Hi! Happy Valentine's Day! At least that was what I was planning to say two days ago when I thought I would have this finished. But, this came out late instead. Sorry. This has no direct correlation with the story Vessel. It was just something I wanted to do.

Anyway, on to the show!

Disclaimer: I do not own Kingdom Hearts. I do own Nixa and Max.

Axel walked into the Grey Room to see that someone had taken the liberty to decorate it. Actually, he was still in the process of decorating when Axel walked in.

Demyx was perched precariously on a chair and a couple of boxes trying to put up a string of red paper hearts on the wall. Axel walked up next to the Tower of Inevitable Face Plant and looked up at Demyx.

"Hey Demyx! What are you doing?" Demyx, startled by Axel calling out to him, wobbled on the tower for a minute before regaining his balance. Damn. Axel was hoping for a face plant.

Demyx looked down at him, slightly glaring at him for almost making him fall, but smiled a couple of seconds later.

"I'm decorating! What else?"

Axel quirked an eyebrow and crossed his arms.

"Decorating for what?"

"Valentine's Day!" Demyx said as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

Axel frowned.

"Um…..Demyx, you are aware that we don't have hearts, right?" Sometimes, he wondered about the blonde.

"Oh, we do too have hearts."

Riiiiight.

"Anyway," Axel shook his head, seeing that it would be pointless to argue with him, "Why are you decorating? It's not like any of us celebrate it."

"He's right."

Axel and Demyx both looked over to see Xigbar walking over towards the tower. He stopped right next to it as he looked up at Demyx.

"Nobody here celebrates the holiday, so there's no point in decorating. Put all that stuff away." As he said that last sentence, he kicked the chair Demyx was using, making the tower topple over and Demyx landing on the ground in a face plant. Axel smirked at that.

"Aw, but Xiggy – "

"Do it. Unless you want to try to explain this to Saix."

Xigbar walked out. Sighing in defeat, Demyx picked up the string of paper hearts that fell to the floor with him and placed them in a cardboard box that was sitting behind one of the couches.

As Demyx went about putting away the decorations, Roxas and Xion came in. They saw all the paper hearts and walked over to Axel with confused looks on their faces.

"Hey Axel, what's this all about?" Roxas gestured to the decorations that were still up.

"Demyx tried to decorate for a holiday that's coming up, but now he has to put them away."

"Why's that?" asked Xion.

"Because Nobodies don't celebrate Valentine's Day."

Roxas and Xion blinked. Then they asked a question in unison.

"What's Valentine's Day?"

Before Axel could go about answering the question, Demyx popped up next to him.

"It's the holiday of love!"

"What's love?" Roxas couldn't help but ask.

"What? You don't know what love is?" Roxas and Xion shook their heads.

"Come on Demyx. Leave them alone. They won't understand any explanation you give them about it."

Demyx frowned. It was true. Love was a difficult concept to explain. Then, his eyes brightened up when he came up with one that they might understand.

"You're right. I won't be able to explain it."

Axel sighed. Now maybe he would just finish cleaning up and leave the two alone about stuff they couldn't understand.

Then, Demyx pointed at Axel.

"But you can! Because I know that you love Nixa!"

Axel froze. What?

Roxas and Xion turned to Axel.

"Is that true Axel? What does he mean?"

"Yeah Axel, what's love?"

"Uhhh…" Damn that Demyx! Why did he have to go and say that?

"Uh….well, you see…..tell you what. I'll tell you another time. Demyx, don't you have work to do before Saix sees this?"

Demyx pouted before turning around to get back to work.

"Fine, but you do love her!"

"Who says that I love her?" Roxas frowned. Why was Axel getting so defensive?

"Well, do you?" Axel turned to Roxas, who asked him.

"….Well, the thing is, you need a heart in order to love. Since I don't, I'm not able to love anybody."

Roxas blinked.

"But you like her, right?"

Axel nodded.

"Well, yes."

"So what's stopping you from loving her?"

"Demyx, will you shut up already?"

While Axel and Demyx started bickering with each other with Roxas standing there confused, Xion walked off with an idea in mind.

…..

Nixa woke up from Max tugging on her sleeve. She got up, wondering why Max woke her up from her nap, when she heard someone knocking on her door. From the feel of the light radiating from the person, it was either Roxas or Xion. She still couldn't tell the difference between the two.

"Come in, the door's open." She decided not to try to guess.

She heard the door open. The footsteps sounded light, so she guessed the person to be Xion.

"Anything I can help you with, Xion?" She sat up as she asked, stretching out her back.

Xion walked over to her. It was apparent that she just woke up from a nap.

"Um, I'm sorry if I woke you up."

Nixa waved it off.

"Eh, I don't mind. We're friends, after all. So, what's on your mind?" It seemed like there was something she wanted to ask by the feel of the traces of confusion that seemed to be lingering (at least she thought it was confusion. Nobodies can be hard to read at times).

"Well, I was wondering what love is."

Nixa tilted her head in confusion.

"Love?"

Xion nodded.

"Yeah. Axel and Demyx were talking about Valentine's Day and love, but neither of them would explain it to me or Roxas, so I thought that you might know."

Nixa tilted her head back, staring at the ceiling of her room with sightless eyes.

"Hmmmmm…well, love is actually a feeling. It's one of the most difficult feelings to explain. Of course, Axel probably said something about needing a heart to feel love, right?"

Xion nodded before she remembered that Nixa couldn't see.

"Yeah, he did."

Nixa sighed.

"Well, I guess that would be true, as love affects the heart the most."

Nixa turned her head to look towards Xion.

"I'm not sure how to really explain it myself. Some people would say that it's the most wonderful feeling in the world. Others, however, might say how love is horrible, especially if you lose the person you love. If I had to explain it, I would say that it's probably both. Love is a double-edged sword. It makes you nervous, queasy, anxious, and light-headed, it may even make you feel like you're at the top of the world. But, if you lose the person you love, the loss will tear at you from the inside and you want nothing more than to get the one you love back even though you know it's not possible. Are you following me so far?"

"Uhhh…" Xion couldn't say that she understood. She didn't know how any of those things felt.

Nixa smirked.

"I guess I should put it this way. When you love someone, you have the urge to protect and care for them. And you always want them by your side. Can you understand that?"

"Uh, yeah. I think I understand that one better. Thanks."

Nixa smiled.

"No problem. Now, I'm not sure, but I think the guys are wondering where you disappeared to."

Xion's head snapped up. She forgot that she didn't tell anyone that she went to ask Nixa.

"Oh, right. You want to come along. When I left, Axel and Demyx were bickering with each other."

Nixa nodded and Max started to get up.

"Sure. I guess someone needs to do some damage control."

With that, they left and started to head for the Grey Room.

….

"Come on Axel! Admit it!"

"There's nothing to admit! Now get off my case!"

"Umm…..guys, where did Xion go?"

They stopped arguing as they realized they were short one Nobody.

"I don't know. You were right next to her."

Right at that moment, Xion came back in the room with Max and Nixa following her. Axel's expression, upon seeing Nixa, lightened up, making Demyx smirk.

"Okay you two, what are you bickering about?"

"Uh, nothing!" Nixa stared suspiciously in Axel's direction. The answer seemed a bit rushed to her, but she just shrugged it off.

"Anyway, what've you guys been up to?" She wanted to know what brought up the topic of Valentine's Day.

"Well Demyx here tried to decorate for Valentine's Day when Xigbar told him to knock it off." Demyx sent a glare at Axel's back as he brought the box of decorations closer to the chair he was using.

"I wasn't even aware that the holiday was even coming up. Not that I actually celebrate it anyway."

"Why's that?" Nixa was pretty sure that Roxas would never run out of questions. But, she didn't mind.

"Because she can't read a calendar!" Nixa sent a slight glare in Demyx's direction, even though it was true. Then she turned her attention to the two youngest organization members to answer their question.

"It's a holiday for couples. It's just a day for them to do…..whatever it is they wanna do."

"Well, what do they wanna do?"

Nia gave him a flat stare to Roxas' forehead.

"I'm not a mind reader, so I can't really say for any specific plans a person may have. But, I guess they just mainly want to be with their Valentine, which would be their boyfriend or girlfriend."

Roxas….kind of understood, but not really at the same time.

"I think I get it."

"You don't have to get it. You'll understand once you have a heart to feel with."

"…."

"So, what were you up to?" Axel tried to steer the conversation away from the topic in case Nixa tried to find out what they were fighting about.

"I was taking a post-mission nap."

"Hey! Why don't we all go for ice cream? We all got out of our missions early today." Nixa smiled towards Xion.

"That sounds like a plan to me. Coming guys?"

Roxas and Axel nodded.

"Yeah, that sounds good."

"Just give me a minute. I'll meet you guys there."

Nixa nodded at Axel and opened a portal. Roxas and Xion went in first, followed by Max. Nixa took one last look (not really, but still) in Axel's direction.

"Play nice now. Start bickering again and I will drag the reason behind it out of the both of you. See ya there." With that, she left as well. Demyx walked around the box in Axel's direction.

"Why don't you admit it? Or better yet, why don't you ask her to be your Valentine?"

Axel glared at Demyx.

"Demyx, I don't have a heart. If I did ask, there wouldn't be any meaning behind it."

"Are you sure?"

Demyx got in his face at this point. But, instead of him lecturing Axel like he expected him to do, Demyx just smiled and started walking away.

"Fine! Just remember this! You not asking her makes her free game for anyone else who would want to ask her!"

When the words reached Axel, he whipped around to yell at the blonde only to see that he was already gone.

Okay, it's shorter than I would normally make my chapters for my other stories, but I decided to make this into a two-shot. I KNOW this is late, but I have been busy and just plain tired lately. I'm just glad I got this out this month, let alone this week. I had started this last weekend, so I thought that I might as well finish it. Better late than never, right? Anyway, expect the second part by Friday (hopefully). With any luck, that will come out with the latest chapter for Vessel.

Have a nice week!