Author's Note:

Hi you all! Sorry I've been gone. Anyway, I hope some of you are still alive and well…and I hope some of you still want to read this. Anyway, again, sorry for being gone so long. –Randi

--W—

Never knowing. Never caring. What kind of life does that give you? Or, instead, does it give you a life at all? And, if you were given no life, what were you? Were you anything?

What are you now?

He didn't want to move at all. Aside from his average laziness, it was more the pain, or rather, the ache just painful enough to not let itself be forgotten, that kept him lying in such an odd position. He felt his arm twisted and it lay under his back. One leg outstretched, hanging over the edge of the bed, while his other was rested bent with his ankle on his knee. He was pretty sure his other arm was beneath his head, but it was asleep, so he couldn't tell anyway.

Emerald eyes blinked back against the wild, soft long red locks obscuring his view. He wanted it so to be gone, but he was not in favor of the movement it would take to move it away. Axel was not exactly the most comfortable of people, though he woke up to an immense rush of adrenaline and anxiety that seem to have been left over from the night before. The night before.

Involuntarily he groaned, and this made his chest ache, causing him to cough. Again—but different this time. Demyx had been so…demanding. He'd been so violent. Axel lay there, staring at his ceiling and listening to the faint sound of clothes rustling. Pressing his numb arms against the bed, Axel was able to life himself onto his elbows. For some reason a smile tugged at the edges of his mouth as he watched the blonde bustle about in a panic. That was the average gay Axel remembered.

"Having trouble there, scout?"

"Hm?" Blinking, Demyx looked up and looked down at his only object of clothing—his pants. "Oh, I'm sorry." Wide eyes looked back up. "Did I wake you?"

"I don't think I ever feel asleep, honestly." Demyx just nodded and continued to sift through the black clothes strewn across the floor. "What are you looking for?"

"My coat and boots," was the simple answer. Demyx tossed a boot over his shoulder, a little to big for him. Must of have been Axel's. "All our clothes look the same."

"Well, if you haven't noticed, everyone's clothes look the same." This time the smile won and it seemed foreign to him. It was more of a half-smirk, but it fit the mood.

Jumping out of bed, dragging the sheets like a toga with him, Eight made his way over to help the frantic younger member. "You know, I think you're bi-polar."

"What makes you say that?" The random little Axel-ADD moment took Demyx off guard and made him look up.

"You became Alpha-male, and now you're the mouse in a room with a lion." Axel smiled and handed the baffled blonde a boot he knew was to small for his own foot. "If you know what I mean."

"Yeah, oh, thanks." Demyx looked down and slid the boot on carefully, taking his time to seem extremely interested in the way it fit. "You don't say?"

"I do say." Rolling his eyes, Axel slipped on his own coat and quickly sought out a new pair of slacks. "Unless you've gotten amnesia on me."

"That was horrific grammar."

"Doesn't matter." There was a sharp edge to his voice. The euphoria was wearing off now. Demyx seemed to take notice.

"We'll have a true session tonight," he offered, finishing getting the last of his uniform on. "I feel grimy. I'm going to go take a shower."
"You do that." The door was open before Demyx could say anything else. Just before his foot crossed the thresh-hold, something tugged at the back of his mind. Something nagged him that if he were to cross that line, he wouldn't be allowed back unless he did something now. His hesitant eyes turned, look up to a startlingly emotionless stare. He wasn't sure what he was going to do, nor what he would say. The look was unnerving, and Demyx let his eyes fall to the floor before he opened him mouth. Unfortunately, nothing came out but a short stuttered 'Whe—uh…I—" He nibbled his bottom lip and looked up. Axel had this way of making you feel like a dear in headlights. All the bravado from the night before fell from Demyx's subconscious and he stared unwillingly into the empty, glazed look of the taller man. Neither spoke, no words were able to state anything they were thinking.

"I can not believe how absolutely fascinating this is. Really." Their concentration as shattered and both Axel and Demyx looked to find, of course, Marluxia.

"The hell you doing here—Demyx, get out." Demyx wanted to protest but stepped out of the door. The three men seemed to form an awkward triangle. Marluxia seemed to be a rather content angle, eyes shifting from one to the other.

"I do live here, Axel. Anyway." With a swift twist of his wrist, Marluxia cocked his head and it knocked some hair over his shoulder. His twisted wrist palm up, near his chin, the elbow resting on his other, folded arm across his chest.

"You look like a prissy gay director." Axel frowned and crossed his own arms, leaning on the doorframe. "The hell you want?"

"Don't talk to me about gay." The sickening smile crossed perfect teeth and a malice glinted in Marluxia's eye. Demyx looked away and shifted around nervously, Axel looked unfazed, oddly enough. "We have a situation."

"Which has to do with me."

"Indeed." A small pause. "Atlantica is going crazy."

"And it's our problem? I'm no superhero. Why doesn't the frickin' blade master do something about it?"

"He's off being a boy." Eleven smiled softly, wistfully almost. "But that's not all. The major device we took from Atlantica upset it's balance, causing strange tides to wash over two of the three words around it. Everyone's all freaking'." It seemed this pleased him, Axel was another story.

"And again, what does this have to do with me?"

"You should say 'us'."

"Ah hell no." Axel looked at a rather 'preoccupied' blonde who seemed to find the floor tiles rather fascinating. "Why does he always pair me with him?"

"You are a pair, darling." Tapping Axel softly on the shoulder, rightly getting his hand shrugged off, Marluxia continued. "You're going to get and get a few more important devices from the worlds that are currently all in a huff, and that will set them off balance, and so on."

"So, a domino effect?" The other men looked to Demyx who, though quiet, looked interested. "If we set all the worlds off balance, then what?"
"Well, Nine, that's for you to ask of the Superior…or Zexion, if you can find him." He smiled with malice. "I think they're by the pool today."

Before they could object, Marly clicked his heels and turned, ambling away with his hands lazily behind his head. "Oh, and, by the way…Axel has a swim test today too." The snarl nearly blocked out the laughter and Marluxia made a mad dash for the stairs, ducking just in time for a Chakram to lodge into the wall where his head would have been.