try something different and, sure enough, Namine was all over it!" The younger teacher ran a hand over his fo-hawk as he continued, a bewildered expression on his face, "Then he drove her to her dorm. It was nearly 12, and they were both exhausted, but he figured 'what the hell?'; I mean, if the night had gone so well, why not try to kiss her? So he did, and if his reaction was any way to tell, she kissed him the fuck back," Demyx trailed off, frowning as he paused briefly.

"He said that everything was going fantastic –fireworks and all- until his hand wandered towards the hem of her jeans. I mean, normally if he told me that was all it took to have her bolting out of the car I'd just call her a virgin and leave it at that… but he said she looked panicked, like she needed to get away from him before he did something to her, or she turned into a monster or whatever! It just all sounded sort of funky, and I honestly have no clue what to make of it."

When he looked up, the other two teachers' eyes were distant in thought. After a moment of silent contemplation between the three, Zexion seemed to have a light bulb appear over his head or something, but before Demyx could question his solution, Marluxia snapped his fingers and shouted, "Traumatized!"

The other two teachers stared at the pink-haired man in disbelief. "Excuse me?" asked Zexion, wryly.

Marluxia turned to him, waving his hands ecstatically, "She must have been raped, or maybe her step-father molested her as a child! Oh, that would explain it! Poor girl, she was just starting to feel like she could love again when a simple touch had all those horrific memories tumbling down upon her!" Demyx wasn't sure whether to be impressed, offended, or simply shocked at this conclusion. Marluxia raised a finger to wipe a non-existent tear from his eye in feign sympathy. Drama queen.

When he looked to his other senior, Zexion seemed to share his confusion and utterly dismissed this idea. Even if that is what happened with Namine, there is a social code that's supposed to prohibit bubble-gum-haired idiots from saying it so casually! The simple lack of tact had the sleight-haired Lit. teacher wrinkling his nose in disgust.

Satisfied with their reactions, the blonde continued, "So I don't know what he's going to do next, but he'll think of a plan soon. Today's Friday, so it's been exactly one week since all that happened; I wouldn't put it past Axel to show up here sometime today with a ridiculous plan to woo the girl."

Zexion was the one to reply, "It sounds like Axel's pretty crazy for this girl. If he's found something special in her, good for him; but there's always the possibility that she's hiding something. Maybe she's using him?"

Marluxia sputtered, "Who, Namine? Have you seen that girl? She's harmless! All the girls adore her, she gets good grades, rarely skips, and is one of the few respectful students we have at this school! I've heard the stories about what some of the sluts at this school will do to boys, gold diggers and what have you, and you can always see it coming a mile away based on how they act in everyday life!"

Zexion simply shrugged and took a large swig of his coffee, refusing to engage in an argument. The three sat silently for awhile, Zexion sipping his drink and Marluxia chewing on an empty cup. Other teachers buzzed around them for the next minute or so until the bell finally rang, calling them back to their classrooms.

"Well," said Marluxia decisively, standing up and straitening his tie, "I'm off to teach. Damn the students for interrupting me from this conversation, whoever said they needed to learn? Anyways, let me know when anything changes. Aside from my gardening, I don't have much of a life outside of school, and this is so much better than television to me. Until next time!"

Demyx made a queer face and Zexion chuckled, sending shivers down the blonde's spine. "Thanks for the talk Demyx, it was nice." Demyx grinned stupidly and nodded in response.

Zexion stood to leave, but glanced back, "We should do something together sometime. You're amusing."

It took him a second before the musician could muster up, "S-Sure thing!" The other teacher left with a goodbye wave, leaving Demyx alone in the lounge with a few stragglers who had prep periods after lunch. Minutes after this exchange and he was off the couch, jumping in the air and punching his fist at nothing with excitement.

Satisfied, he put his arms behind his head and stretched out his legs in front of him as he fell into the beaten old couch, staring out the window beside him. But instead of getting lost in daydreams about his dreamy Lit. teacher, he felt all of his mushy feelings zapped away when he saw Axel's face in the window.

Nearly falling off the couch in the process, Demyx scrambled to throw open the window. "WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING?" he shrieked. Technically speaking, he wasn't legally qualified to teach, so he had no slack to get away with things like encouraging his seemingly delinquent best friend to cut class and visit an all girls academy that he wasn't even allowed on the campus of in the first place. While on the subject, let it be known that Axel was probably best friends with Riku, but that didn't mean Demyx' sandbox love for the redhead was any less than unbreakable. Meaning, from time to time, he'd get suckered in to letting his friend do stupid shit at his expense. Lucky for him though, the other teachers that had a prep period after lunch actually had to prep for their next classes, and had left just in time to miss the commotion.

Axel winked and began to climb through the window, "Just came to say hi."

Demyx tried to look around the redhead. "Is anyone with you?" he asked, surprisingly calm considering the situation.

"Just Xigbar," Axel mumbled nonchalantly.

Demyx' eyes went wide, "You brought Xigbar? Seriously, think of something more creative to do if you're trying to get me fired!"

Xigbar waved from outside and Axel turned his attention to help his friend in through the window, "Don't worry, we won't get caught."

The blonde groaned. Why couldn't he have kept the friends his mother liked? Well, his mom did like Sora, and she blushed whenever Riku said anything to her… much to his and his father's disturbance, but those two didn't count because they never did anything to get in trouble. These two, on the other hand…

"How long have you guys been out there?" Demyx rubbed his hand on his face, trying to make himself relax.

Without averting his attention from Xigbar, Axel replied, "Just long enough to hear your boyfriend ask you on a date."

Demyx jumped, "What? Zexion's not my boyfriend!"

Xigbar fell into the room with a thud; Axel turned and grinned foolishly, "No, but you want him to be!"

Demyx' face looked like Axel had kicked a puppy. Xigbar, because he is Xigbar, remained on the floor and shot confused looks up from where he'd fallen on his ass. "Wait, dudes, Demyx isn't gay. Right, man?" The blonde saw an eye patch look his way for reassurance, so he passed a glare to Axel, who shrugged.

"Apparently he is, now that he's found a teacher to his liking," replied the redhead. Demyx sputtered and fumed. He couldn't think of a logical comeback because Axel was sort of right. Xigbar just watched in mild shock. Finally the sitarist settled with a very expressive, "DIIIICK!" and continued to brood.

"Well I'll be damned," Xigbar called from the floor. Axel looked down towards Xigbar, but Demyx just stared at his feet. Xigbar smirked and looked up at Axel, "Hey, does this make us strait men an endangered species amongst friends?"

Axel chuckled, "See Demyx? This is why I bring him along; He's funny!" Axel rubbed Xigbar's head, and Xigbar cursed at him from his patch of linoleum.

Demyx looked back at them with a condescending smile, "Sure guys, laugh all you want, but Axel still hasn't really gotten anywhere with Namine." The other two stopped messing around and looked at Demyx, Axel a bit startled. The blonde continued, "Watch out Axel, if she doesn't put out you'll probably be next to catch boy fever."

Xigbar started laughing hysterically, and Axel smiled arrogantly. "Dem, tease me if it makes you feel better, but I've been in love with nothing but women since before my balls dropped. If anyone's going to come out, I can promise you it won't be me."

Demyx shrugged. He wasn't sure why he had accused Axel of gay, but it was pointless to think about it too much. So he did with the thought the same thing he had done with his impression that Namine was strange; he ignored it.

"Come on guys, I'll take you back to the music room," Demyx sighed as he turned to leave, and gestured for them to follow.

"Thanks Dem," Axel chirped, happily.

They walked down the hallways with Demyx leading the other two. They had to zigzag through hallways and Demyx made them duck below classroom windows. When they finally reached the door to the music wing, the blonde turned and stopped. "Axel, I know you aren't here just to say hello. What's up?"

Axel laughed, "Oh, so you caught me? Demyx I think you know full well why I'm here."

Demyx smirked and folded his arms over his chest, "Well why don't you share with the class then? But I'm warning you; Namine is a nice girl. I won't let you do anything illegal."

The redhead chuckled and lifted his hands, signaling surrender, "Wouldn't dream of it. What I do have planned is sure to spark your interests, though. Besides, you're a significant part of it!" Before Demyx could reply, Axel patted him on the shoulder and slipped past him into the music room.

Demyx grumbled and followed, Xigbar tagging along behind, and couldn't help but feel a sense of impending doom resting on his shoulders. He just hoped that he wouldn't get fired. Or arrested.

Xxx

"Bullshit."

The other teachers turned to stare at their principle. Ms. Lockheart had always been known for her blunt outlook and short fuse, but even so, swearing in front of the students would be a big no-no at most schools.

Axel, on the other hand, grinned. "No bullshit here. I have paperwork if you want to see it." He leaned forward to hand her an intimidating stack of documents, and she tore them away from him as soon as they were in reach.

The redhead placed his hands behind his head, and leaned back in his chair with a cocky grin. The other staff members began to whisper, not liking the look on the principle's face as her eyes scanned the papers, looking for some mistake.

Among a number of teachers, Demyx wasn't present for this staff meeting. It had been called on short notice during seventh period, the one period where Demyx taught, so all the teachers who were in a similar situation, and couldn't be covered for, were not accounted for.

Zexion sighed, "Surely it wouldn't be all too terrible to just accept it and let the boys do what they wish?" Ms. Lockheart graciously thanked him for his comments with a skin melting glare, but the Lit. teacher was unfazed and kept up his signature look of perpetual boredom.

"How the hell did you manage this?" shrieked Tifa. Axel's grin widened.

"Well, as it so happens, Riku's dad Sephiroth happens to be an administrator for the conference that runs this school, and all of the other related boarding academies in the next three cities. I asked him for a favor, told his dad our school didn't have a music program, and voila!" Axel made a sweeping gesture toward the papers. Tifa's eye twitched.

The woman lifted a finger and pointed at him accusingly; standing up, her eyes narrowed, " I don't know what you two punks have planned, but I'll be watching you. Don't think that just because you don't go to school here full time means I don't know you. I've seen your record, not to mention heard the rumors, and I don't like you."

Axel feigned surprise, "Really? All that from paper and gossip?"

Ms. Lockheart gave the younger boy a wicked smile, "That's all someone like me needs to tell about kids like you."

Axel rolled his eyes and stood, reaching over the table to collect his papers before he turned for the door. "I'll see you around, Tifa!" he called over his shoulder.

Tifa fumed, "Make sure that you and your friend don't do anything stupid! And don't call me Tifa, God dammit!"

Xxx

"And that's how we ended up here!" Axel announced, sounding pleased with himself. Xigbar wandered around the room, playing with various objects, trying very hard to do anything but listen to Axel boast.

Demyx' face scrunched with confusion, "Wait, so you're going to be in my music class?"

Axel beamed and nodded. He was currently sitting cross-legged on a chair facing Demyx, who had chosen to sit in his own backwards.

Demyx raised a demonstrative finger, "So you two aren't skipping school right now?"

Axel let out a bark of a laugh. "Of course we're skipping! Technically we aren't supposed to be in this class until Monday, but to hell with that; I couldn't wait!"

Demyx glanced at Xigbar, who was inspecting a Cello, and returned his gaze to Axel. "What about the girl?"

Axel gave him a mischievous look, "Did I ever tell you that I was in a band?"

Xxx

Roxas stood, frozen like a deer in headlights, while Axel span in the chair in Demyx' office. What was he doing in Roxas' class? Was he skipping again?

"Axel, get the fuck out of my chair!" shouted an exasperated music teacher from across the room.

"Haha, like hell-WAA!" *thump*, and so the chair righteously dumped Axel onto his ass. Demyx approached it with a grin, and raised a hand to pat the inanimate object.

"Good boy!" he schmoozed, not bothering to notice Axel flip him the bird.

"How goes it, Namine?" Roxas' head snapped towards the source that was calling him. The guy was a taller than Axel or Demyx, but just as lanky. His unusually long hair was tied back at the nape of his neck, leaving stunning silver streaks through his black hair. A scar traced its way down from an eye patch that should have looked menacing, but somehow seemed normal on this… boy? Man? How old was he anyway?

The brunet let his good eye glimmer as he smirked and approached Roxas, offering a hand, "The name's Xigbar… The dudes haven't really introduced us yet, but Axel's one look away from jumping in front of a bus for you, and if that means anything than you should get that I hear the words going around. Still, it's always cool to meet in person."

Roxas blinked. That was an… interesting way to introduce himself. He reached out his own hand and shook the foreign one firmly, "Nice to meet you too, I guess."

Xigbar watched with amused interest as the 'girl' managed to tip herself off balance while trying to set her bag down against a wall. Truth be told, Roxas was frantically trying to come up with a plan to keep Axel away from him, but that was proving to quite the difficult task. Of course, the picture of Axel jumping in front of a bus for him didn't really help either.

Demyx exited his office, half-heartedly dragging Axel out by the collar of his t-shirt; he was starting to get used to this 'teaching' business - and had to do a double-take when he saw a frazzled Namine on the floor with Xigbar standing over her, inspecting her like an odd experiment.

Axel let out a yelp as he was dropped to the floor, Demyx had released him to frown at Xigbar, "Hey, didn't I tell you not to do anything illegal to my students?" Xigbar returned an innocent shrug, and Roxas shook his head, as if the motion would send all the parts of his scattered brain back into one piece. Demyx approached Namine with a concerned look on his face, discretely shooting a scowl at his friend, "Namine, you didn't take anything from him, did you? Open water bottles, Advil, boiled eggs…"

Roxas looked up in confusion, "boiled eggs?"

Demyx made an explanatory gesture with his hand, "the whites turn into a semi-permeable layer when boiled… there's been more than one incident when Xiggy here tried soaking a batch of boiled eggs in PCP and handing them out to random people… Let's just say he can be pretty ingenious when he wants to be," with the last remark the musician sent a rather sour, if amused, glare to Xigbar, who ignored it. There had been a time where Demyx had been encouraging Xigbar to take that experiment even further, thinking it was the most hilarious incident in the world short of Xigbar singeing off his eyebrow with a match and a bottle of Windex…

Roxas chuckled, "You actually soaked boiled eggs in ACID? And it worked?

Axel had watched silently for long enough, and made it his job to reply, "Well, high as a kyte though he may be, Xigbar here is actually pretty crafty when it comes to his sciences."

Roxas felt something twitch. He'd been trying to ignore the redhead, hoping that if he pretended the problem didn't exist, that it would go away. The way he saw things, their first date had ended horribly. Oh, yeah, he had noticed Axel come around to look for him earlier in the week –it had been a bitch evading the bastard- but remembering that night in his car was too damn close to physically re-living it, which was mentally exhausting. Larxene, for now, found it all adorably hilarious. He wasn't laughing. Point being, he'd be damned if he let that idiotic fire-crotch see him blush. *translation: Roxas felt bad, but had too much pride to apologize*

Demyx looked at Axel. Axel looked at Roxas. Roxas looked at a spot on the floor that had suddenly become extremely fascinating. Xigbar's gaze shifted between the other three.

"Uhh, Demyx? Mr. Would-be music teacher?" all gazes fell onto Yuna. Roxas felt a sigh of relief escape him as the older girl took the floor.

Demyx frowned, "Yeah?"

Yuna tapped her foot in frustration, "Why the hell are Axel and Xigbar here? Shouldn't you be calling the authorities or something?"

Axel laughed, "Actually, it turns out that our poorly-funded public school disbanded its music program a few years back. So Xig here and I took it upon ourselves to get in touch with our artistic sides and take the class here!" The brunette opened her mouth to protest but Axel silenced her by shoving the note of permission into her face.

Roxas stared up in disbelief, "So you're going to be here all year?"

Axel grinned and nodded. Roxas could've died. Life just wasn't making this easy for him.

Demyx finally looked up to notice that most of the other students were already in the classroom, watching the spectacle unfold. Being the responsible teacher he was, the musician cleared his throat and gave Axel a firm shove towards the chairs in the room. "Everyone sit down, let's get class going."

When everyone was seated, Namine next to Yuna, who was shooting heated glares to Axel across the room, Demyx sat on his elevated chair and announced, "In case you weren't listening, Axel and Xigbar will be joining our class. End of discussion. As for what we'll be doing, I took it upon myself to write up a project for you all, due at the end of the semester."

There was a collective groan from most of the students, and a few exclaimed that they couldn't play instruments or read music, but Demyx raised his hand to silence the class before explaining, "You'll all choose a partner. Try to pick someone close to your skill level, because this will be a collaborative effort. You're all going to write duets, on whatever instrument you can play, even if that means your voice or just writing lyrics. I don't care how you choose your partners, or how you split up the work, but by the end of class I expect everyone to have a partner, and tell me as much so I can make note of it."

There was a briefly chaotic moment where everyone seemed to scramble to get partners. Within seconds, girls were lining up to get their partner for the semester written down. Roxas turned to Yuna, hopeful, but she smiled sadly, "Sorry, but someone already asked me to be their partner if a project like this came up. Good luck."

Of course, the inevitable happened. Axel came and solicited himself, and Roxas mumbled a non-committal grunt, which the redhead took as a yes.

So Roxas and Axel became partners. So it goes.

All in all this was pretty similar to what happened in the original version, but for those of you who didn't read CMH before it got revised, bet you didn't see me pulling Zemyx in, did ya? HAHAHA! R&R plz?