Fic: Silence is Golden (7/9)
Aug. 9th, 2010 03:33 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
zenellyTitle: Silence is Golden
Pairing: Zemyx
Disclaimer: KH = NOT MINE.
Dedications: to![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
prettypixiechan. Because she is my lovely beta. All other mistakes are my own.
Rating: PG-13
Summary: When Demyx goes to college, he wants to learn and get his degree. He doesn't want to have a roommate who refuses to speak, a drifter who decides to live in his room, or fall in love. Too bad what Demyx wants is not what Demyx gets.
Chapter 1 : Chapter 2 : Chapter 3 : Chapter 4 : Chapter 5 : Chapter 6 : Chapter 7 : Chapter 8 : Chapter 9
* * * * * *
Leaning back in his chair, Demyx stretched, pushing his pencil away from him.
Finally.
It was done.
His first semester of college was over.
As he left the classroom, laying his final on the teacher's desk, he smiled and did mental cartwheels. They turned into real ones as soon as he got back inside his dorm building, though the musician stopped after he realized he was getting weird looks from everyone around him. Rubbing his aching wrists gently – maybe cartwheels hadn't been the best idea-, Demyx couldn't stop the grin on his face from growing.
He couldn't help it, really. He was just ...so happy! Today he had his last final; he got to go home in a few days, and more importantly….
Zexion got to come home with him.
Demyx still couldn't believe that he had gotten the pale man to agree to come to his house over winter break. They would be able to spend time together, and Zexion would get to meet his mom….
On second thought, Demyx wasn't so sure that was a good thing… But it would all work out. He laughed sheepishly, and pushed open the door to his room, ready to grab his bags and start packing.
He should have known something was wrong from the first glance.
Zexion and Axel stood on opposite sides of the room, and Axel's chest was heaving as if he had just been in a fight. The air around Zexion almost crackled with anger, and Demyx could see the brittle, molted fury in his eyes and his clenched jaw. Cautiously eyeing them, the blonde sidled into the room, dropping his bag with a thunk on the floor.
And then he saw Axel's face.
"Dude, what happened to you?" Demyx hurried over to his friend, almost-but not quite- brushing his fingers against the bandage that covered Axel's right cheek.
The redhead smiled casually, batting his curious hands away with a laugh. "Don't worry about it, Dem. I slipped at work today and got burned, that's all. Boss-man got all upset at me too and sent me to the doctor's to take care of it. See?" and he pushed back his sleeves to reveal a set of angry red burns that glistened slightly from some medication Axel had obviously put on it. "These are a bit better than the one on my face, so I'm allowed to keep them uncovered."
"A-are you sure? They look pretty bad…."
"I went to the doctor's remember?" Axel shrugged. "He just warned me to not let them get infected. No big deal."
Frustrated eyes flared once again in the corner of Demyx's vision, and Zexion hissed softly at Axel, storming towards the door and making sure he bumped none-too-gently into the vagabond on his way out.
Demyx looked after him worriedly. "What's wrong with Zexion?"
"Nothing." But Axel's entire expression was shadowed, and he couldn't quite meet his inquiring aqua eyes. "It's nothing, Dem. You know how we fight sometimes. Don't worry about it."
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The dorms had gotten steadily quieter as the week rolled on, more and more people leaving.
"Are you sure you don't want to come with us, Axel?" Demyx's foot beat a nervous staccato on the rim of his tires.
Axel laughed, leaning against the hood of the car as if he owned it, waving his hand as he said, "No, no. Don't worry; I've got a place to be."
And there it was again, that brittle, frozen water color in Zexion's eyes that Demyx had no name for. During the course of the week, Axel had made veiled references to a place he was going to stay at over the break and every time it came up, the English major had gone stiff and looked furious.
Shrugging uncomfortably as he looked between the two, the blonde nodded, "Suit yourself. Just…keep safe, alright?" At Axel's nod, he slid into the driver's seat and strapped in, noting absently that Zexion slammed his door with a little more force than necessary.
A rap sounded on his window, and Demyx rolled it down. His redhead roommate grinned at him, something lewd lightening his eyes. "You and Zexy have fun at your house now! Don't do anything I wouldn't do!"
Demyx groaned good-naturedly and said goodbye before pulling out of the parking lot, leaving Axel to wave at their retreating car.
"I'm glad you're coming along, Zexy! It'll be a lot more fun with someone to talk to on the way there, even though you can't talk back."
Out of the corner of his eye, the musician could see a slender shoulder rise in a shrug.
"I think you'll like my mom. She's really nice, and really smart, and makes the best cookies ever! And I get to show you the house, and the stars and everything, and we'll have so much fun, we won't want to go back!
"Oh, and I hope you don't mind if I start singing. It's a long drive, and I get bored easily. It's easier for me to pay attention if I'm singing or doing something while driving, but if I get too annoying for you, just hit me and I'll stop, promise!" He glanced over, halting his chatter briefly, to find Zexion watching him with a strange kind of intensity that made Demyx's blood pound through his veins.
The blonde swallowed nervously and turned his gaze back to the snowy road.
It was going to be a long drive.
A few hours later, it was still a long, long drive.
And getting longer and longer, the blonde sighed mentally, rubbing his eyes with one wrist before staring hard at the road. Demyx had taken to drumming out the rhythms on his steering wheel to keep himself awake, bopping his head in time with the peppy, loud music.
Zexion had long since fallen into a half-doze, and he sat turned toward the window, deep blue eyes staring blankly at the night.
The darkness made it very hard to see the lines on the highway.
And ice looked just like wet road in the dark.
The car's front wheels hit a slick patch of ice, tearing the steering wheel out of Demyx's hands for a brief moment. As they hydroplaned across the road, Demyx took control again, trying to gently balance out the car's motion before they crashed into something.
It was dizzying. The car didn't respond quickly to his efforts to stop the spinning motion, and it was a terrifying couple of seconds before the blonde was able to finally stop the car, not caring that they were stopped on the highway's shoulder.
Demyx laughed, adrenaline pumping through his body, and really, laughing seemed so much nicer than screaming, which was his only other option. "Man, that was close!" he exclaimed, looking out the window at the skid-marks behind them. His hands shook as he took them off the wheel, and he ran them through his hair, tugging roughly at his bangs, needing the counterpoint of pain to ground him before he spiraled into panic.
Just as he was starting to calm down, he looked over at Zexion.
Zexion, whose body was tense and quivering, whose every breath seemed tortured and too fast and each held a note of panic. Demyx had no doubt that if Zexion could speak, the pale man would be whimpering with each exhale. Eyes tightly shut, his arms were braced tightly on the armrests, his fingers entirely white from the amount of force he was placing on them.
Reaching across the space between them, Demyx placed his own hands over Zexion's, tugging lightly on them. "Hey, hey, come on, let go…"
The pale fingers flexed wildly for a second before slowly, slowly releasing and flipping over to hold Demyx's hands with a crushing grip. Stroking his thumb across taut skin, the musician didn't make another move for a few minutes, waiting for the spasmodic trembling to stop. He hummed a lullaby softly under his breath as he watched his roommate's face intently.
Slowly, cobalt eyes fluttered open. They flickered around the car wildly before settling on Demyx's face, blinking rapidly. Some of the irrational panic seeped out of Zexion's eyes, but he didn't stop staring at Demyx.
It was still some time later before Zexion's breathing had slowed down to a more normal rate, and even longer before Demyx let go of his hands.
"Should-" Demyx's voice cracked slightly and he swallowed. "Should I keep driving now?"
Zexion gave a tight nod, swallowing heavily.
"You're sure?"
Another nod, this one slightly less shaky.
Demyx slowly started the car again, watching Zexion out of the corner of his eye for any sign that he needed to stop the car and pull over.
There was nothing.
Demyx kept driving, fixing his eyes back on the road, though his mind now had a new problem to occupy his time.
It wasn't a normal reaction to an almost crash. Sure, the whole thing had been frightening, but it hadn't really been close enough to warrant that amount of fear.
So what in the world had happened to Zexion that would cause that kind of reaction?
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
It was dark when Demyx finally pulled into the driveway of his house. He slowly pulled himself out of the car, stretching with a groan. "Six hours…." he moaned, stretching and wincing as long-since-immobile leg muscles pulled in protest.
Zexion was already out of the car, stumbling slightly in the snow. His breath shuddered out of his lungs, misting and curling in the cold air. He felt Demyx watch as he tilted his head back, a tremor ghosting over his entire body, and then he turned his deep blue eyes to the blonde. Fingering the bags nervously, Zexion stared at him, waiting to be brought inside before-
- drifting, falling, oh god, and they were slipping, being thrown sideways, what's happ-
Demyx smiled at him -and Zexion fixed his eyes firmly on Demyx's face again, refusing to allow himself see anything else- and led them to the door, somehow managing to open it with one elbow and a hip. "Mama!" he called, wrestling the bags into the front hallway. "I'm home! And Zexy's here too!"
There was a laugh from a door down the hall, and a blonde woman stepped out, wiping her hands on a towel. Her golden blonde hair framed a light-skinned, smiling face, and glasses perched precariously on her nose, which was smeared with flour. Bright, robin's egg blue eyes twinkled behind the frames, and Demyx's mother held open her arms to her son.
Almost immediately, Demyx dropped the suitcases and darted towards her, slowing himself just enough to keep from knocking her over as he hugged her tightly.
Zexion studied them silently, placing his bags on the floor with a bit more care than Demyx had. His blonde roommate was taller than his mother by an inch or two, and was obviously delighted to see her again. They had similar eyes, though Demyx's were green-blue where his mother's were grey-blue. They were both slender and had lean torsos and long, long legs.
Glancing up, he caught the eyes of Mrs. Trepe as she pulled away from her son.
"So, you are Zexion. My boy has talked so much about you, and it's so nice to finally meet you," and she walked up to him with a hand outstretched, eyes warm. The pale man found himself taking her hand cautiously. She smiled, a simple upwards bend of her lips without showing any teeth, so unlike her son in that aspect -and was he really comparing Demyx to his mother?
"Call me Quistis, Zexion. I'll let Demyx settle you in, and I'll get dinner out as soon as possible. Is that alright?"
He nodded, releasing her hand and stepping back slightly, retreating to stand near their bags. As he waited for Demyx, Zexion couldn't stop a yawn. It had been a long car ride, and he had barely been able to relax at all. The snow hadn't helped matters much-
-sliding sliding screaming crunching so so out of control, someone please stop this, please, please help, why does it hurt, ple-
Shuddering and driving his fingernails into his palm to ground himself in the present again, the pale man walked down the stairs into the basement, where Demyx led him to a guest room. He stood in the room for a while, staring at the wood-paneled walls without really seeing anything, and started when a hand clapped down on his shoulder.
Demyx watched him with concerned eyes. "Are you alright?"
And Zexion could only nod, unable to say that he was hearing screams of people and metal, seeing only snow and ice and wind and blood.
The next morning dawned surprisingly clear, and the sky was a vibrant, almost-painfully bright blue. Zexion was in much better control of himself, despite an almost sleepless night full of nightmares and memories.
He knew that Demyx watched him carefully for the first few hours. He also knew that Demyx didn't believe him when he indicated that he was alright.
The crescent marks of his nails were still there, deep red and aching.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The days spent at Demyx's house were enjoyable. Quistis was just as adept as her son at reading Zexion, which made conversations much easier, and the pale man found he actually wanted to communicate with her.
Maybe it was a family trait.
For a while, Zexion was a little uncomfortable around the blondes, since the depth of their affection for each other was glaringly obvious and he felt like an outsider. But somehow, Quistis had decided to 'adopt' Zexion as another son.
And he was included.
It….
It was a strange feeling, and one he hadn't experienced for a while.
On a night where their breath misted out of their noses, where the air coated the insides of their throats, where their ears hurt from how cold it was, Demyx took Zexion out to a hill that bisected the town. He sat quietly, watching the bobbing lights of cars in a sea of darkness as Demyx told him humorous stories about his father ("What? Oh no, he's not dead! He's just not here, since he works for a shipping company, and he's out to sea for six months of every year!"). The blonde ended up curled close to Zexion, since his jacket wasn't quite warm enough to stop his shivering.
A comfortable silence fell, clouds of white breath wafting and catching the faint colors of far away lights in the air.
The urge to speak, to make some sort of noise, anything, was a constant pressure in Zexion's throat.
He couldn't say anything.
Never before had that irritated him so much.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
It was early.
Zexion knew this the second he woke up, but he turned and blinked at the red lights of the clock out of habit. Letting his head fall back onto the pillow, one arm coming up to cover his eyes, a harsh breath escaped his lips. Way too early. The best idea would be to just go back to sleep, he thought, rubbing his forehead.
Of course, once he had decided to try and go to sleep, he was wide awake.
After countless minutes were wasted, Zexion gave up and got out of bed, flexing his toes in the carpet before quietly slinking out of the room. As he climbed the stairs, a thin beam of light caught his eye. He traced it back to Demyx's door.
What in the world was he doing awake at this hour?
Curiously, Zexion pushed on the door, not expecting it to click softly open.
Demyx's room was –of course- messy and cluttered, but the walls were covered in strange patterns of blue and white that looked like roses. The entire area was suffused in the saltwater and skin scent of his blonde roommate. Examining the room carefully, Zexion felt his eyes soften when he saw Demyx, sprawled haphazardly half-on and half-off his bed with the covers thrown everywhere except on what they were actually supposed to be covering – Demyx himself.
With a sigh, Zexion stepped carefully around all the things on the floor, making his way to the bed. Even more carefully, he rearranged Demyx so his head was on a pillow and the majority of his body was on the bed, managing not to jump when the musician's hand curled around his own.
He stared at their intertwined hands for a second, a curious smile playing about his lips.
Stroking his thumb over Demyx's palm gently, he pulled his hand free to brush Demyx's bangs out of his face. Even in sleep, a smile was on his roommate's face. He wished….
There was that pressure again.
Zexion swallowed hard, opened his mouth, felt his hands shake slightly.
"…"
Took a deep breath.
"….."
Opened his mouth.
"….-yx."
Licked his lips, a happy, but disbelieving curve to his mouth.
"…D-" Swallowed again, throat clenching a little as he tried once more, "Dem…yx."
A soft, hoarse whisper, spoken into an unhearing ear.
"Demyx."
Now that strange pressure wasn't crushing his throat, cutting off his breath. He could speak again. He had made himself speak again. If he woke up in the morning with tired eyes and a mysterious smile, that was his own business. After all, he had just gotten his voice back. He was allowed to keep it a secret for a bit.
Now, Zexion thought as he left the room, turning off the lights as he went, now I can sleep.
He did stop to look once more at Demyx before he closed the door, laughing very softly when he heard the rumblings of a snore.
It felt good to laugh again.
* * * * * *
Chapter 8....
Pairing: Zemyx
Disclaimer: KH = NOT MINE.
Dedications: to
prettypixiechan. Because she is my lovely beta. All other mistakes are my own. Rating: PG-13
Summary: When Demyx goes to college, he wants to learn and get his degree. He doesn't want to have a roommate who refuses to speak, a drifter who decides to live in his room, or fall in love. Too bad what Demyx wants is not what Demyx gets.
Chapter 1 : Chapter 2 : Chapter 3 : Chapter 4 : Chapter 5 : Chapter 6 : Chapter 7 : Chapter 8 : Chapter 9
* * * * * *
Leaning back in his chair, Demyx stretched, pushing his pencil away from him.
Finally.
It was done.
His first semester of college was over.
As he left the classroom, laying his final on the teacher's desk, he smiled and did mental cartwheels. They turned into real ones as soon as he got back inside his dorm building, though the musician stopped after he realized he was getting weird looks from everyone around him. Rubbing his aching wrists gently – maybe cartwheels hadn't been the best idea-, Demyx couldn't stop the grin on his face from growing.
He couldn't help it, really. He was just ...so happy! Today he had his last final; he got to go home in a few days, and more importantly….
Zexion got to come home with him.
Demyx still couldn't believe that he had gotten the pale man to agree to come to his house over winter break. They would be able to spend time together, and Zexion would get to meet his mom….
On second thought, Demyx wasn't so sure that was a good thing… But it would all work out. He laughed sheepishly, and pushed open the door to his room, ready to grab his bags and start packing.
He should have known something was wrong from the first glance.
Zexion and Axel stood on opposite sides of the room, and Axel's chest was heaving as if he had just been in a fight. The air around Zexion almost crackled with anger, and Demyx could see the brittle, molted fury in his eyes and his clenched jaw. Cautiously eyeing them, the blonde sidled into the room, dropping his bag with a thunk on the floor.
And then he saw Axel's face.
"Dude, what happened to you?" Demyx hurried over to his friend, almost-but not quite- brushing his fingers against the bandage that covered Axel's right cheek.
The redhead smiled casually, batting his curious hands away with a laugh. "Don't worry about it, Dem. I slipped at work today and got burned, that's all. Boss-man got all upset at me too and sent me to the doctor's to take care of it. See?" and he pushed back his sleeves to reveal a set of angry red burns that glistened slightly from some medication Axel had obviously put on it. "These are a bit better than the one on my face, so I'm allowed to keep them uncovered."
"A-are you sure? They look pretty bad…."
"I went to the doctor's remember?" Axel shrugged. "He just warned me to not let them get infected. No big deal."
Frustrated eyes flared once again in the corner of Demyx's vision, and Zexion hissed softly at Axel, storming towards the door and making sure he bumped none-too-gently into the vagabond on his way out.
Demyx looked after him worriedly. "What's wrong with Zexion?"
"Nothing." But Axel's entire expression was shadowed, and he couldn't quite meet his inquiring aqua eyes. "It's nothing, Dem. You know how we fight sometimes. Don't worry about it."
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The dorms had gotten steadily quieter as the week rolled on, more and more people leaving.
"Are you sure you don't want to come with us, Axel?" Demyx's foot beat a nervous staccato on the rim of his tires.
Axel laughed, leaning against the hood of the car as if he owned it, waving his hand as he said, "No, no. Don't worry; I've got a place to be."
And there it was again, that brittle, frozen water color in Zexion's eyes that Demyx had no name for. During the course of the week, Axel had made veiled references to a place he was going to stay at over the break and every time it came up, the English major had gone stiff and looked furious.
Shrugging uncomfortably as he looked between the two, the blonde nodded, "Suit yourself. Just…keep safe, alright?" At Axel's nod, he slid into the driver's seat and strapped in, noting absently that Zexion slammed his door with a little more force than necessary.
A rap sounded on his window, and Demyx rolled it down. His redhead roommate grinned at him, something lewd lightening his eyes. "You and Zexy have fun at your house now! Don't do anything I wouldn't do!"
Demyx groaned good-naturedly and said goodbye before pulling out of the parking lot, leaving Axel to wave at their retreating car.
"I'm glad you're coming along, Zexy! It'll be a lot more fun with someone to talk to on the way there, even though you can't talk back."
Out of the corner of his eye, the musician could see a slender shoulder rise in a shrug.
"I think you'll like my mom. She's really nice, and really smart, and makes the best cookies ever! And I get to show you the house, and the stars and everything, and we'll have so much fun, we won't want to go back!
"Oh, and I hope you don't mind if I start singing. It's a long drive, and I get bored easily. It's easier for me to pay attention if I'm singing or doing something while driving, but if I get too annoying for you, just hit me and I'll stop, promise!" He glanced over, halting his chatter briefly, to find Zexion watching him with a strange kind of intensity that made Demyx's blood pound through his veins.
The blonde swallowed nervously and turned his gaze back to the snowy road.
It was going to be a long drive.
A few hours later, it was still a long, long drive.
And getting longer and longer, the blonde sighed mentally, rubbing his eyes with one wrist before staring hard at the road. Demyx had taken to drumming out the rhythms on his steering wheel to keep himself awake, bopping his head in time with the peppy, loud music.
Zexion had long since fallen into a half-doze, and he sat turned toward the window, deep blue eyes staring blankly at the night.
The darkness made it very hard to see the lines on the highway.
And ice looked just like wet road in the dark.
The car's front wheels hit a slick patch of ice, tearing the steering wheel out of Demyx's hands for a brief moment. As they hydroplaned across the road, Demyx took control again, trying to gently balance out the car's motion before they crashed into something.
It was dizzying. The car didn't respond quickly to his efforts to stop the spinning motion, and it was a terrifying couple of seconds before the blonde was able to finally stop the car, not caring that they were stopped on the highway's shoulder.
Demyx laughed, adrenaline pumping through his body, and really, laughing seemed so much nicer than screaming, which was his only other option. "Man, that was close!" he exclaimed, looking out the window at the skid-marks behind them. His hands shook as he took them off the wheel, and he ran them through his hair, tugging roughly at his bangs, needing the counterpoint of pain to ground him before he spiraled into panic.
Just as he was starting to calm down, he looked over at Zexion.
Zexion, whose body was tense and quivering, whose every breath seemed tortured and too fast and each held a note of panic. Demyx had no doubt that if Zexion could speak, the pale man would be whimpering with each exhale. Eyes tightly shut, his arms were braced tightly on the armrests, his fingers entirely white from the amount of force he was placing on them.
Reaching across the space between them, Demyx placed his own hands over Zexion's, tugging lightly on them. "Hey, hey, come on, let go…"
The pale fingers flexed wildly for a second before slowly, slowly releasing and flipping over to hold Demyx's hands with a crushing grip. Stroking his thumb across taut skin, the musician didn't make another move for a few minutes, waiting for the spasmodic trembling to stop. He hummed a lullaby softly under his breath as he watched his roommate's face intently.
Slowly, cobalt eyes fluttered open. They flickered around the car wildly before settling on Demyx's face, blinking rapidly. Some of the irrational panic seeped out of Zexion's eyes, but he didn't stop staring at Demyx.
It was still some time later before Zexion's breathing had slowed down to a more normal rate, and even longer before Demyx let go of his hands.
"Should-" Demyx's voice cracked slightly and he swallowed. "Should I keep driving now?"
Zexion gave a tight nod, swallowing heavily.
"You're sure?"
Another nod, this one slightly less shaky.
Demyx slowly started the car again, watching Zexion out of the corner of his eye for any sign that he needed to stop the car and pull over.
There was nothing.
Demyx kept driving, fixing his eyes back on the road, though his mind now had a new problem to occupy his time.
It wasn't a normal reaction to an almost crash. Sure, the whole thing had been frightening, but it hadn't really been close enough to warrant that amount of fear.
So what in the world had happened to Zexion that would cause that kind of reaction?
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
It was dark when Demyx finally pulled into the driveway of his house. He slowly pulled himself out of the car, stretching with a groan. "Six hours…." he moaned, stretching and wincing as long-since-immobile leg muscles pulled in protest.
Zexion was already out of the car, stumbling slightly in the snow. His breath shuddered out of his lungs, misting and curling in the cold air. He felt Demyx watch as he tilted his head back, a tremor ghosting over his entire body, and then he turned his deep blue eyes to the blonde. Fingering the bags nervously, Zexion stared at him, waiting to be brought inside before-
- drifting, falling, oh god, and they were slipping, being thrown sideways, what's happ-
Demyx smiled at him -and Zexion fixed his eyes firmly on Demyx's face again, refusing to allow himself see anything else- and led them to the door, somehow managing to open it with one elbow and a hip. "Mama!" he called, wrestling the bags into the front hallway. "I'm home! And Zexy's here too!"
There was a laugh from a door down the hall, and a blonde woman stepped out, wiping her hands on a towel. Her golden blonde hair framed a light-skinned, smiling face, and glasses perched precariously on her nose, which was smeared with flour. Bright, robin's egg blue eyes twinkled behind the frames, and Demyx's mother held open her arms to her son.
Almost immediately, Demyx dropped the suitcases and darted towards her, slowing himself just enough to keep from knocking her over as he hugged her tightly.
Zexion studied them silently, placing his bags on the floor with a bit more care than Demyx had. His blonde roommate was taller than his mother by an inch or two, and was obviously delighted to see her again. They had similar eyes, though Demyx's were green-blue where his mother's were grey-blue. They were both slender and had lean torsos and long, long legs.
Glancing up, he caught the eyes of Mrs. Trepe as she pulled away from her son.
"So, you are Zexion. My boy has talked so much about you, and it's so nice to finally meet you," and she walked up to him with a hand outstretched, eyes warm. The pale man found himself taking her hand cautiously. She smiled, a simple upwards bend of her lips without showing any teeth, so unlike her son in that aspect -and was he really comparing Demyx to his mother?
"Call me Quistis, Zexion. I'll let Demyx settle you in, and I'll get dinner out as soon as possible. Is that alright?"
He nodded, releasing her hand and stepping back slightly, retreating to stand near their bags. As he waited for Demyx, Zexion couldn't stop a yawn. It had been a long car ride, and he had barely been able to relax at all. The snow hadn't helped matters much-
-sliding sliding screaming crunching so so out of control, someone please stop this, please, please help, why does it hurt, ple-
Shuddering and driving his fingernails into his palm to ground himself in the present again, the pale man walked down the stairs into the basement, where Demyx led him to a guest room. He stood in the room for a while, staring at the wood-paneled walls without really seeing anything, and started when a hand clapped down on his shoulder.
Demyx watched him with concerned eyes. "Are you alright?"
And Zexion could only nod, unable to say that he was hearing screams of people and metal, seeing only snow and ice and wind and blood.
The next morning dawned surprisingly clear, and the sky was a vibrant, almost-painfully bright blue. Zexion was in much better control of himself, despite an almost sleepless night full of nightmares and memories.
He knew that Demyx watched him carefully for the first few hours. He also knew that Demyx didn't believe him when he indicated that he was alright.
The crescent marks of his nails were still there, deep red and aching.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The days spent at Demyx's house were enjoyable. Quistis was just as adept as her son at reading Zexion, which made conversations much easier, and the pale man found he actually wanted to communicate with her.
Maybe it was a family trait.
For a while, Zexion was a little uncomfortable around the blondes, since the depth of their affection for each other was glaringly obvious and he felt like an outsider. But somehow, Quistis had decided to 'adopt' Zexion as another son.
And he was included.
It….
It was a strange feeling, and one he hadn't experienced for a while.
On a night where their breath misted out of their noses, where the air coated the insides of their throats, where their ears hurt from how cold it was, Demyx took Zexion out to a hill that bisected the town. He sat quietly, watching the bobbing lights of cars in a sea of darkness as Demyx told him humorous stories about his father ("What? Oh no, he's not dead! He's just not here, since he works for a shipping company, and he's out to sea for six months of every year!"). The blonde ended up curled close to Zexion, since his jacket wasn't quite warm enough to stop his shivering.
A comfortable silence fell, clouds of white breath wafting and catching the faint colors of far away lights in the air.
The urge to speak, to make some sort of noise, anything, was a constant pressure in Zexion's throat.
He couldn't say anything.
Never before had that irritated him so much.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
It was early.
Zexion knew this the second he woke up, but he turned and blinked at the red lights of the clock out of habit. Letting his head fall back onto the pillow, one arm coming up to cover his eyes, a harsh breath escaped his lips. Way too early. The best idea would be to just go back to sleep, he thought, rubbing his forehead.
Of course, once he had decided to try and go to sleep, he was wide awake.
After countless minutes were wasted, Zexion gave up and got out of bed, flexing his toes in the carpet before quietly slinking out of the room. As he climbed the stairs, a thin beam of light caught his eye. He traced it back to Demyx's door.
What in the world was he doing awake at this hour?
Curiously, Zexion pushed on the door, not expecting it to click softly open.
Demyx's room was –of course- messy and cluttered, but the walls were covered in strange patterns of blue and white that looked like roses. The entire area was suffused in the saltwater and skin scent of his blonde roommate. Examining the room carefully, Zexion felt his eyes soften when he saw Demyx, sprawled haphazardly half-on and half-off his bed with the covers thrown everywhere except on what they were actually supposed to be covering – Demyx himself.
With a sigh, Zexion stepped carefully around all the things on the floor, making his way to the bed. Even more carefully, he rearranged Demyx so his head was on a pillow and the majority of his body was on the bed, managing not to jump when the musician's hand curled around his own.
He stared at their intertwined hands for a second, a curious smile playing about his lips.
Stroking his thumb over Demyx's palm gently, he pulled his hand free to brush Demyx's bangs out of his face. Even in sleep, a smile was on his roommate's face. He wished….
There was that pressure again.
Zexion swallowed hard, opened his mouth, felt his hands shake slightly.
"…"
Took a deep breath.
"….."
Opened his mouth.
"….-yx."
Licked his lips, a happy, but disbelieving curve to his mouth.
"…D-" Swallowed again, throat clenching a little as he tried once more, "Dem…yx."
A soft, hoarse whisper, spoken into an unhearing ear.
"Demyx."
Now that strange pressure wasn't crushing his throat, cutting off his breath. He could speak again. He had made himself speak again. If he woke up in the morning with tired eyes and a mysterious smile, that was his own business. After all, he had just gotten his voice back. He was allowed to keep it a secret for a bit.
Now, Zexion thought as he left the room, turning off the lights as he went, now I can sleep.
He did stop to look once more at Demyx before he closed the door, laughing very softly when he heard the rumblings of a snore.
It felt good to laugh again.
* * * * * *
Chapter 8....
