I don't own KH.

Life Out of Costume

Part 9

Have you ever noticed that a lot of the times REALLY good shit happens to people that definitely don't deserve it, and vice versa? I know that I shouldn't say they don't deserve it because really, who am I to know whether or not these people are swayed by that bearded old fart on TV asking for donations to save third world kids? Maybe that's what Aerith does then because she's a bitch but look what's happening to her now!

It turns out that Aerith really WAS knocked up by Cloud, she really DID go to get an abortion and the doctor fucked it up- royally. Naturally, Cloud seeing the silver lining to the whole situation persuaded Aerith to sue the doctor. No one guessed that they would receive a million dollar settlement for Aerith's pain and loss. She whined about a hysterectomy and all that jazz, but I just figured it was a means to an end. I certainly never wanted to see her procreate, did you?

There you have it, this poor Dr. Sephiroth, who in my mind did the world a favor by soiling Aerith's loins, is sued and out of practice and these asshats are millionaires. Life wasn't fair some times.

Going in that same vein, of life not being fair, I picked my head up and looked out of my cubicle just in time to see Rikku walk by and shoot me a sneer. That wasn't the bad part though, oh no, I was used to her hating me by now. No, the bad part was that her passing was followed by an "Alex?"

Rikku pulled up short and back peddled to stare into my cubicle and then back at her friend that was following her. I turned again to look out and instantly regretted it. There standing next to Rikku was Yuna, the girl that Xigbar had hooked me up with at his party, you know, the succubus. Fuck, I wanted to throw my stapler at them and run while they were distracted.

"HEY!" She smiled as she walked towards me and I wheeled myself to the furthest corner of my cube. "How've you been? Rikku, this is that guy- you know the one I was telling you about." She motioned with her eyebrows and had that look- yeah, THAT look. I was proud of myself and my studliness for a hot second before the situation and all of its horror returned to me.

"Yuna, that's Axel." Rikku said flatly while staring straight at me. "He has herpes and ass warts."

"WHAT?!" Yuna shrieked in revulsion.

I just shook my head and turned back to my computer screen. "Come on, Yuna, we're going to be late for lunch." Rikku pulled her away, "I've wasted enough time on him already."

"You would not believe how much of a douche bag that guy was!" Zexion huffed as he threw himself down on our couch. I didn't pay much attention because he'd been whining a lot lately and half the time it was about trivial shit that no one cared about.

"But you guys passed right? You're ok?" As always, Demyx was there to feed right into him.

Zexion nodded and pulled out a bag from his jacket pocket. "Do you have any papers?" I pointed towards the drawer in the end table. "Vexen, that was the immigration guy's name, said that everything looked to be in order even if we were on the eccentric side of the spectrum."

I laughed, "So pretty much he was saying that he knew you were gay, but couldn't prove anything?"

"That's the impression I got." Zexion nodded in ascent.

Demyx looked rather thoughtful and you could tell that he was pondering something that was probably going to sound just the opposite of profound. "Do you think he thought that Larxene was a lesbian too?"

Immediately Zexion and I started laughing. "Oh god, I hope so." Demyx pouted but handed over his lighter when Zexion mimed for it.

"So how much longer are you two 'love birds' going to need to live together?" I asked before lighting the joint that Zexion just rolled.

He shrugged in response, "I don't know, but it's not like I'm in any hurry to move out anyway. Where would I go?"

"True."

"It's too bad that we didn't have room for you here." Demyx started, "You're here most of the time anyway." That was certainly true. Lately it had felt like there were four of us living here on the weekends.

That gave me an idea, "I wanted to ask you about something, Dem. What would you think of Roxas moving in with us for the summer? You know, like when he's out of school. It's a pain in the ass for me to drive the two hours that it would take to get to his parents' house."

The room went silent and I wondered if I'd crossed a line. Demyx was the first to react, "Did you ask Roxas if he'd even want to move in here?"

"No, I wanted to run it by you first. If you don't want him to, it's fine." I muttered.

Demyx shook his head and Zexion took advantage of the fact that we weren't paying attention and started Bogarting the joint. "Axel," Demyx sighed, "I don't think that Roxas would move in with us."

"Pffft, sure he would, Dem! I mean come on, he practically lives here now!" I argued and motioned for Zexion to pass.

"Fuck, why am I in the middle of this?!" Demyx's suddenly violent reaction was not at all expected. He stood up and walked to the other side of the room.

"What? In the middle of what? Zexion, do you know what's going on?" Zexion just shook his head and looked on like we were acting out a sitcom or something. "Dem?"

Demyx appeared to calm for a moment and looked straight at me a bit sadly, "You really love him a lot, don't you?" I nodded; truthfully I was a little dumbfounded watching him flip like this. He shook his head in frustration, "Look, there's… I'm not really the one to explain this… Fucking, Larxene!"

I looked to Zexion to see if he was going to provide any further insight into this matter, but he was just looking down into his lap. "What the hell, Dem. Seriously, if this is about me asking if Roxas could stay with us, pretend that I didn't say anything."

"Axel, how are you going to explain this to your mom? We only have a two bedroom apartment and you know how she likes to drop off shit for you unexpectedly." He had resumed our conversation with a renewed vigor.

"I was…" I looked around for a way to explain this without sounding completely gay. Hahahha, gay. "I was thinking about introducing Roxy to my parents- well my mom anyway- and you know, sort of explaining things and what not."

His eyes went wide and he crossed the room towards me in a near panic state. "Dude, listen, Larxene lied to you, ok? Roxas never broke off his engagement." He stared me straight in the eye as he said it.

You've got to be fucking kidding me. This wasn't even a funny joke. I looked again at Zexion who still hadn't looked up during the course of our conversation, he must have known too. I had no reason to believe that Demyx was lying to me, because it was Demyx and I'd like to believe that he wouldn't do that to me. I realized that I was staring blankly across the room. "What?" It's not like I wanted him to repeat what he'd said, I just couldn't form any other sentence.

No one said anything and I could tell that Zexion had let the joint burn out in the ashtray. Demyx backed away from me as I felt around in my pocket for my phone, flipped it open a dialed Larxene's number. She picked up after a couple of rings, "Hello, daaaaaaaarrrrrrling!" Well at least someone was in a good mood.

"Hey, Lark." I swallowed nervously. Half of me wanted to hang up the phone now and not even ask my questions. "Is there something that you'd like to tell me?"

"Quit it Axel, you know I hate playing these games. Just say what you need to say." Her tone was still light, bordering on amused.

"Roxas never broke it off with her, did he?" I croaked my question and she was silent on the other end.

"Axel," and I knew it was coming, she didn't deny it, and she was going to try to placate me with reasoning. "It seemed like it would be a good idea. You were so hurt-"

"WHAT THE FUCK?!" I yelled into the phone, "What the hell were you thinking?!"

"-and I figured that it was going to be one of those things that you two just ended up growing apart anyway. I honestly didn't think it would even last as long as it has." Her voice was quiet; she was probably waiting for me to flip out some more. "I was happy when he went along with it, I thought it was the best for you."

"What?" Hold on, what the hell… "Roxas knew that I thought he was single?"

"Well can you blame him for not telling you? He got what he wanted out of it by keeping his mouth shut." Now she was defending him and their sick little plan to fuck me over?

I looked around at Demyx and Zexion who were staring at me, "You all knew, you were all in on it, weren't you?" Zexion's head bobbed in affirmation while Demyx just looked away pointedly.

"You're over reacting!" Her voice was suddenly very loud in the phone, "You've been the happiest I've seen you in forever these past months."

"It was six months! SIX MONTHS! …and it was all based on a lie." I mumbled and I could feel the anger boiling up inside me. I felt miserable and I didn't want to believe it. Was I the only one that had any feelings at all invested in this? Were they ever planning to tell me? I was used to Larxene doing things and telling me they were for my own good, but this was a little far fetched. That didn't matter to me right now though, I couldn't believe that he'd KNOWN and he let me go on believing the lie.

Rage like I hadn't felt in a long time roiled up inside me until it burst and I launched my phone at the wall, effectively shattering it into pieces.

"Dude-" Demyx said looking at me like I'd just turned into the Incredible Hulk.

"Don't talk to me." I said, grabbed my coat and stalked out of the apartment making sure to slam the door forcefully behind me.

WHY was he still with her? God I felt so stupid all over again! I trudged down the wet sidewalk with no real destination in mind. Things had been going so well, I had been so happy. I actually thought that he'd loved me back- and maybe he did. I'd never brought up the Selphie situation because we'd agreed to act like it'd never happened and I was more then willing to pretend that she didn't exist.

Hours later found me in a local bar that catered to the older end of the population. I was easily the youngest person in the bar by at least three decades and it suited me just fine. These weathered bar flies were happy enough to just tie one on and skip conversation all together and thanks to my less than slick moves with my phone I couldn't call anyone.

By now I was sure that Larxene had contacted Roxas to let him know what had transpired and I felt betrayed all over again as this realization sunk in. I stared at the drink in front of me, still the first one that I'd ordered. I didn't really want to get drunk right now, I valued a clear mind. I didn't want to just forget.

The night had settled in and I eventually finished my drink. The walk home didn't seem to take long enough and sooner than I'd expected, I found myself staring at the front door of my apartment. The lights were off and it didn't look like Demyx was home. I found my way to my bed and passed out for the night.

I woke up the next morning with a slight headache that only grew in massive proportions when yesterday's events came back to me. Wasn't this the recipe for a super villain? I could put on some tights and terrorize any couple that I found canoodling in the streets. I'd of course have to have some pretty swanky name, I was in tights after all. Maybe Sinister Sin or Poor Broken Loser- yeah, the last one seemed more accurate right now.

I went through my morning routine and there were no signs of Demyx anywhere. I distractedly chewed my Corn Pops and mulled things over. I'd been in this situation for MONTHS now and didn't realize it. Would it be so bad to just keep things the way that they were? I wasn't some whiney cry baby that was going to get upset if my- food stuck in my throat- boyfriend screwed some moronic girl who possessed all of the values that I hated and none of the vices that I admired. Oh wait, yes I was. I was a possessive asshole, I'll admit it. Not to mention that I'd been lied to. Maybe that rage was more prominent.

The chair across from me scraped out across the floor and then Roxas was sitting down in front of me. I didn't even hear him come in. Wow, I was distracted. "How's it going?" He asked and I looked up at him with a temporary manic gleam in my eye but it passed soon enough.

"Fine, fine." I nodded casually. "What brings you here so early in the morning?"

He looked at me strangely, probably trying to figure out what my deal was. I mean after all, I was just let in on their conspiracy, wasn't I? "I wanted to see you. I know that you found out."

"Oh?"

"Well, you haven't thrown your chair or mushy cereal at me yet, so I suppose there's hope." He motioned towards my Pops that had, in fact, grown quiet mushy indeed. "What are you thinking about?"

I paused, still hunched over my cereal. It occurred to me that he was fully dressed for the day and I was in naught but a pair of pajama pants. "Us."

"Me too." He hunched over and rested his head on his folded arms on the table. "I don't want to lose you, Axel." I didn't respond. "That much was probably clear from my previous actions. Larxene told me about the lie," it sounded like he was trying to come clean here, "and I saw my opportunity. It was when we went out to dinner to meet Luxord, do you remember? I had wondered why you'd all of the sudden forgiven me and taken me back but didn't want to question it for fear that you'd realize your mistake. It made sense when Lark told me what she'd done and I ran with it. I want to say that I'm sorry, but I'm not. I didn't want to be without you again."

"Why are you still with her?" I felt myself asking though I don't remember giving my mouth permission to speak.

"Because it's easy and I'm a coward."

"I don't play well with others and I certainly don't share, Roxas." He nodded into his arms and didn't look at me. "I'm not ok with this. I can't just keep going on KNOWING this. It isn't like before, I won't get a girlfriend or someone else to make us equal- there isn't a balance."

"Oh god, I think I'd kill you if you were seeing someone else." He said startled with all seriousness.

"Why are you here Roxas?"

"I didn't want to give you the opportunity to ignore me again."

I straightened up and pushed my bowl away from me, "I couldn't ignore you."

"Good because we've already found out that I couldn't ignore you even when I tried." He chuckled darkly to himself. "I do love you, you moron."

"I love you too, asshole."

He crowded in on the table and looked at me intensely. "Ask me then. Ask me not to leave- ask me to stay."

"What?"

"I want to know that if I do what I'm planning to do that it won't be for nothing. I want to know that I haven't fucked up everything with you already." What? Was he getting at what I thought he was? Was he going to leave her?

I toyed with the idea of telling him no and watching him suffer the way I had, the way I was, but it passed. This was too important to play our stupid games with. "I don't trust you- but I don't want you to walk out of my life."

He pushed his chair back and stood up. "I can live with that." He walked around the table and kissed me on the forehead. "I'll be gone a couple of days- I've got some things to take care of. Will you wait for me?"

I looked down at the table. "You already know I will", I muttered.

I could feel his smile above me before he turned to walk down the hall. I got up and followed him. He paused at the door and looked at me still in the hallway. "I'd honestly expected at least a sucker punch to the jaw."

I crossed the room in three long, menacing strides, but I saw no fear in his eyes. I took his face in my hands and kissed him forcefully, almost painfully.

In the following days I still wasn't so keen on speaking with Larxene. I didn't care that it was childish and that I'd already pretty much forgiven her. Demyx apologized to me profusely and had been doing the dishes ever since. If I put on some wounded puppy dog eyes I bet I could get him to do my laundry too.

"There's a convention in two weeks, do you want to go?" Sora asked leaning across the counter and running his hand down my arm. Before you go and get the wrong idea here let me explain. Sora has gone and gotten himself a little stalker at work. This girl, clearly still in high school, must be slow as hell. Sora flat out told her that he was gay when she asked him out but she didn't seem to believe him, either that or didn't care. How can anyone NOT see that Sora was gay?

Apparently Sora had begged Riku to come into Starbucks and do unmistakably 'gay things' with him to get this girl to back off. Riku merely laughed at him and wished him good luck. This was where I came into the whole charade. With the promise of free drinks until she was gone, I was more than happy to let Sora flirt outrageously with me.

"Will it be just you and me, alone- no one around to hear you scream while I break you?" I ran a finger down his cheek and watched him blush. Here was an added perk to this whole arrangement. God I loved making him uncomfortable. "You were so tight last time."

Sora's face was beat read and I could tell he was grinding his teeth a little, whether to keep from laughing or because he was disgruntled I wasn't sure, but I'm thinking it was the latter. "I can't wait for later!" He grabbed my tie and pulled me closer, "I'm taking my break", he called over his shoulder to his coworker and pulled me towards the bathroom. He wrenched the door open and threw me inside. It must have looked like he was completely overcome with his manly passion for me to anyone looking on. I was trying to stifle my laughter when he threw a roll of toilet paper at my head.

"Should we thump some stuff around to make more of a show?" I asked fixing my tie in the mirror. It was a single bathroom with only a toilet and a sink. Sora just looked at me with baleful eyes.

"I was serious about the con. You and Roxas haven't come with us in a long time."

I turned to face him, keeping my voice just as soft as his, "I don't know."

I could feel a more serious mood settling over the bathroom and nearly groaned out loud. "Have you heard from him yet?" Yup, thanks Sora, I was actually having fun for a minute there before you had to piss all over it. I shook my head no.

Not talking to Larxene had driven me to talk to Sora, the next best thing to a best female friend that I had. I figured it was only fair if I was helping him keep his sanity in his current situation that he should talk me through my own. I'm such a pansy. Damn.

"It's been almost a week, do you think he's coming back?" Sora asked in a small voice, even softer than the previous whisper we'd been using.

It wasn't like I hadn't toyed with that idea before, but I'd admittedly already looked like too much of a Nancy to admit it out loud to Sora. "Pfffft, please Sora, look at me. Of course he's coming back." Sora looked at me doubtfully. "Come on, I'm so irresistible you had to lock yourself away with me in a bathroom." I sniffed my arm for show, "it must be some crazy pheromone I exude or something." Another roll of toilet paper sailed towards my head.

"Psycho, psycho man!! I've got to be a psycho man!!"

My singing was becoming too much, even for me. The drive to Roxas' school was shorter than I remembered it, but that was probably because I was still having my doubts as to whether or not what I was doing was a good idea. It'd been over a week now and I'd almost given up and given in to my fears that Roxas was in fact not coming back. So there I was, driving to his school to be a complete psycho. Don't get me wrong, the thoughts of him purposely ditching me were preceded by the thoughts that something indescribably tragic had happened to him. You know, things along the lines of his father beating him to death with a frozen hunk of steak or Selphie ripping his balls off so that she could procreate with him even if he left her- right, back to my journey.

I pulled up to the diner which sat at the bottom of the hill that Roxas' school was on. The place was nearly deserted, which wasn't surprising considering the time of day. Shuffling through the door, I spotted Flo at the opposite end of the counter and she nodded at me to sit down.

"Where's your little friend? You know, the one I actually like." Flo asked coming over with her little note pad already flipped open.

"Can I just get some coffee for now?" I asked without looking up at her, which was probably my first mistake. Moments later I had a cup of luke-warm, day old coffee sitting in front of me. "Thanks." I grumbled and looked out the window.

Hours went by and I counted that I'd choked down 5 cups of Flo's nasty coffee. I swear this woman was trying to kill me, but I wouldn't give her the satisfaction of knowing that it bothered me in the least. I still hadn't seen any signs of Roxas and I don't really know what I had been expecting in the first place. It was getting late and I still had to drive home. Just as I was about to get up to leave I spotted Hayner in the parking lot and it looked like he'd seen me too.

I watched him enter the diner and I remained seated until he joined me in my booth. "What're you going down here?" His tone wasn't the normal friendly one that I was used to.

"I just HAD to have some of Flo's coffee." I saluted Flo with my cold stale coffee as she walked by and she pulled a face.

"You know you're completely fucking up his life, don't you?" Wow, Hayner, right to the point, huh? "If you actually cared about him, which I don't think you do, you'd just leave him alone."

I leaned forward and rested my chin on my hand. "Go ahead, don't hold back, tell me how you REALLY feel, Hayner", I rolled my eyes from the sarcasm.

"This isn't a joke." He stared me down intently. "Roxas had his whole future lined up and set. He was going to be a successful doctor, have a beautiful wife and be very well off, until you came along. I don't know what you think you're doing but your little game is only hurting him."

"It's not a game." I answered dully. I knew that Hayner was right, every thing he said was true.

"If it's not a game then you're still pretty damn selfish. Say for the sake of argument that you DO care about him. What's going to happen when you guys break up? Or are you retarded enough to think that this puppy love will last forever? Where is Roxas going to be when the novelty wears off? He's going to be fucked- and you know it."

It was true that I had asked Roxas to stay with me. At the time I hadn't even considered what that meant he'd be giving up and honestly probably wouldn't have put too much weight on it since I myself had never had those types of opportunities. "Shut up, Hayner." I sat back and ran my hand through my hair. "Roxas is a big boy, let him worry about it."

"I'm his friend, I worry about him- something you obviously don't understand." He made a grunt of frustration and stood up, "You're an asshole you know that?"

"Right back at 'cha buddy." I winked at him and waved.

Flo followed in Hayner's wake as he stormed away from the table and moments later she was standing next to my booth again. She placed a steaming mug of fresh coffee and a giant handful of sugar packets down in front of me. I looked up at her curiously and she simply smiled and walked away. I felt some of the tension that had been brought on by Hayner slip away as my fingers began to fondle the while envelopes of sugar.

The day started off just like any other day until I got to work and noticed that the cube across from mine was empty. Aerith wasn't just out for the day, it looked like she was on a more permanent vacation. Pushing those thoughts to the back of my head I wandered over to check my mail box and noticed that Rikku's desk too was emptied. What was going on? Maybe I woke up in some alternate dimension where everyone that I didn't want to see just didn't exist any more. No, wait, I'd just spotted Yuffie. There goes that dream.

"Way to go jerk-face, you chased her off the floor." She said as she shouldered past me.

"What?"

"Rikku, she transferred to another unit because of you. I hope you're happy!" She grumbled at me before launching herself into her seat.

A devious grin broke out across my face, "Very!" I started to walk away with a lighter step and perhaps a skip until I remembered something else, " and Aerith? Where is she?"

Yuffie turned away from her monitor and looked at me like I was retarded, "Why the hell would a millionaire keep working here?"

"Good point." I wondered if that meant that Cloud had quit as well. This called for a celebration! Grabbing my wallet from my desk I located Xigbar and we were soon on our way to Starbucks. It was too early yet for a serious drink. As it turned out, Xigbar had started to date Yuna- yes, I finally remembered her as the succubus and now realized that she was Rikku's friend. That was just a whole pile of drama that I was happy to avoid.

I met up with Larxene for lunch, which she graciously paid for, the whole still kissing my ass thing and all. To top it off Xemnas, my boss, took the afternoon off. I had seriously stepped in something today, every thing was just going my way so I decided to pick up some scratch off lotto tickets on my way back to the office- nothing like pushing your luck!

When I got home from work I half expected Demyx to be throwing a wild party on my behalf to celebrate my amazingness or something, but the apartment was empty. Honestly, I had been looking forward to the party in my mind, but got over it soon enough. I went to the bathroom and when I came out I heard voices coming up the stairs to the apartment.

"He's my best friend, don't get me wrong, but he can be an idiot." That was unmistakably Demyx, gee thanks, buddy, he was no doubt talking about me.

"I'm not going to argue with you there!" A female voice answered him, Larxene. "You've got to tell me though, I've been dying to know- Is he really that good in bed? Be honest!"

What the hell?! Why was she asking Demyx that? Good god I was going to be sick.

"Really?! Are you serious?!" Larxene sounded astonished and I was still skeeved out that she was asking Demyx about this- but at least he was talking me up. "I'd be totally jealous if it was anyone but Axel."

"Come on guys, Jesus, I don't need to be here for this discussion." Demyx walked through the door and I shot him a terrified look. I would say that we would have to discuss this later, but this was something that would never be discussed again.

Larxene and Roxas followed him in the door and I felt multiple waves of relief wash over me, the most prominent being that Roxas had come back followed shortly by the realization that Larxene wasn't asking Demyx about my sexual performance.

"Look who we found!" Larxene gestured towards Roxas like she was Vanna White. "Can we keep him?!"

I stood up and studied Roxas who just beamed back at me. "I don't know." I rubbed my chin in mock contemplation, "Who's going to feed him, wash him and-"

"-screw his brains out?" Larxene piped in, effectively cutting me off. "I was thinking that could be your job."

"Well, if that's the case, then yes, we can keep him." I leaned down and planted a long over due kiss on Roxas. "A couple of days?" I muttered to him and he knew what I meant.

"The paperwork took longer than I thought it was going to." He answered and kissed me again. Larxene was looking on like we were some sort of show while Demyx coughed and went into the kitchen.

"Wait, what paper work? Were you disowned? Are you suing her for being a bitch? Are you changing your name to Axel's Love Slave?" The questions poured out of my mouth and all the while I was looking him over to make sure that his dad didn't actually get to him with that chunk of steak after all- I'd check to make sure that Selphie hadn't gotten to his balls later when Larxene wasn't around.

He tilted his head up and kissed me again and grabbed the front of my shirt. "Paper work for my school loans you moron." I looked at him waiting for further explanation and watched his smiling face turn surprised and his eyebrows shoot into his hairline. "You didn't think I was just going to drop out of school did you?"

"Well I…" I started and realized that was exactly what I'd thought. I figured that Roxas' dad would cut off his funding and he would be out on the street. Why had I let him do this again?

"On the off chance that my parents decided to stop paying for my schooling once I told them about breaking off the engagement and the whole gay thing, I'd filed for school loans so that I could continue my education."

"Really? You told them about me?" I looked at him with a smug little smile.

"No, but I did tell them about me. They think it's a phase and that I'll grow out of it. Something about the stress of the engagement to Selphie." He was smiling again and I felt the stupid little smile wipe from my face.

"So you did it then? You told her the engagement was off? You broke up with her?" I looked at him seriously. "Larxene, you can leave any time now." I turned towards her and her staring. She said nothing and kept looking on.

"Yes, Axel, I broke up with her- would I be here if I didn't?"

The skepticism must have been abundantly clear on my face, "Really? You want to fault me for asking that? After last time?"

"Fair enough." He said looking down with a sigh. "You still don't trust me, do you?"

"Not a single bit." I smiled down at him, "but hopefully that will change quickly with you living here this summer."

His head jerked up in confusion, "what?"

"I was thinking that you could live with Dem and me this summer while you're on break." I closed the gap between us and wrapped my arms around his waist.

"I don't know if I could put up with you for a whole summer." He said jokingly, or least he'd better have been joking. "I'd have to sleep with you?" I nodded at his devious tone. "That would mean random joint showers too?" I nodded again.

Demyx walked briskly into the room, "You know, I think I've changed my mind about the whole Roxas moving in thing."

"Too late Dem."

"Axel, why are you wearing a toga?"

"Because my Sim in Roxas' game cheated on his Sim and he said that I had to make it up to him."

"By wearing a toga?"

"We're reenacting the Roman bathes."

"Of course you are."

Things seemed back to normal and time kept going on.

The End

A/N: Thank you for sticking with me, reading through this and for all of your reviews, comments, PMs and stuff. I REALLY appreciated every one of them and I'm sorry if I couldn't respond to all of them. Personally I think the ending was a pile of lame but that may be because I hate writing neat little packages that end with sparkles, bubbles and warm fuzzies (but did it anyway).

I'm sorry that Demyx didn't end up with Zexion like some of you had wanted, I just have issues with making EVERYONE in my fic gay- though for some reason I have no problem reading fics where that happens. Can't explain it, sorry.

I don't know why I'm apologizing so much in an author's note, but please leave a comment and let me know what you thought of the fic! Thanks again for reading!