A/N: I AM SITTING MY BUTT DOWN AND GETTING THIS TYPED NAOW.
Saïx's POV. He and Axel are sixteen-year-old sophomores.
She was already at our table. Axel let her sit there, in my seat. They were laughing.
I stared at them from across the cafeteria, trying to incinerate them with my eyes until someone pushed past and almost spilled cafeteria-grade refried beans on my shirt. Axel didn't seem to notice me at all, and though I tell him every day not to wave his arms like he's flagging down an airplane when he sees me, I never wanted him to actually listen. His girlfriend was discreet enough to send me a message without him noticing; she shot me a smug look that sealed my decision to relocate.
There was one other mostly-empty table in a different corner of the cafeteria. Unfortunately, I didn't notice until I sat down that the one other person at the round table was Demyx. I wasn't in the mood to listen to his endless chattering today… but he only looked up and muttered a glum "hi."
"Hello," I replied curtly, unpacking my lunch. The smells from this side of the cafeteria were already making me lose my appetite.
"Larx stole your spot, huh?" He asked while stirring his mashed potatoes with his finger. I hoped he didn't plan on eating those; I could only imagine where that finger had been.
I "hmph"ed but didn't feel like talking about it. He looked at me like he expected a more interesting response, but when I started taking violent bites out of my sandwich, he gave up.
"I'm sorry, man," he said, and he somehow sounded like he meant it.
"Don't express sympathy for something that isn't your fault." It was Axel's fault; he was the one who should be apologizing. It was one thing for him to invite his girlfriend to our table – I could live with that, regardless of how I felt about her – but he let her take my seat.
I'm aware that that sounds like a petty thing to get worked up about, but that particular seat is special. It is located directly under one of the only air vents, which makes it the only spot in the cafeteria that is free of the nauseating scents of ill-prepared food, and it is in the farthest corner from the lunch line, which makes it the quietest spot as well. The vent had a bonus effect of creating calming white noise that helped me relax despite the general chaos that permeated the foul air. Students tended to give themselves their own seating chart, even at lunch, and everyone was aware that that was my seat.
It wasn't even those issues that were the true problems. It was the sentiment behind it, the idea that Larxene had taken my place, displaced me, replaced me. I could still see them over there, laughing and flirting like disgusting idiots and obviously not caring that I wasn't there.
Axel had had many annoying girlfriends before, but they never so quickly got in the way of his real friends. If he was already brushing me off… This could get serious. I could only imagine how Xion would feel. Hopefully this was just my pessimism talking, and it would all blow over in a few days like these things tended to.
"I feel pretty sorry for him, too," Demyx said, ignoring my earlier statement and nodding towards Axel.
"Why?" I asked with mild curiosity.
" 'Cause she gets her buttons pushed all the time," he said, licking mashed potatoes off of his finger. I felt like I might catch some sort of sickness just watching him, if I didn't vomit from the mixing bowl of foul scents first. "Like, just yesterday she dumped me just 'cause I wouldn't skip band practice to go out with her! Then she went on a rant about how I'm always practicing and I never do anything with her, so yeah, I got dumped." He huffed and shrugged his shoulders, now digging into his chicken leg with about as little etiquette as Vanitas. "Really stinks, she was an awesome kisser…"
I tried not to gag on my sandwich. Am I really that abnormal for not thinking about making out all of the time? But Demyx did bring up an unsettling thought…
"So Larxene requires a lot of attention?" If she took up all of Axel's time… I tried to tell him it was idiotic to get involved in serious relationships, but does he ever listen to me?
Demyx shrugged. "Not exactly. She just wants to do stuff on her own time."
Still. I didn't like the looks of this. Especially if Larxene dumped Demyx just yesterday… this conversation could easily get awkward – at least on my end, Demyx was seemingly immune to awkwardness – but I needed answers.
"How long did you two go out?" I hadn't known they were dating in the first place. Not that keeping track of the ever-changing relationships in our high school was at the top of my priority list.
"Eh, maybe two months? Three?" He shrugged. "It was good while it lasted. Still, really stinks to see her dating Axel already, but I can't really blame him. She's hot."
"Is that all you bundles of hormones care about?" I couldn't help muttering. If I did want to date anyone, I would consider her personality and general intelligence level first.
"Huh?" Demyx asked with his mouth full. I stuffed the remnants of my sandwich into my lunch sack, officially having no appetite left.
"Never mind." I could scratch the idea of hoping they would break up in a few days… Axel didn't have the greatest track record, but if Larxene could put up with Demyx for a few months, she'd be able to put up with Axel. "Do you think she went out with Axel just to spite you?" I knew from both Xion's and Aqua's personal and secondhand experiences that girls could be cruel that way.
"I wouldn't be surprised," Demyx replied glumly. "But who knows with girls?"
Certainly not I. But if I did know one thing, it was that Larxene wasn't good for Axel. Normally I was more concerned about him being a bad influence on his girlfriends, but this time… I had a bad feeling he might actually get hurt.
It would serve him right. Poetic justice. But I wouldn't be deserving of the title of Best Friend if I didn't try to warn him.
I survived the stenches until the end-of-lunch bell rang, and the cafeteria was plunged into chaos. Demyx squeaked as Gaston shoved past and almost knocked his chair backwards. Some giggling girl almost dropped her tray on my head. This was why I liked my usual spot; it was in the corner, far away from the center of the insanity.
There was no way I could find Axel now. I waded through the mass of teenagers and finally dumped the remnants of my sack lunch into a trashcan before walking out the door.
When Axel caught me on the way to fifth period, Larxene wasn't with him.
"Saï!" He called from the bottom of the stairs, out of breath. He tried to run up to meet me but half-collapsed against the railing. "Just… gimme a 'sec…"
I sighed and met him halfway down the stairwell. "It's not healthy to get winded so quickly."
"Hey, I ran most of the way here from the cafeteria!" He panted.
"It's not that far. You would have more energy if you ate more."
"I, uh, kinda ran out of time today…"
I wanted to facepalm. "Because you were busy flirting with Larxene."
He winced. "I'm sorry, Saï – I just lost track of time, and, well—"
"You didn't even realize I wasn't there," I said bluntly, turning to walk back up the stairs. Axel stumbled behind me.
"It wasn't like that…"
I turned on him, glaring with every ounce of frustration I had. "It was exactly like that."
"You act like she's replacing you! C'mon, Saï, I'm your best friend, but I can have a girlfriend too!" He glared back. We were lucky there weren't any kids around who cared enough to start a "fight" circle.
"…We're going to be late for class."
"Ugh, it's not like anyone cares about Oral Comm, anyway…"
"I care about my grade, and about not having a tardy note sent home to my father." I set a brisk pace down the hallway that Axel struggled to keep up with. "And you need to learn to care about more than messing around with girls who are only going to hurt you."
"You don't even know Larxene!" He grabbed my arm, forcing me to stop. "You weren't even this much of a jerk when I was dating Charlotte, and you hated her guts."
"I didn't hate her guts, I simply saw that she didn't have a single brain cell in her admittedly innocent head, and you were going to corrupt her."
"I wasn't—! There's no way I'd—! …You really think I'm a horrible person, don't you." He sighed, gritting his teeth. "But forget about me. What did Larxene ever do to you?"
"It's what she did to Demyx," I said. "She just dumped him yesterday over some petty schedule conflict. She's only using you to get back at him."
"You don't know that!" He clenched his fists. "Look, I haven't been able to get a girl in months ever since Mulan gave me a black eye when I tried to kiss her—"
"From the story she told me, you took her by surprise and her reflexes kicked in. Which is why you should never startle someone who takes martial arts from Father's dojo." Though I wouldn't have blamed her even if she punched Axel on purpose, honestly.
"Gah, why do you act like everything is my fault!?"
"Because it usually is." I jerked my arm out of his grip.
"Y'know, I really wonder why we're friends sometimes…"
"Because you need me to knock some sense into you. Now come on, or else we really will be late." I walked as quickly as I could without leaving him behind.
"You're not actually going to try to make me dump Larxene, right?" He asked, jogging to keep up. I sighed.
"Obviously I can't make you do anything. I would highly suggest it, but if you choose to be an idiot and ignore my advice, as usual, you're the one who has to deal with the consequences."
"You're worse than my mom," he muttered.
"You're worse than my brother."
"Jerk."
"Ignoramus."
"Don't use big insults just to sound smart!"
I half-smiled. At least we managed to hold our friendship together even when we were mad at each other, because otherwise it would've been doomed to fail even quicker than Axel's previous romantic relationships.
A/N: Sorry if the ending seems kind of abrupt… it was either that, or have them ramble on with no real point.
Charlotte is from The Princess and the Frog, not a Disney move I particularly like, but she fit well in the scenario.
Demyx normally has friends he sits with, he was just in a glum mood that day because of Larxene and didn't feel like it.
Other notes on this chapter… it's been so long since I wrote it, I can't remember. *sweatdrop* Hopefully this might give a little depth to the Larxel backstory… Ugh, it just squicks me out too much to actually write them in any scenes together. I like single!Larxene okay, but I just can't ship her decently to save my life…