Through a Mirror, Darkly

(AKA, "unoriginal title is unoriginal")

They were two pairs from two worlds. They might have appeared the same, but they thought they were too different to find any common ground. Until they were forced to work together. Zemyx, Dexion

Warnings: Yaoi, graphic scenes abuse, S&M, seme!Zexion and uke!Zexion, seme!Demyx and uke!Demyx (...don't ask), a fat load of weirdness and craziness overall. Please don't take any of this shit seriously.

Okay, I did say that I was going to leave behind fanfiction...but in retrospect, I think that announcement was a tad premature. I do like writing fanfiction and the release of Birth by Sleep has really rejuvenated my interest in the KH fandom (don't start me rhapsodizing on how amazing BBS is and how Aqua is the best KH character ever...), but what bothered me all along was that I took it too seriously. I was thinking of myself as a fanfiction writer first, and an original writer second, which is...not so good. Definitely, fanfiction isn't "srs bznz" to me anymore; it's just something I do for a little bit of fun. Mostly when I'm feeling pooped about my original projects...such as this horrible novel that I just can't plan, and now I'm wondering if I even want to write it at all. ARRRGH. So now you get this cracky piece of fanfic.

It indeed is quite cracky, though it does tend to masquerade as something more serious and DEEEEP. Don't be fooled at all, though. I wrote this for shits and giggles, because I like the idea of different permutations of different characters meeting each other, and I like exploring different ways of writing the same relationships. I do ship Zemyx with Zexion on bottom, but writing Zexion as dominant is also quite a bit of fun even though I don't like it as much.

This story will be only ten chapters long and not much happens, unlike the other epic and involved projects (epic and involved fanfic? PFFFT) that I always start and putter out on. And no, this is not a sign that I'm giving up on Tainted. But after that story, I'll never write a longfic again. So deal with this short crackfic. =)

1. We Begin with Two Worlds

"Z-Zexion--" groaned Demyx, his voice a tiny whimper in the darkness.

"Quiet," Zexion said, raising a hand to shut Demyx up even though he knew the other couldn't see it, on account of being blindfolded. In the other hand he clutched a pair of belts, dangling loosely like dead snakes. Right now, he had his head tilted to the side and was examining his lover positioned exactly as Zexion had ordered him when the two had retreated together to Zexion's quarters earlier that night--lying on his back, his legs spread and hands clasped above his head.

Zexion liked nothing more than seeing his lover like this. Helpless and trembling, his perfect body ready for Zexion's taking. The other Thirteenth Order members, and Demyx himself, often liked to call Zexion a sadist, which Zexion supposed did have a grain of truth. But he swept his eyes over the perfectly smooth expanse of Demyx's tanned chest and stomach, down to his growing erection, and let a truly evil smirk--the kind that without fail would always incite a frightened squeak from Demyx--cross his face.

If I'm a sadist, then you're a masochist.

"So, Demyx," Zexion whispered, climbing on to the bed so that he was straddling Demyx; the blonde Nobody's breathing hitched in barely concealed excitement. "You seem awfully...eager...today, don't you?"

Demyx's only response was an inarticulate whine. Zexion sighed and ran a hand through his hair, all for theatricality (rather pointless, since Demyx was blindfolded), before bringing the hand down in a hard slap on Demyx's thigh.

His smirk grew as Demyx gasped sharply and tried squirming away. Zexion tightened his knees around Demyx's waist, trapping him. "Now, now," he whispered. "You can speak, can't you? Then speak when I ask you a question."

"Y...yeah, okay," Demyx said contritely, a blush spreading across his cheeks. Oh, his naive little lover could be so...cute. The thought rather struck Zexion as odd, since he usually didn't find "cuteness" all that appealing. He preferred the dark and grotesque--at least that was a realistic representation of the way the world was.

But he liked Demyx because he liked tainting him. The younger Nobody was so innocent and naive, brimming with a bubbly joy and a wide-eyed naivete that Zexion had rarely seen in any of the devastated worlds in which the Order now worked. It was relieving, in a way, to see someone who could still maintain such purity in such a ruined universe--and a Nobody, at that. And it was even more relieving to be able to destroy and defile that purity night after night.

Though he liked making Demyx submit to him in the end, he could admire how Demyx stubbornly clung to his sense of self through it all. Zexion cursed him and bound him and beat him and stabbed him and burned him and took him against his will, yet none of his actions seemed to dent Demyx's spirits in the slightest. The boy was always so cheerful in the mornings, playing his sitar without a care for the world and goofing off during the missions. Almost as if Zexion had never happened to him at all. Zexion didn't think he could enjoy Demyx as much if the younger Nobody had actually broken.

It was a bit sad when he thought about it. How utterly dependent on Demyx he'd become. He supposed that Demyx was the only thing keeping him sane, keeping him from drifting into the bleak and listless ennui his comrades had fallen into. It couldn't have been more than a year and a half ago that the Thirteenth Order had actually accomplished their goal--defeated that pesky silver-haired Keyblade master and finished Kingdom Hearts--yet they all felt like they'd done nothing. Kingdom Hearts, even completed, had refused to grant them the completion they all so strongly desired. The Superior was undaunted and continued making the Order run as usual, performing missions and unleashing darkness over world after world. There was no point in their missions and they all knew it, no matter how many times the Superior argued that the only reason they didn't have their hearts was because they had displeased Kingdom Hearts somehow by not gathering strong enough hearts. This was dubious logic at best, but no one dared question the Superior. So the Order members drifted about like empty shells, mere ghosts of ghosts, performing their tasks by rote in a universe that had increasingly few worlds left to drown in darkness.

Zexion had Demyx to thank for preventing his descent into madness and boredom--he could have ended up like Vexen and Marluxia, for instance, which wasn't an appealing thought in the slightest. All they did was vegetate side-by-side in either Vexen's falling-apart lab or Marluxia's dying garden, unless the Superior gave them missions. If it hadn't been for Demyx's unfailing brightness and light and innocence, and the chance to dominate and toy with him during the nights, Zexion could have easily joined those two.

"Z...Zexion?" Demyx whispered. He sounded a little more nervous than usual, maybe because he was afraid that Zexion would hit him again. Zexion smiled and ran a hand through Demyx's hair, reveling in its silky softness.

"See? You can talk somewhat articulately. Use that ability well."

"Oh--aww, c'mon, the last thing you should be thinking about now is how well I t-talk--eek!" Demyx cried out as Zexion leaned forward and began tying one of the belts around Demyx's wrists, outstretched above his head. The tough leather was a little harder to work with than rope or handkerchiefs, but it was worth it for the way Demyx whimpered and flinched as the cold metal of the buckle rubbed against and the rough leather chafed against his skin.

Zexion smiled, watching Demyx writhe in his bonds. Of course it was all for show; Demyx would never think of actually resisting, in a way that mattered. He bent down and pressed his lips against Demyx's, tasting the blonde's unique presence of sea salt mixed with something sweet, almost cloyingly so. If he thought too hard, he could almost connect Demyx's flavor with...with the old life, before he lost his heart, before--

But he didn't think about it. No. All that mattered to him now was Demyx, his eager and blushing and trembling and sweat-laced little angel, waiting for Zexion to brutalize him as he did every night. And Demyx hadn't left him yet. That was the most brilliant, the most beautiful part of it all. He'd given Demyx every reason to leave, but...but Demyx always chose to stay with him, no matter what. Sometimes, during their few arguments, he would furiously shout for Demyx to leave him and choose someone who actually cared about him.

"But Zexion," Demyx would reply, every time, blinking in that innocent way that would break Zexion's heart if he had one, "you do care about me."

Well, fine then. If Demyx thought so, then...then Zexion wouldn't protest. He should be grateful for what he had, instead of trying to question it. Never look a gift horse in the mouth...

Demyx started returning his kiss, lifting his head and parting his lips to entice Zexion to deepen it. Zexion wouldn't fall for such an obvious attempt, of course, and he pulled away, patting Demyx reassuringly on the shoulder as he did so.

But enough with gentleness. That wasn't what either of them had come here for. Zexion, smirking again reached between Demyx's legs and delivered his throbbing arousal a firm squeeze. In an instant, Demyx unleashed a deep moan and threw his head back, his neck arching-

And perfectly exposed. Reacting quickly, Zexion bent down and bit down, hard, right where Demyx's neck met his shoulder. Demyx's moan deepened and he dug his fingers into the sheets, trying to anchor himself on something. Zexion ignored Demyx's reaction, forcing him still by squeezing the smaller Nobody's waist and digging his teeth into Demyx's smooth soft skin until he tasted the bitter tang of blood.

He lapped at the blood, sucking it with perverse pleasure, while Demyx whimpered and moan and jerked with his every motion. That boy...he was just so wonderfully responsive.

"Mm--ahh--oh Zexion, oh Zexion," gasped Demyx, his face flushed, saliva dripping down his chin. He had never looked more beautiful. "Oh Zexion, I love you, I love you--"

Though he had no heart with which to truly understand those words, Zexion nonetheless felt a tremor of--something--inside the hollow space in his chest. A thrill, he supposed. "Ah, and quite right you are," he whispered, wiping the blood from his mouth. "I love you too."

"Zexion," breathed Demyx, his voice ragged with ecstasy.

Smiling--for real now, not a smirk--Zexion reached into the pocket of his coat, and produced a leather-wrapped package of long thin metal acupuncture needles. They were used for stimulating relaxation and relieving pain--

If placed in the right areas. Placed wrongly, well...that was something altogether more interesting, and exciting. One could stimulate and provide pain at the same time, if one knew what he was doing.

And Zexion most assuredly did.

Demyx was humming a very annoying song.

"That's enough," Zexion growled. "You'e giving me a headache."

"Oh, sorry," Demyx said in a tone implying the exact opposite. He gazed out the library windows again, at the perpetually dark sky of The World That Never Was, and resumed humming the annoying song. "Tell them how I am defying gravity, I'm flying high, defying--"

"Enough!" Zexion had to resist the urge to throw a book at Demyx.

Damn Number IX. He had no idea how he'd gotten mixed up with Demyx in the first place--certainly, in normal circumstances, the ninth member of the Organization would be far beneath his notice. Usually Zexion didn't even hang around the neophytes in the first place; he knew they existed, and with them the Organization had grown from the founding six to ten, but he still didn't like being nearer to them than he absolutely had to. He saw nothing to recommend in VII and VIII, who seemed utterly wrapped up in each other, barely paying attention at all to the workings of the Organization outside of meetings, and X was clearly uninterested in anything that he couldn't treat as a game. IX had been the same in Zexion's opinion before--just another shiftless neophyte, existing only to fill up space in the Organization's roster but otherwise wouldn't do anything useful. And the Organization didn't need any neophytes in the first place. There were the six of them, with the closest bond. They were the core of the Organization, and the only ones he would trust.

He still thought that way about the other three neophytes, but Demyx...Demyx was much too complicated a matter. Even now, after about four months of officially being "together," he still couldn't wrap his mind around what it was they really had.

"Unlimited, together we're unlimited," Demyx was humming now. "Together we'll be the greatest team there's ever been--"

"Demyx." Zexion groaned and snapped shut his book, rubbing his aching temples. There was no way he could think now...he'd taken to the library in the hopes of finding peace and solace, but Demyx had to follow him there. He told Demyx it was okay so long as if he didn't make any noise, but Demyx was failing miserably at keeping his end of the bargain.

"Oh come on, Zexy, you don't always have to act like you have a stick shoved up your ass," Demyx said, hopping down from the windowsill in which he'd been curled up.

"I do not," Zexion said.

"Then prove it!"

"What does that mean?" Zexion raised his eyebrows; he had the inkling that Demyx had just made a double entendre, but with Demyx he could never be sure.

"Oh, I think you know what I mean," Demyx said, which didn't clear a single thing up. "I mean that I came with you because I hoped we'd do something a little, y'know, interesting. I was hoping we could just have some small talk in here or something, but all you're doing is sitting here with your nose buried in those boring books."

"They are not boring."

"Congrats on totally missing the point!"

Well, well...Demyx certainly seemed peeved today. Normally he was so live-and-let-live in attitude, which Zexion had to admit was part of the reason why he had been attracted to Demyx in the first place. No matter how often he wronged Demyx, whether in insulting him or telling him his music was awful or forgetting to show up for dates, Demyx could always laugh it off and they could always have a nice thoughtless tumble after that. He liked that--how Demyx led, but not actively. Relationship-wise Zexion was always happy to follow in Demyx's lead--so long as that following didn't require him to do much.

Today seemed different, though. Perhaps Demyx was merely having his time of month...? Like Saix.

"And your point is...?" Zexion said.

"That I want to spend time with you, not watch you read." Demyx marched towards him, his arms crossed, his expression livid. Zexion was beginning to worry now. He didn't have much experience in sex besides with Demyx, and Demyx was always fairly gentle with him, but...he'd heard that it could be much more brutal. He wasn't blind to the things Saix and Axel did behind closed doors, nor the reason why Axel spent most of his time limping instead of walking and kept thinking of elaborate excuses to avoid actually sitting in his throne in Where Nothing Gathers.

But Demyx was kind. Demyx wouldn't hurt him, right...?

"Demyx, I'll spend all the time I want with you after I'm done reading," Zexion said, deciding that cool-headed logic would always win the day.

Apparently not so with Demyx. He leaned forward, gripping Zexion's shoulder--almost painfully. Zexion hissed and pulled back, but Demyx tightened his grip and pulled him closer, until all Zexion could feel was his overwhelming presence--the presence that had brought him to Demyx's bed in the very beginning. The scent of sea salt and sweetness...the scent that reminded him, achingly so, of the life in Radiant Garden that he had lost.

Not, not him. Ienzo. He wasn't Ienzo any longer--and nor did he have any wish to be that weak little boy again.

"Demyx--" Zexion began, as Demyx leaned in close, but he didn't get to finish.

Demyx wrapped an arm tightly around his waist and drew him into a passionate kiss. At first Zexion stiffened and tried pulling away, but Demyx didn't get the message and only dragged him closer and even swept him off his feet, astonishing Zexion greatly--he hadn't thought that Demyx had enough strength to carry him. He wondered if the vertigo spinning in his head was because his feet weren't touching the ground, or if it was because of...because of Demyx's mouth, pressing tightly against his own, his tongue probing deep into the warm cavern of Zexion's mouth, massaging Zexion's tongue lightly at first and then with more pressure, more passion...

Zexion felt himself caving, despite his resolve. Or lack thereof. It really didn't matter what he intellectually believed, not while Demyx was carrying him in his strong arms and kissing him so fiercely yet so lovingly at the same time. In a way it almost felt like blasphemy, for a boy without a heart to kiss another equally heartless boy as if they had the heart--the right--to kiss with such feeling.

Blasphemy. The thought made cruel pleasure tremble within him--and he gave in. He pressed back into Demyx's kiss, not content to hang limply in his arms accepting it, and wrapped his arms tightly around Demyx's neck. When they broke apart Zexion captured Demyx's lips into another kiss, less loving than the first but more hungry and desperate; Demyx quickly took the reins from him and kissed him back with bruising force. Just the right amount of force.

Still carrying Zexion, still intently making out with him, Demyx opened a dark portal before him and stepped through it.

Zexion smiled cruelly as he gazed down at Demyx, admiring his handiwork.

He had pushed the needles in just under Demyx's skin, making sure to only break through the outer layer rather than push through and injure anything vital. Blood was trickling from the wounds, for sure, winding in delicate and intricate patterns across Demyx's perfect skin, shockingly dark.

Zexion still had a needle left, and he was currently deliberating where to stick it in. He had to make this quick; Demyx looked hard enough to come now, and judging by the way he was gasping and shivering, tears streaking down his reddened cheeks and sweat shining on his skin, he was going to. All right, Zexion allowed that some of Demyx's reaction might come from pain. But in Demyx's twisted little schema, pain and pleasure were one and the same.

"Z-Zexion--oh, Zexion," gasped Demyx. "Please please please, I c-can't, I--"

"Don't come," Zexion said, infusing his voice with an extra layer of frostiness. "You know what the punishment for that is."

"Ohhh, Zexion--really, I can't--"

"Are you telling me to hurry up? Are you trying to give me an order?" Zexion lowered his voice and, sadistically, seized the end of the needle embedded right beneath Demyx's collarbone and pushed it further in. More blood burst out and flowed richly, freshly; Zexion watched it form rivulets over Demyx's chest with morbid fascination.

"Aaagh--oh Zexion, p-please, you know I d-didn't--" Demyx gasped, convulsing. "Oh please, I w-wanna, I j-just wanna--"

Zexion frowned. Demyx was being rather a bad boy, basically telling him to "hurry the hell up." But all the same...as fun as it was to draw it out, it was even more fun making Demyx arch his back and cry out his name...

He flicked the tip of the needle over the slit of Demyx's erect cock. Demyx squealed aloud and the blood rushed away from his face. "Oh no, no no no! Zexion, you wouldn't--"

"Here you go again," Zexion said with a heavy sigh. "Thinking you can give me orders. Well, I will have you know--"

He didn't get to finish, nor did he get to stick the needle into where it belonged--because in that instant light flared up behind him, so bright and sudden that he was momentarily blinded. He was aware of shouting out loud in confusion--just what the hell was going on? His first thought was that one of the other Order members had found the two of them, but that couldn't be right. Few had the initiative and drive to even leave their rooms, let alone snoop on other members.

"Zexion? Zexion, what's going on?" Demyx demanded, sounding panicky.

"Shh," Zexion said, mostly to reassure the younger Nobody. He blinked several times, clearing the worst of the light from his vision, though everything was still very hazy. The light...he saw now that it came from a single concentrated source, a...a circle, or a sphere, glowing blindingly white and making the surroundings look pale and washed out. It smelled of ozone.

What was this? Zexion had never seen anything like this in all of his years as a Nobody and the years before. Instinctively, he moved in front of Demyx, trying to protect his innocent lover, still bound and with needles stuck in him. Whatever this light was, it couldn't be friendly...

And then it expanded. It happened so quickly that Zexion couldn't react in time; one second the light had been concentrated into a ball, and the next it had exploded, washing the entire room in blinding rays that he felt more than saw, hammering into his skull and overwhelming his sensitive nose with the sharp tang of ozone--

He heard Demyx cry out, and then he saw--

"Something has changed within me, something is not the same," Demyx belted at the ceiling. "I'm through with playing by the rules of someone else's game--"

"Demyx! What did I say about singing?" Zexion shouted from halfway across the room.

"And what'd I say about reading?" Demyx whirled around to point accusingly at the volume of poems which Zexion was currently perusing. "Face it, Zexy. You're not ever gonna make me give up my first love, so I won't make you give up yours."

"Love." Zexion felt a scowl twitch up his face. "Yes, as if Nobodies can love anything in the first place."

"So, by that logic, you don't actually like to read?"

"When did I say that?"

"I thought it was implied."

"Oh, implied? Aren't you proud of yourself, using such big words."

"Sheesh, no need to be so nasty," Demyx said with a sigh, running a hand through his hair and messing up his fauxhawk quite a bit. "But I figure you would be. You're always nasty after sex, aren't you?"

"What?" Zexion stiffened. "Since when?"

Well...he hadn't thought that, personally. It wasn't sex that made him nasty. He quite liked it, actually, and if done right it was something of a stress reliever. When Demyx took him to bed, pushing him against the mattress and stripping him either gently or with rough desperation (depending on his mood), and hit that place inside him that without fail always made him see stars, he could forget it all. Demyx's annoying music, Demyx's annoying words. Xemnas ranting about Kingdom Hearts. Axel and Saix's antics. His memories of Ienzo.

He forgot it, drowned in the pleasure that only Demyx could give. That man truly was a siren.

The aftermath, on the other hand, was rarely enjoyable. Usually, only about an hour or so after they finished rolling around in the sheets, laughing and gasping and moaning together, Demyx would pull himself upas if nothing had happened, summon his sitar, and begin playing. It had dumbfounded Zexion at the beginning and even hurt a bit. Had he not been good enough? Why was Demyx ignoring him?

After a while he just came to accept that Demyx didn't view sex the same way that he did. To Zexion, it was something special and beautiful, almost holy, and something he associated exclusively with Demyx. But hell...Demyx probably just viewed it as a fun little romp, a distraction from his true hobby and love, music. A nice distraction, yes, but a distraction nonetheless.

Zexion believed in having the courage to change the things one could, the serenity to accept the things one could not change, and the wisdom always to know the difference. This fell squarely in the second case, he had finally decided.

"Since forever," Demyx said. "I'm through accepting limits 'cause someone says they're so, some things I cannot change but till I try I'll never know~!"

"Please stop," Zexion hissed through gritted teeth.

Demyx responded, maddeningly enough, with a maniacal laugh. "Don't wanna not gonna."

"Oh, you," Zexion hissed, summoning his lexicon and preparing to pummel away at the Nocturne with it, or at least trap him in the pages for an hour or two, perhaps that'd get Demyx to reconsider his cavalier attitude--

And then light flooded the room.

"What the hell!" Demyx cried, and Zexion was aware of uttering a few choice expletives himself. He shielded his eyes and spun in the direction of the light, as much as his instincts were screaming for him to look away. There was a ball, glowing brilliantly as a second sun, spreading blinding rays through the room and reeking of ozone...

"Back away, Demyx," Zexion said, holding out his lexicon, though he had no idea what he was going to do with it. Trap the light in its pages? The very thought was laughable. This light, whatever it was, was far more powerful than anything he had ever seen before. Something beyond even the Organization's vast knowledge...

It exploded, in a violent blinding burst--Demyx had seized his hand and pulled him close, yelling a warning--too late, too late, the light flooded the room, and then--

It was a beautiful plaza or had been beautiful once, but now the stones were cracked and the statues discolored and overgrown with ivy. One, a bronze equestrian statue, had toppled in the dead center of the plaza. The patina-green rider's heroic pose now looked like he was thrashing about for help.

Four young men, barely boys, faced each other in horrified wonder on opposite ends of the plaza. Two were together and so were the other two.

The two couples looked exactly alike.

HAW HAW HAW obvious cliffhanger ending is OBVIOUS.

Updates will be sporadic, but I'll probably end up finishing it given how short this story. What a pile of weirdness. It was fun to write and made me feel marginally better about that novel that refuses to be crapped out, though not enough to start actually crapping it out. =(

By the way, the inclusion of "Defying Gravity"lyrics does not make this a songfic. Wicked is an awesome musical. It's one of the few fictional stories I've ever watched that actually made me cry real tears. Along with Star Trek 2009 (the Kelvin's destruction...Kirk's birth...*sniff*), an episode of Law & Order: SVU (don't ask...), and the ending of Birth by Sleep (Aqua, you are...amazing).

Review if you feel like it. I don't really care, since I'm not taking this pile of crack seriously at all.