...

Nine

...

"So what did I tell you? Best wings around?"

I wiped the extra hot sauce off my mouth with a napkin and smiled, "More like best hot wings ever to exist."

"I could tell you enjoyed them from the way you practically inhaled them," he chuckled, motioning to the pile of bones in front of me.

"I was a tiny bit starved," I admitted, "I spent so much time cleaning the farm earlier that I forgot to eat."

He gasped in shock, "Blasphemy! You must be dying of hunger! We can order more food if you'd like. I don't mind hanging around longer at all."

"Well I don't know... If we order more food, we might need another drink," I teased, shaking my glass of ice.

"Xion!" he called over to her, "Come here, darling."

She hopped back over to our table and smiled, "Ready for the check?"

"We're going to hold off on that for now, actually. Roxas here is absolutely starved, so we're going to need another round of hot wings and fries along with refills on our drinks."

"Trying to get him drunk, eh?" she winked at me as Luxord blushed deeply. "I approve. You get some, Luxy."

As she walked away it was all I could do not to burst out laughing at how red his face had gotten. "Luxy...?" I cocked an eyebrow curiously.

"Xion loves to coin us all with terrible nicknames," he explained, seeming just horribly embarrassed.

"It's cute," I stifled back my laughter, popping an ice cube into my mouth and chewing on it. It was a bit of a nervous habit, and one I hoped wouldn't scare him away.

He stared at me awkwardly for a long moment before finally speaking up, "Am I totally blowing it tonight, or am I just over reacting?"

"You're over reacting," I smiled at him, "I thought I blew it by talking about my neighbor." I almost made a "he-who-shall-not-be-named" reference, but I had a feeling that Harry Potter hadn't quite made it out here.

"Well you didn't," he reached across the table and stopped me from popping another ice cube into my mouth, "So you can stop your nervous ice chewing. That's probably bad for your teeth."

I grimaced, "Sorry... I can't help it sometimes."

He rather slyly left his hand resting over mine as I relaxed a little, "The last thing I want to do is make you nervous, Roxas."

"It's not you, Luxord. I just never expected to meet anybody in this town that I could see myself dating, so I guess I'm just not prepared for all of this."

"I've lived here for thirteen years and not been on one single date in all of that time," he told me, laughing softly, "And you think I was ready?"

I blushed lightly, "I guess we're both a little inexperienced in all this... I think my last date was in London, and it ended with me waking up in an alleyway missing my shoes."

"Ah, sweet memories of the homeland," he joked, gazing off into the distance in rememberance of that wonderful place.

"Not to sound totally rude, but... does Larxene know about your ...preference?"

He chuckled softly, "So Larxene was about four years old. We were living in a small apartment in the neighboring city over here and I was working at a small family owned barber shop. I couldn't afford daycare, so she would just hang around the shop with me most days. I had one particular client that would come in once a week to have his bald fade touched up, and he always requested me to do it no matter what. It didn't take me long to figure out that he liked me, and I had a bit of a crush on him as well. We hooked up one night, but I wouldn't really allow myself to date him because of Larxene. But then one day while I was cutting his hair, Larxene marched up to us with this total look of determination on her face and flat out asked me, 'Daddy, are you guys in love?'"

I tried to stop myself from laughing and instead snorted, "Oh my God, that's adorable..."

"So then naturally I had to have the whole conversation with her about how Daddy liked other men, which probably went right over her head at that age. But she didn't seem to care, so he and I started seeing each other more regularly until it just became normal to her. Of course when we broke up, she was absolutely crushed. I think she'd been thoroughly enjoying bragging to the whole preschool about her two daddies."

"I'm sure the school was absolutely thrilled about that," I smirked. Homosexuality was just now becoming an accepted fact of life with the legalization of gay marriage, but back then it was still a pretty touchy subject.

He shrugged, "They called a few times to complain, but I just told them that I simply did not give a fuck. If they wanted to kick her out, I would have just homeschooled her. Anyways... even when she got older and realized what being gay really was and how it was treated socially, she still stood by my side. I remember when Yuffie moved to town... Larxene was eight and I think Yuffie was ten and they bonded instantly. That was the first time she asked me if girls could love each other like boys could."

"I see she grew out of that pretty quickly," I laughed, "She's quite the flirt now."

"She drives me nuts," he shook his head in exasperation, "She's got that librarian wrapped around her little finger. Poor kid..."

"Who, Zexion?" It was then that I realized that I'd completely forgotten to go to the library earlier.

He nodded, "They've got some kind of little romance going on... That's why she hangs around the library so often. But I have a feeling that she's a tease like her mother was."

"Please tell me he's not creepy old?" I guess I'd been picturing the librarian to be a bit older, but I had a feeling that if that was in fact the case, Luxord would have put an end to it a long time ago.

"He's nineteen," he eased my mind, "I still don't like it... She's too damned young to be dating..."

I grinned, "You sound like such a dad. You had to have been, what... sixteen when you slept with her mom? Be glad she hasn't gotten herself knocked up yet."

"I know, I know... Larxene's been remarkably tame for a teenage girl. But I still worry..."

"You've got a great daughter, Luxord, and she's lucky to have you as a father," I smiled warmly at him, my heart racing as I moved to grab his hand with mine and squeeze it.

His cheeks flushed visibly, but he didn't pull his hand away. "Thank you, Roxas... That means a lot."

I inhaled my half of our second order almost as quickly as the first, and my second whiskey sour had my head starting to get just a little bit fuzzy. On hindsight, it might not have been a great idea to take my pain meds before drinking. But the night had certainly turned around, and I was actually a bit sad to have him walking me home.

"This was really fun, Luxord. Thank you for dinner, too. I wish you'd let me at least pay for the second order of food..."

"Don't be silly. It was my treat," he told me, reaching over and taking my hand in his again. "Besides, you can cover it next time."

I scoffed, "What makes you think we'll be going out again?"

I swear to God I could heart his heart drop to the bottom of his stomach, "Oh..."

"I'm kidding, Luxord," I chuckled, squeezing his hand, "I'd love to go out again. ...Like, tomorrow."

A grin spread across his face and suddenly he stopped in the middle of the path, stepping in front of me to halt me in my tracks.

I stared up at him, raising an eyebrow curiously, "...What?"

It had been so long since anybody had kissed me that I seriously didn't see it coming until he was like half an inch from my face. Of course, being my horridly awkward self, I tilted my head up more at the last second and his kiss landed somewhere between my bottom lip and my chin.

"Well that wasn't my finest moment..." he stepped back, blushing madly as he tried not to make eye contact with me.

I facepalmed, feeling like the worst human being on the planet, "That was totally my fault... I'm such a loser."

"I shouldn't have sprung it on you like that... I'm sorry," he apologized, running a hand through his hair.

I groaned in frustration, wishing that I hadn't toally ruined the moment. "Luxord...?"

The moment he turned his head to look down at me I grabbed the sides of his face and pulled him down into a kiss that I landed right on his lips where it belonged. He let out a little yelp of surprise, but once he gathered his bearings he wrapped his arms around my waist and deepened the kiss just a little bit. I let my hands move to rest behind his neck, keeping him pulled down to my level for as long as I could get the kiss to last. Every movement he made against my lips sent a shock through my entire body; it'd been way too long since I'd kissed anybody.

I don't know how long the kiss would have lasted if it weren't for the big ball of fluff pushing himself in between us like a barrier. "Charlie..." I grumbled, stumbling back as he completely wedged himself between Luxord and I, effectively separating us from each other and ending our kiss.

Luxord just seemed to be in a daze. I honestly don't know if he'd even noticed Charlie, or if he just thought that something had willed us apart.

"Charlie, get back here!" Axel's voice rang through the night as Charlie pranced around my ankles begging for pets. "Of course... why am I not surprised?" he rolled his eyes as he saw that it was me who Charlie was bothering.

"Have you ever thought about, I don't know... maybe getting a leash for him?" I suggested saltily, stepping back to Luxord's side.

Axel stared back and forth between us, looking thoroughly confused, "What're you doing out here, Luxord?"

"Walking my date home," he snapped, glaring at the redhead.

"Date..." he muttered, trying to wrap his mind around that. "Right... Stay away from my dog," he warned me, turning on his heels and walking away as Charlie followed close behind.

Luxord looked down at me, "So..."

"I'm sorry about that... his dog is obsessed with me, I have no idea why," I apologized, incredibly pissed that our moment had yet again been ruined.

"Don't worry about it," he smiled, stepping forward and lacing our fingers together, "Nothing could ruin my night now."

I frowned, "Even saying goodbye?"

"Well I think I'd be all right if, say, you promised to come visit me at work tomorrow?"

"I think I could manage that," I grinned, leaning up and kissing him one more time. "Good night, Luxord."

As we parted ways, I couldn't help but smile a little. The date had definitely gone better than I thought it would, but I still feared that we just weren't a good enough match to last. He was a great guy, but I wasn't sure if the chemistry was there. I'd give him a chance, though. I needed to do that.

...

A/N: Apparently all of my dates just last like a million years, because this chapter was longgg. (For me.)

I almost gagged having him kiss Luxord... but it's kinda cute! ...Right? :/

Lemme know what you think! I'll have another chapter out soonly!

Also check out my new bestie's story. Her name is Velv3tteV3nom and she wrote a badass story called Alive that features MUCHLY AKUROKU and I love it. So go read it and remember to review it!

Simply Rexene