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Fifteen

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"Roxas! You home?!"

I startled awake, feeling unusually hot but oddly comfortable. My first thought was that Charlie had snuck back inside, but then I heard a very much asleep Axel mumble something under me.

"Axel, wake up," I poked at him, "I think we fell asleep playing video games."

"Roxas?!" the same voice called.

I grumbled a little, "I'm here! Gimme a second!"

Hayner could wait until I woke Axel up, though it was like trying to wake the dead.

"Axel. C'mon, you gotta wake up," I started to shake him by his shoulders until finally he opened his amazing green eyes.

"What...? Roxas? What am I doing here?" he smacked his lips dryly, sitting up slightly and running a hand through his horrible bedhead.

I chuckled, "I think we fell asleep playing Pokemon last night. And I think your hair might have started a rebellion..."

He rolled his eyes, "Yeah, yeah... laugh it up blondie. I'd like to see you try to control shoulder length hair."

"Hey, so Hayner is downstairs looking for me. Did you want me to get rid of him...?"

"Why would I want that?" he quirked an eyebrow.

I shrugged, "I dunno... If he sees that you stayed the night he might jump to a bunch of conclusions."

"Do you want me to pretend not to exist while you talk to him?" Axel asked me, shoving Charlie off his probably numb legs.

"I mean... we aren't officially dating or anything, so..."

He nodded, "Got it. I'll be quiet as a mouse."

I crawled out of bed and headed downstairs, kind of irritated that Hayner was there. "Hey, what's up?"

"Jeez, what're you doing just getting out of bed? Have you been staying up late again?"

"Bite me, Hayner," I snapped sarcastically, "Did you need something?"

He just shrugged off the quip like I never said anything, "I wasn't sure if you knew about the festival today, so I thought I'd drop by and remind you. It's the annual flower festival! Basically we all get together in the town square and have a big party with delicious food and flowers everywhere. Marly and Kairi have been preparing for weeks!"

"Oh... Well maybe Axel and I will stop by," I smiled, wondering if I could really convince him to go with me.

"Cool. It starts at two, so you'd better get showered and go water your crops soon."

He seemed like he wanted to talk more, but I pretty much shoved him out the door. "I'll see you at two, bye!"

Just as I closed the door, I felt a pair of arms wrap around me from behind, "You want to go to the flower festival, don't you?"

I turned around to face Axel, grinning sheepishly, "Kind of..."

"Fuck, your breath smells like death!" he jumped away from me, making a huge scene of gagging and hacking.

"Ohh fuck off," I grumped, slapping a hand over my mouth, "Yours isn't a walk in the park either..." That was a lie; his breath always smelled amazing.

He laughed, "Aww, I'm sorry Roxy... But go brush your teeth, okay?"

Roxy...? When did he start calling me that? "Well you need to go shower and fix that mop you call hair!"

"When should I pick you up for the festival?" he wondered, summoning Charlie to his side with a click of his fingers.

"It starts at two," I smiled, "So you wanna go?"

He let out a heavy sigh, "Only because you'll be there. But I warn you: flowers make me sneeze a lot. I'm just going to be a sniffly mess."

"I'm okay with that," I poked him, "So come get me before two."

Okay, so you would definitely think by the way we were acting that we might be dating... But it had been a couple weeks since I told Luxord about us, and we'd decided to keep it on the down low until we were sure he was okay. Going to the festival together wasn't really keeping quiet about it, but it wasn't like I was going to hang all over him either.

We hadn't kissed since that first night that my feelings started to develop, though every time I saw him I had the urge to totally jump him. It was like we had a completely electric connection between us, even if we were both holding back a lot. We were trying super hard to stay in the realm of "just friends," but it was so difficult!

...

"Fuck it all..." Axel growled as he sneezed a couple more times, "I hate having allergies..."

"It's all so beautiful!" I all but ran into the town square, where there were quite literally flowers everywhere.

But Axel caught me by the back of my shirt, pulling me back before I could run off, "Now hang on a second. I agreed to come here with you, but we're hanging back a little. I'm not quite ready to talk to everyone."

"Oh... okay," I nodded, taking a seat at one of the benches on the outskirts of the square. It might be interesting to just watch everybody for awhile and enjoy the flowers.

I hadn't seen too much of Demyx around town, but from what I could tell he was an incredibly hyper, if not somewhat childish guy. He seemed very fun and easygoing, but he was also maybe a bit too much to handle sometimes?

Either way, he was currently running around the town square in circles with all of the kids, sneaking up and people and spraying them with water. It was kind of cute the way the kids were giggling and following him around, though seeing a grown-ass man pretending to be a ninja was a little unnerving.

Now here's the thing... Xigbar seemed like an okay guy, but he did not seem like the type of person you want to fuck with. At all. Which you'd think Demyx might have learned by now, judging by the stories I'd heard about their previous run-ins. I seemed to recall one incident in which Demyx was almost branded with a blacksmithing instrument for "accidentally" turning his slack tub (a large tub of water used for forging) into a Koi pond.

I think everybody in the town stopped breathing when Demyx began to approach Xigbar with the spray bottle. Even the children abandoned him out of fear. I feel like the only thought running through everybody's minds was just, "Don't fucking do it. Don't you dare."

"Ohh Xigbar!" Demyx sang in an attempt to get him to turn around.

"Wha-?" he couldn't even finish his sentence before he was met with a faceful of probably ice cold water.

The several expressions that crossed Demyx's face when he realized what he'd done were nothing short of absolutely hilarious. Amusement turned into shock, which turned into fear, which turned into absolute terror as Xigbar grabbed him by the scruff of his shirt and got right up in his face. "I'm sorry! I thought-"

"Don't hurt Demy!" one of the kids wailed as everybody else just gaped at them.

"I oughta kick your ass, you know," Xigbar sneered, water dripping down his chin and off the tip of his nose.

Demyx flinched, struggling to free himself from Xigbar's grip, "I'm sorry, I'm sorry! I was just trying to have fun! I won't do it aga-"

I don't know what we were expecting him to do, but one minute he looked ready to kill Demyx and the next he had the dirty blond locked into the most intense kiss I had ever witnessed in all my years.

Apparently I'd started a trend, and people were just crawling out of the closet all over the place.

When Xigbar released him from the kiss, I swear to God Demyx fell over like a fucking downed tree. I think everybody else had stopped breathing or something, because I could hear the damned crickets chirping in the background as Xigbar knelt down to help him back onto his feet.

"But... But..." Demyx stuttered, obviously completely confused by the entire ordeal.

"You're a damned child... But for some reason I find it endearing," Xigbar told him, actually blushing a little.

We were all waiting for Demy's reaction with bated breath. This could go a few different ways, especially if Demyx wasn't gay. Like I said, I didn't know too much about either of them, so this was really interesting to watch.

Thunderous applause sounded through the town as Demyx launched himself into Xigbar's arms, capturing him in a rather enthusiastic kiss. I couldn't help but grin and join in on the applause as Xigbar actually spun them around in a circle while they kissed, both of them looking eccstatic as they pulled back.

"All right, all right... You all got your show, now go back to the party," Xigbar was unable to hold back a huge grin as he scolded us for watching them.

I almost didn't want to look over at Axel, feeling a tad bit jealous of them. Xigbar hadn't even come out as gay and he was still willing to profess his feelings for Demyx in the middle of a huge town festival, knowing full well that everybody was watching. Meanwhile, Axel and I were hiding in my house every day and sitting away from everybody on opposite sides of the bench and pretending we didn't know each other.

"C'mon, let's go get some food."

I don't know if he had somehow telepathically sensed my jealousy or if I was just really transparent, but I found myself being pulled to my feet by Axel, who then proceeded to hold my hand as he dragged me over to the buffet table that was set up in front of the Cafe.

My entire body relaxed as he laced his fingers through mine, realizing that he didn't want to hide us from anybody. Honestly, I think he was just nervous to be around everyone in town again after being hated for so long.

"Hey, Roxas?"

I turned as I heard my name, finding Xigbar approaching me with Demyx attached to his arm. "What's up?"

"I just wanted to thank you, I guess? I don't think I ever would have had the courage to do that if I hadn't seen how the town reacted to you back when you were with Luxord."

"Oh," I smiled, "Well... I'm glad you decided to be yourself. It's so much easier than hiding all the time."

Xigbar eyed Axel and I up and down, "Are you two...?"

"No," I cut him off, "We're just... friends."

"Right... Just remember that same advice, Roxas. Hiding isn't worth it."

...

A/N: Okay, so I've never, ever written XigDem before, but I kind of love it. Apparently it's a super popular pairing that I somehow had never heard about until I saw it on a KH Facebook page? And then I started going through fanart of it and kind of fell in love with the pairing. I mighttt even like it more than Zemyx, though I do still love me some Zemyx.

This was really just supposed to be a transitional chapter until Luxord's next fit of jealous rage. But how cute was it?!

Damn, Roxas must have some rank morning breath if both Luxord and Axel said something about it. :P I felt the need to put that in because I feel like oftentimes in fanfics, people forget that normal human beings wake up with bedhead and morning breath and sometimes they're kinda stinky. I also think people forget just how nasty sex can be, or rather the cleanup involved after sex. If you're saying that you can get laid and then go straight to bed without even wiping anything off, you're either lying or you had some real bad, real dry sex. Either way, bad breath is an obstacle my fiance and I battle every morning. :P

Pretty please remember to leave me a review! There's gonna be a lot of cuteness and a lot of drama coming up!

Also I started another AkuRoku fic that you should check out. :3 It's called The Show Must Go On. It's a little intense, but it'll be good. Promise.

Buh bye!

Simply Rexene