"But in order to wake you up, I have to kill you first."

Slowly and carefully, Zexion stood up with his gun still pointed to Demyx, who had been standing in front of him.

Demyx not daring to look away, backed up a little bit. The gun was still pointed at him.

"This is not funny, Zexion," Demyx gulped. They stood there in silence. Doubt had made its way into the blond's mind. It was about life and death. Half of himself tried to believe that Zexion would not pull the trigger—

—but the other half was begging for life. And that other half won;

Quickly, Demyx ran away from Zexion. The blond ran into the deep forest. His adrenaline rushed as the view on his sides were blurring into motion. Catching up, Zexion pushed himself to move his legs faster and faster.

Zexion almost catching up with Demyx when a huge, hungry beast came out of nowhere, separating him and Demyx.

The third rule of dream world: the dreamer could easily change their dream however they want.

And apparently, Demyx wanted this beast to kill him.

The beast was pure black; it was so dark that even Zexion's eyes couldn't see its details. It was very hungry and mad, from the way saliva oozing out from its huge mouth and the menacing eyes that were focusing only to Zexion.

Just before Zexion could take another breath, the beast launched itself in a ferocious speed, its claws were open wide showing the sharp, knife-like nails. It landed on Zexion successfully, making a quite wide tear on his clothes and skin, now bleeding out with fresh red liquid. The gun had been knocked on the ground, and with the beast still on top of Zexion, he had huge difficulty reaching it. The beast itself was heavy, and Zexion was trying his best to breathe—let alone taking his gun. His head ache like hell, and his wound was burning. He almost gave up. But lucky with his small body and a help of a bit hope, he slipped away from underneath while the beast was trying to regain its balance and stood on his four feet, ready to launch another attack. The teenager reached his gun with his right hand and tried to shoot the beast, but he missed—his head was spinning from the number of blood coming out and his knocked head. The beast was going to land its claw right on Zexion's face until Zexion shot it again, and this time the bullet hit its paw. It backed away, a little bit angry with now black, thick blood coming out from its front paw. Learned his mistake, Zexion didn't wait anymore and pulled the trigger again, and with Aerith's luck, now right on its head. The beast roared angrily and painfully, but then fell to the ground. Its solid body then turned into black liquid which then slowly evaporates to the air and completely disappear.

Still in pain, Zexion continued running into the jungle.

Branches and leaves were scratching his fair skin leaving red lines all over, but Zexion didn't care. He ran faster and faster to the direction where Demyx went. A few times Zexion stumbled on his feet, but he didn't give up. He didn't want to let Demyx die.

Love, Zexion thought, was something that would never know until Demyx introduced him to that feeling. Memory of Demyx playing his sitar for him, memory of Demyx bursted out laughing when Zexion tried to make an unfunny joke, memory of Demyx talking to him while tenderly caressing his hand, memory of Demyx's skin touching his. They all came back filling Zexion's head, forcing tears to swell up on his eyes. He knew that he loved Demyx so much, he had to set him free. Free from his death.

Zexion ran further, but the forest didn't seem as dark as it was before. He realized he was getting at the other side of the forest. Running slower, he tried to catch his breath. His lungs were burning, his legs were hurting. Then the sandy blond was standing, Zexion saw, at the end of the forest. Demyx stood still, facing a cliff in front of him. Zexion approached him slowly. He knew Demyx was confused—if he wanted to kill him, he would have done it inside the forest, not letting him catching up like that. The blond teen twitched a bit when he heard Zexion's footsteps becoming nearer.

"Dem," Zexion called, only to be greeted by Demyx's back. The teen stopped, sparing a few meters of space between him and Demyx. He didn't respond. "I… I'm sorry but this is the only way." Zexion raised his right hand, where the gun was. His finger was placed on the trigger, cold and hard. He aimed at Demyx hesitantly.

The blond didn't turn, still staring at the vast, dark gap of the cliff. "You have to know, that I'm not afraid of death," Demyx muttered, his voice trembling. "I told you before that I was scared of oblivion, right?"

Thump. Zexion made a step closer to Demyx.

"Yes."

"Now, if I wake up," the blond stammered, "I would be oblivious about us. I would forget everthing that has happened here. I would never remember you, Zexion"

"I know." Thump.

"I told you before that you were special."

"I remember." Thump.

"And I don't want to forget someone so special!" Demyx roared. With tears were running down from his cheeks, he finally turned his body to Zexion. He flinched a bit when he saw the gun pointed at him. Zexion saw the tall blond, crying, looking so rough and ready to break, unlike his usual cheerful self.

"You still have your friends, you know." Thump.

"I-If we stay here, I can remember you," Demyx cried and continued, "and we can be together."

"No, you will die tomorrow." Thump. They faced each other. The gun was pointed at Demyx's chest. Zexion wasn't afraid anymore, his hand didn't tremble, his face was stern, his lips sealed thightly. The shorter teen was ready. Demyx was afraid, he was trembling but he didn't move. His eyes were filled with betrayal.

They stayed that way for a while, drowning in silence. Minutes passed.

"Zexion," Demyx whispered. "I love you, Zexion. Please, please, please don't do this." The blond pleaded. His crying has stopped. Demyx stared straight into Zexion's eyes. There, he saw sorrow and happiness, betrayal and trust, intolerance and mercy.

Zexion slowly lowered the gun, resting his hand to his side, his eyes softened.

Demyx hugged Zexion thightly, feeling relieved. Bliss rushed through his mind. He exhaled air as much as he could, as if he wanted to suck Zexion into his lungs. He would never forget how he smelled, which was now one of his favorite thing. When Demyx felt Zexion's hands wrapping around him as well, he chuckled. Demyx felt the warmth and never wanted to let it go. Zexion was his new home and he would never leave his home now. He buried his head on Zexion's shoulder, hoping the shorter teen wouldn't mind his wet cheeks touching his skin. Demyx's face was full of love and he smiled from ear to ear.

But Zexion didn't smile. Swiftly, in less than a second, his hand clenched the gun, pointed it to Demyx's back. His smile disappeared.

Bang.

Zexion was on his bed. His breath was calm. He didn't hear Aerith's voice anymore. He just sat there, feeling hollow, surrounded with darkness with only a small fractions of light emerging from his window shutter.

He felt cold.

It has been 6 weeks since the last time Zexion traveled in dream world. He told himself that he wouldn't want to go there anymore, yet everyday he was tempted.

He only wanted to know if Demyx was still there.

Zexion has thought 3 scenarios of what could happen to him after that day he shot Demyx: first, he would go to see Demyx at the hospital, the blond would remember him and they would hug each other—maybe kissed—and everything would be happy ever after. Second, he would go to the hospital, Demyx wouldn't remember him at all, Marluxia told Demyx that Zexion was supposedly to be one of his friend, Demyx denied it and Zexion turned out to be a creepy stalker. Third, Zexion would just let Demyx go, continued his life like usual but minus Demyx and believed that everything would be okay.

He chose the third one.

It was almost a year after… Nothing. Nothing happened, Zexion assured himself. He didn't go to that other world either. Never laid a step anymore.

"Welcome home," his father greeted him the moment he entered the store. The son only hummed for the answer. Zexion had been thinking about mid-term test next week and how he should study more despite the fact he always studied every day and night, almost restless. He always liked doing all the calculations that needs accuracy and concentration. It distracted his mind from unimportant matters.

The teen was just going to climb the stairs to his room, when he saw a bouquet of pink carnation on the cashier register. Zexion's father noticed him looking at it. "Ah, right, about 5 minutes ago someone brought this and told me it was for you," he chuckled, "never thought my son would have a fan, eh?"

Zexion gulped. "Who was it from?"

His father scratched his chin, squinting his eyes. He took the bouquet and "What was his name again? Er—something with 'mix' in the end. Demyx?"

Zexion quickly snatched the bouquet of pink carnation from his father's hand. "Where is he going?" He demanded.

"I think he went that—" but before his father had finished his sentence, Zexion already rushed out the door, running.

He ran on the street, waves of emotions rushing throughout his body from his head to toe. With eyes scanning the street quickly, he looked for a tall, blond, familiar figure that he would know in a heartbeat. His legs were giving up on him after a long time not running, but he pushed forward. Zexion ran and ran, almost losing his mind. He felt like crying, but he held it back because blurry eyes wouldn't be useful for looking for someone. the Until he nearly crossed the road not realizing a car almost crashed on him if he weren't pulled behind by a hand.

Zexion fell on the ground, his adrenaline rushing, sweating all over the body both from running and from the shock only a few seconds apart from death. He grabbed the pink carnation bouquet that fell right next to him, holding it to calm himself down. Some people were staring at him, but he didn't care. Without waiting any second, Zexion stood up and wanted to continued his search right away, trying to find the blond figure that he didn't even know where, but the hand who helped him didn't let go. Confused, Zexion turned his face, and there he was.

He was the tall, blond teen he had been trying to forget for the last 28 days. He was the person whose name he had been trying to erase from his memory. He was the only reason he had been feeling both happiness and sadness that his heart ached when he came to mind.

Demyx was standing behind him, his hand still holding Zexion tightly almost like his life was depending on the grip. His slender fingers were holding Zexion's arm, hurting a bit but he didn't mind. His aqua eyes were wide open, and Zexion could see all sort of emotions inside it. It wasn't hard to read Demyx. Zexion's heart thumped.

But then, after a year, he finally smiled.

"Hey, remember that time?"

"What?" Zexion asked, his eyes were still focusing on the screen. His thumbs were pressing the buttons of the controller while fully concentrating. His tiny red car on the screen was on the first place, but he was wary of being targeted by a blue shell catching up to him.

"You asked me to bring pink carnation." He bit his lips. Demyx's blue car was speeding on the third position, and when the blue shell attacked the red car, he screamed "YES" and went ahead, resulting him to be on the first place.

Zexion let out a grunt and put the controller down. "I hate the blue shell," he murmured.

"Hey! Keep playing, you can't just quit." The blue car then crossed the finish line and the screen showed the blue car with a huge "1st" and cartoon characters cheering.

"No, I lost already, there's no point to continue. After all, you wanted to talk about something." Zexion turned his body to Demyx's direction.

Demyx put the controller down and his face had the I-am-the-winner-so-suck-it-up smile which Zexion hate. It wasn't like Zexion took video game seriously, but the smug smile his lover had after winning and the continuous teasing on how he won afterwards wasn't exactly pleasant.

"Yeah, I remembered that you asked me specifically to bring me a pink carnation back when we were in the dream world."

Zexion scoffed. "You still remember such detail even after 4 years."

"Well, you never tell me why it has to be pink carnation."

"You never ask after all." Zexion smiled. "But since now you are wondering, in flower language it means 'I will never forget you'."

Demyx smiled back at him softly and then hugged him tenderly with his caressing his steel blue hair, letting his fingers run through it. He knew Zexion loved it.

Zexion then pulled back from the hug, then pulled Demyx's neck bringing his lips to his own, kissing it, savouring it deeply. Both of them were grateful that they found each other again, and they were happy and would never ask for more. And it was the moment when Zexion swore to himself that he would remember the taste of Demyx's lips for a long time. A taste and feeling that he loved, with a man he had been in love with. And if he did forget, he would just kiss him again because they were together now and not even a dream could separate them.

Nothing could.

A/N.: Hello, Anwy here! First of all, I must apologize that it took me 2 years to complete this last chapter, but if 9 followers of this fanfic are still expecting this, I am thankful and feeling guilty at the same time. This is my first ever Demyx/Zexion fanfic, but I really love their character combo so much that I want to write more (I actually have another unfinished story of Demyx/Zexion, but I feel like I couldn't write much). I have been busy with uni and rarely read or write anything Anyway, I hope this last chapter is good enough and I hope you like the story. And thank you so much for your support until now. -Anwy