Silence.

Silence at the Castle That Never Was usually meant a fight was imminent between the members of Organization XIII, especially considering this was one of the few bye weeks they'd had in a while.

Tensions were high as they had all received a thorough chewing-out by Xemnas, something about how their heart collection ratio wasn't up to par with how he envisioned it and by the end of their vacation they'd all have to pull double-duty.

Naturally, this left everyone pissed at something, and without a chance to turn on the superior, they went for each others' throats. Well, some did. Roxas and Axel usually made things worse by playing troublemakers the entire time, Larxene picked fights with everyone in sight, and Saix stalked the halls irritably. One might say the smarter members were the ones that stayed in their rooms, like Demyx and Luxord.

An explosion rocked the castle, then around the corner to the members' rooms walked a very specific female Nobody. She cast an evil smirk over her shoulder before stalking right into Marluxia's room without even bothering to announce her presence outside. She walked slowly, eyes closed, working the knots from shoulder which was freshly starting to cramp up from her daily physical abuse on the newest member. She'd managed to get to him this day before Axel had even managed to drag himself out of his room, meaning the kid had gotten a good once-over. Not that he hadn't fought back, another reason her shoulder was sore.

A soft guitar melody drifted into her ears and she sighed. Always a sucker for soft music, Marluxia was, said something about how the plants liked it too. How things like plants could appreciate music was beyond Larxene's comprehension, but she never really put too much thought into it. Her eyes still closed- she knew his room quite well- she continued advancing, expecting to come into contact with one of his comfortable albeit pink chairs.

The contact came alright, about five paces later, but what she hit wasn't the side or back of a chair, what she hit fell over with a loud, metallic clang and took her with it.

"Are you alright?"

A stupid question... and not Marluxia's voice.

Electric blue eyes shot open and instantly landed on sea green ones set beneath a very specific mohawk... or mullet... or whatever the hell he called his hair style- she'd never asked. She was about to burst out with what the hell Demyx was doing in Marluxia's room, until she noticed the layout. The whole room was so very dark with hints of blue- not Marluxia's color. There were large windows at the far end, though not nearly the green-house sized ones, with the windows in the center being a door to a balcony- very unlike Marluxia's setup. The thing she had tripped over, and was now laying on while it dug into her stomach wasn't even vaguely anything floral, in fact it was large and a rich gold color. No, it was brass. She'd tripped over a trombone.

Besides the fact the room held the sweet trace of fresh water scent rather than the overbearing stench of flowers.

Finally her eyes fell back on his and narrowed dangerously. He had half arisen from his seat, the guitar held tightly in his hands but now he was regarding her like some sort of strange, wild animal, unsure if he should approach or not. With a small noise she pulled herself to her feet, kicking the brass instrument with a thunk before crossing her arms over her chest and daring the man to say anything about what she'd just done.

Demyx slowly backed down rather than complain about her kicking his instrument, sitting back on the low stool he'd been earlier while resting the guitar in his lap. "What brings you here?"

Larxene's eyes narrowed even farther, the light blue glinting out from behind thick lashes. She could tell him the truth, that she'd made a mistake and had wandered into the wrong room, but her pride would not allow it. "Why shouldn't I be here?" She mentally winced at her own childish comeback. Demyx just raised his eyebrows.

"I... I really couldn't tell you. It's not as if I'm doing anything incriminating," he laughed and the sound was so pleasant to Larxene's ears that she forced herself to deny liking it. No, she couldn't think like that. His voice was whiny and nasal, not pleasing.

"Well... what are you doing?" she asked, impatiently tapping her foot. Demyx looked at the guitar, then back up at her.

"Well..." he began. "Just trying to see if it's the music, the sitar, or me that allows me to control water."

Larxene scoffed. "Stupid. Why do you need to know?"

"Just curious I guess. I did figure out that if it is indeed the music that controls it, then I need something that can chord..."

Larxene raised an eyebrow, relaxing her stance slightly. Demyx paused for a moment, regarding her while his mind thought up his explanation.

"Uh... like this," he strummed a chord on the guitar. "See how there's more than one note in there that synchs up? You can only do it with string and some percussion instruments, all the rest are limited to one note at a time. I figured that it's the chord that has something to do with helping me get the water to come to me. I can't just spawn it out of nothing like the rest of you can for some reason."

Larxene snickered. "That's because water fails as an element. Earth can contain it, lightning zaps it, plants suck it up and use it to their advantage, wind freezes it immobile into ice. It's a life-giving element, not a life taking one."

Demyx blinked, then shook his head. "What about mud slides? Earth can only contain water for so long before the water breaks it down."

"I have you beat on the rest of them..." Larxene said proudly, glaring at him.

Demyx shook his head. Arguing was pointless, especially against her. She insisted on winning and usually wore people down beyond the point of them wanting to try anymore.

Larxene wanted to leave him on that note, but found herself compelled to ask one more question. It was the question that would change her non-existence as she knew it... she just didn't realize it yet. "So... how far you gotten? Like... do you know how many other instruments will help?"

Demyx looked up at her suddenly like he'd expected her to leave, too. She smiled smugly, knowing she'd caught him off guard. "Oh uh... well, I haven't tried it with a regular guitar yet..." Demyx was lying, and with a little luck, she wouldn't be able to tell. "I had tried it out on the piano... and it worked alright."

"Well, start playing, I wanna see if this theory of yours actually works," Larxene challenged, puffing up her chest a little bit so she could look down her nose at him.

Demyx just smiled slightly and shrugged. "If you want me to..." He looked down at the guitar and situated his hands on it, muttering under his breath as he did so. "And don't mind getting a little wet..."

The music began simply, a few chords to coax the moisture up through the ground and when finally enough had gathered Demyx began strumming intently on the guitar. They both watched as the water formed pillars shooting straight up, disintegrating before falling back down to the ground only to be sucked back up into another pillar. Larxene had to admit, if nothing else it made for an impressive show. She watched as the music became even more strenuous, the water began swirling around before launching itself into the air in the shape of a vortex. Demyx's expression contorted somewhat, and Larxene barely had the chance to wonder why when a sour chord literally ripped the vortex apart and sprayed the entire room with a violent torrent of water.

Silence pervaded once more, a calm before a storm. Finally, in a voice shaking with rage, Larxene spoke. "What the hell happened?"

"Ah, I'm sorry. It seems the power going through the strings backlashed and broke one," Demyx laughed nervously, holding up the guitar with his right hand to reveal one of the middle strings was split. His left hand he kept cradled against his side as though it had sustained an injury.

Larxene kept up a constant glare on him, wondering how long she should take before zapping his sorry ass. And then it hit her, not only was she soaking wet, the whole room was as well. If she tried to summon lightning now... she'd hurt herself. The thought made her angrier, and she turned to storm out of the room.

"W-Wait Larxene! At least let me get you a towel!" Demyx called out, setting the guitar on his seat.

She stopped, then turned around angrily. There was another pause, before she finally fully faced him again and once more placed her arms over her chest. "Well? Are you just going to stand there staring like an idiot or are you going to get that damn towel?"

"Ah..." Demyx replied, caught off guard but he nodded and hurried quickly towards a side room that was probably his bathroom. He emerged a moment later with a dark aqua colored towel, carefully approaching the female Nobody, holding it out in front of him like an offering to a wild animal. Larxene caught on and her scowl deepened as her hand lashed out to grab the towel offered, but as she did so, her other hand reached out and grabbed his left one, pulling it up to eye level to inspect. Just as she'd thought, there was a nice cut through the glove revealing the crimson line of an injury.

Larxene scoffed, dropped his hand, then promptly went to work drying her hair off. Demyx blinked, then lifted the rejected hand up to look at the laceration himself, not noticing anything special about it except it really kind of hurt. However, wondering over his hand caused him to miss something else that was indeed thought provoking.

The blonde woman had stopped drying her head, and instead was noting the towel. It was incredibly soft, easily putting any fabric Marluxia owned to shame, and beyond that it just plain smelled good. Like fresh rain, or a creek from a short distance away. It was a subtle, clean smell that brought a dangerous thought forth in the Nymph's mind: I wonder if he smells like this...

She shook her head and any thoughts of a friendly nature towards Demyx from her mind before pulling the towel off her head and finishing with it. She didn't even notice he was making it a point not to watch her, instead having turned around to look at the low moon hanging in the sky. It wasn't raining today, which was a blessing in and of itself, it allowed them to see the precious fruit of all their work... the thing they called Kingdom Hearts... the place they would be able to go to soon enough and reclaim their hearts and humanity. As she finished with the towel, she looked up for just long enough to see his figure silhouetted against the pale moon, eliciting another thought from her mind that could lead nowhere but to trouble. She snarled at herself for being so stupid, before throwing the towel at his head, turning on her heel and walking out.

Demyx swiftly turned around after nearly jumping out of his skin at the sudden presence of the towel on his head, only to see a yellow and black blur exiting his room. He raised an eyebrow and rubbed the back of his head, wondering about the events that had occurred over the last several minutes.

-

Larxene emerged out the other side of the door only to chide herself for being stupid enough to wander into Demyx's room accidentally. She growled several choice words under her breath before barging into the room labeled 'XI'. Immediately the pungent smell of the flora invaded her senses, causing her to crinkle her nose slightly. It had never really bothered her before, but today it was fairly bad. Perhaps Marluxia was pruning the flowers today... or... no. She wouldn't think of the probable cause.

Picking her way carefully forward and around the pots in the room, she finally did what she had intended the entire day, flopped down on one of Marluxia's soft, pink chairs.

"You're late today..." he muttered from his position on a small foot ladder, stretched out to reach the leaves on an awkwardly teal colored tree.

"Yeah, sorry. I had to take care of the idiot brigade," Larxene said, waving her hand dismissively.

"Oh?" Marluxia turned around and looked at her. "I could've sworn I heard the last explosion around thirty minutes ago."

"Yeah..." Larxene said quickly, trying to think up a lie. "I finally got my hands on that little bastard Roxas without Axel being there to cover his ass. I throttled him for a while just to get him back for that last time he walked in here without knocking. Still have to get the snarky bastard, though." Ok, it wasn't entirely the truth, but it was close enough it should throw him off.

Marluxia laughed, and the sound wasn't nearly as pleasant as what she'd heard from Demyx earlier. That thought alone elicited another growl from her throat. Not to say Marluxia's voice was unpleasant, it was deep and charismatic but his laugh was abrasive, arrogant, laughing at rather than with, and while Larxene could admit it wasn't bad, she found herself enjoying Demyx's soft, almost gentle chuckle more. Against her will of course.

She snarled again for the countless number that day. That boy was a weakling and a dork and would be until the end of his pitiful non-existence.

"Something the matter?" Marluxia asked, and Larxene started slightly realizing he was leaning against the backrest and looming very closely over her.

"Nothing... nothing. Just a rough day with the Superior's announcement and all..." She lied, sighing and lightly wrapping her fingers around the ties of his coat.

"Shall we forget for a little while then...?" Marluxia purred, nuzzling his face into her hair.

"Yeah... please," she replied, tilting her head up to press her lips into his, squeezing her eyes shut and for a moment Marluxia wasn't the one she was kissing.

And that terrified her more than anything else had that day.

-

Standard disclaimers apply. Please R&R, it makes me happy.