When everyone is growing up, someone always tells them to not to judge a book by its cover. No one ever listens until they do find a book with a terrible cover and it actually reads pretty well, and most don't even realize it's supposed to be an analogy to people until it's too late.

Edym was one of the ones who actually listened. He didn't pay attention to it when it actually dealt with books, but he definitely did when he talked to people. That's how he was seen as so friendly and hung around with so many people up to the point of the heartless attack.

But even when Edym became Demyx he held true to it. But instead of telling people and acting on it, he decided to prove to people that they shouldn't and created his own book cover. To date, no one had looked past it.

It's said when you die, your life flashes before you. When Demyx died, he saw a few things in particular…

---

"Hey, Demyx?" The blonde nobody turned to see Roxas standing behind him, holding something in his pale hands. "Do you know what this is?"

Demyx looked closer and the thing looked up at him, white fur slicked down as it twitched its nose. "I think it's a rabbit, Rox."

"Oh." Roxas looked at the creature again, examining it. Demyx watched Roxas watch the rabbit.

"Why do you ask? And where did you find one?"

"Oh, uh…" The boy turned a little red. "Well, I saw it in Land of the Dragons and didn't know what it was, so…" He turned, starting to leave. "I'm going to take it back now."

"You really like figuring stuff out, huh?"

Roxas gave him 'the look.' "Of course I do. It's the only way you can learn."

That's what started it all.

---
Demyx, as usual, narrowly dodged one of Larxene's daggers. "Why don't you go play darts or something?" he asked in a squeaky voice as one almost hit very low.

"I am playing darts, silly," the girl chimed with a smirk.

"No, I mean the game with a board that isn't living. Eek!" He dodged one that nearly pierced his ear.

"Why should I?" Larxene asked, "You make funny noises like this."

"Y-Yea, well…" Demyx thought for a moment. He really didn't want to be like this to learn what he wanted. "How about I play darts with you and I'll, uh, do a mission for you if you win?" He didn't set any terms for him winning and they both knew why.

She smirked, walking over and pulling out her daggers. "Alright, then."

About thirty minutes later Demyx had lost horribly and Larxene was looking very triumphant as she walked out of the room. Demyx glanced after her and made sure no one else was in the room before throwing the darts the way he'd seen her do it.

They hit the bulls-eye every time.

---
Occasionally, Marluxia would let Demyx help water his plants. He still had to keep an eye on him, however, as Demyx didn't know how much was too much water. He was being scolded yet again for his efforts.

"Demyx, you can't give them all the same amount of water!" the scythe wielder was saying.

"Why not?" the blonde asked. Marluxia sighed.

"Because, plants aren't all the same," he explained, "Some need light in order to grow and some prefer shade. Some need rich soil and some grow in clay. And some don't need as nearly as much water as you're putting in there!"

"Oh, ok." Demyx nodded in understanding and resumed his job as Marluxia stalked away. Marluxia thought he'd just been talking about flowers.

Demyx knew that he was really talking about people.

---
Luxord always won at cards, whether you tried or not, so Demyx didn't try and paid attention to how the Gambler of Fate played. He cheated a lot, so that was one thing that made him win, but he liked to form strategies too.

"You always need a plan, Demyx," Luxord was saying this time as he pulled over the poker chips on the table, "You need to think of a plan in that brain of yours and prove you're capable of using it."

Demyx smiled sheepishly, scratching the back of his head. He already had a plan.

---

Sometimes Demyx would go out into the World that Never Was and stare up at the falling rain, letting it fall on his face and flatten his hair. Today, however, he had spotted silver hair and decided to follow it.

He watched the pale boy rush through the city with a little smile. He knew why he was there, but didn't know his name. He knew that the boy was there to try and take Roxas away. Demyx didn't like the sound of that, but he knew Roxas wanted answers.

So the nobody watched. It must have been very nice, he thought, for this teen to have people he really cared about.

Demyx couldn't bring himself to be angered by him taking Roxas away.

---

"Axel?" Demyx asked one day, looking cautiously over at the fire user. The redhead was the only one in the castle who seemed to understand that Demyx was smarter than he looked and acted.

"Hm?" Axel looked back at him.

"Why did you do all that?" the blonde asked quietly, "Kill all those people in Castle Oblivion, I mean."

"Hey, I only killed Vexen," Axel pointed out, "Sora killed Marluxia and Larxene, that silver-haired kid killed Lexeaus, and Vexen's experiment killed Zexion."

"Yea, I know, but you had a part in it," Demyx frowned, "Why did you do it?"

He smirked and leaned down towards him. "Because they were screwing up, got it memorized?"

Demyx gave him a look. "How were they messing up?"

"They were getting in my way," Axel shrugged.

The blonde knew Axel only told him because Demyx wouldn't tell anyone. But it was good thing he did, because Demyx might need to use manipulation sometime.

---
It was night and Demyx really wanted to sleep, but he'd ended up talking with Saix instead. The diviner was reading the stars.

"We will get our hearts back someday," he stated simply.

"How?" the blonde asked.

Saix didn't answer. He didn't like having questions asked when he was divining. "It is unlikely it will be in this life, however."

Demyx tilted his head to the side. "So why don't we all just let Sora kill us and then get our hearts back?"

"Because," the blue-haired man replied a bit testily, "dying on purpose would be a waste of this life."

Demyx thought calling an existence without a heart a life stupid, but he didn't say that. Saying Saix had said something stupid was inviting death, and he hadn't learned all he wanted yet.

The stars turned out to be pretty informative.

---
Zexion was reading when Demyx came across him. "Hey. What are those weird mind trick things you do?" he asked.

The Cloaked Schemer looked up at him. "Illusions," he replied.

"How do you do them? They look pretty cool."

That earned him a raised eyebrow. "My illusions are created by magic. However, mental illusions can be equally effective."

Demyx tilted his head to the side. "Huh?"
Closing his book with a sigh, the man stood. "Mental illusions. Making something believe in something that's not true." He walked away to rid himself of the conversation.

Demyx decided illusions might be fun.

---

Lexeaus never said much, and Demyx never pressed him to. Sometimes they'd be sitting and the blonde would start talking about anything at all, something bothering him or something he'd seen, and the Silent Hero would listen and nod.

Demyx thought he was the smartest of them all. He knew listening was important and that listeners were needed more than talkers.

---
Whenever Demyx looked into the lab, Vexen was there trying something new. He was determined to research the workings of the hearts they had lost and went to many lengths to do so.

"Why do you keep doing that?" Demyx would ask.

Vexen would scoff and reply, "I'm nearly there! I'm not about to give up."

He was never nearly there, but the blonde got the point anyway.

---
Xaldin had tried to pin Demyx to a wall with his spears more than once, so the nocturne was pretty wary of them. He did ask once, however, how it felt to use spears.

"Spears are an extension of the arm," Xaldin replied, "It is merely a way of directing the force farther out than your hand."

Demyx thought about this for a moment. "So it's like you got six arms?"

He ended up needing Axel to rescue him from his hanging position, but at least he really did understand what Xaldin had said.

---

There was no question in anyone's mind that Xigbar liked to shoot things. He'd offered to teach Demyx a few times, and the blonde never was very good at it.

"Look, kid," Xigbar explained, "You gotta look where you're shooting. You're not going to hit the tree if you're looking at the cow."

Demyx frowned and shot at the target, hitting the very edge. "Better," Xigbar complimented, while the blonde pouted.

He'd been aiming for the outer ring.

---
Xemnas's meetings were always long and boring, but Demyx listened anyway. People thought he was spacing out and staring at the ceiling, but he was always listening. He heard the ideas and arguments and Xemnas putting them together to come up with a good plan. Soon he found himself internally doing the same.

If he had to, Demyx knew how to lead.

---

When Demyx died, Sora heard him cry out. Inside, he was laughing.

He knew what came next.