Day 41: Lunch

[perfectrecord]

Just as von Karma started to enter the doorway leading to the Courtyard to look around for anyone remotely resembling his daughter, that pretentious lunatic's voice rang out over the Intercom, heralding the approach of lunch time. Right away, the damned nurse practically dragged him back into the cafeteria and towards the serving tables, telling

Comments

[scintillatingly]

Sora agreed that a warning would have been really nice, if only so that he could have let his friends know in advance that he wouldn't be able to join them. He still had to apologize to Allen for never showing up last night, come to think of it. He couldn't blame Demyx for not getting the word out to him, though. If Xigbar had only come up with this idea yesterday, then that hadn't given Demyx much time to work with -- and apparently Demyx hadn't expected Xigbar to move so quickly.

Even though Demyx assumed that Sora was mad at Xigbar -- he wasn't, really. He had come to expect this sort of thing from the Nobodies by now, and he was hoping that with the score settled, it wouldn't be a problem anymore. Unless Luxord or someone decided that they wanted to try their hand at beating him too, but Sora was trying to be optimistic.

If anything, he was confused that Xigbar had been so determined to beat him, as if it would have proved something if he had. Sora knew that going up against the Nobodies had been a necessity before, but it wasn't now. He wasn't going to go around picking them off just for the heck of it! And they shouldn't be trying to get themselves killed either.

"I'm not going to kill anyone," he assured Demyx with a shake of his head. "Before... I mean, that was different. We were on opposite sides, but it's not really like that anymore. I'd rather you guys didn't keep coming after me, but I'm not killing anyone no matter what happens," he finished firmly.

He was surprised that Demyx was willing to hold them off if it came to that, but it looked like he, at least, was trying to make the best of the second chance that he'd gotten.

[sitard3d]

Demyx relaxed considerably when it became clear that Sora was no more interested in killing anybody than Demyx was in seeing anyone die. He'd known that Sora had been pretty passive about their presence before, but he hadn't known whether or not Xigbar's actions would break the tentative truce. Apparently not.

"That's good," he said aloud, sounding almost as relieved as he felt. "I don't really wanna fight you, but I would've if I had to...and if Xigbar couldn't beat you, there's no way I'd win."

[scintillatingly]

Sora laughed, even though it wasn't very funny. He didn't like that people were out for his blood, but he knew that it was a consequence of his previous actions, and so he was going to bear it as best as he could. So long as people who weren't involved didn't get dragged in, he wouldn't mind. (Though he would also be perfectly happy if that first fight here at Landel's was also the last.)

"You shouldn't underestimate yourself so much," Sora pointed out, managing a small smile. "I think I told you this before, but you weren't easy to beat." He knew it would be a different story here (could Demyx even make water clones?), but the point still stood.

[sitard3d]

"Yeah?" Demyx gave Sora a slightly crooked grin. "I dunno if I ought to feel happy about that, considering how screwed up our fighting each other was in the first place...and you won anyway, so I wasn't that tough, I guess. But - it's good to hear anyway, I guess? The others don't think much of me." He wrinkled his nose. "They didn't send me to deal with you first 'cause I was the strongest, y'know. Not counting the guys in Castle Oblivion, anyway."

[scintillatingly]

"It was three on one," Sora pointed out, though he wasn't really sure why he was making the effort to make Demyx feel better. The guy couldn't really feel that bad about it in the first place, right? Still, it was something to talk about, even if it was kind of weird to be discussing the battle where one of them had died.

"Though I guess you had your water clones, which kind of made it... what, one hundred and one on three?" Sora laughed to indicate that he was just joking - it had been hard to take down all those clones within the small amount of time that he'd been allotted, but it wasn't like they counted as a whole other person.

"Anyway, what have you been up to here? Do you usually stick with Xigbar and Luxord, or...?" Sora tilted his head curiously. It was hard to imagine what a Nobody usually did in his free time, since the only interaction he'd had with them was on the battlefield. Though that was when Sora remembered what he had heard from Hanatarou a few nights ago.

"Oh, wait! You're starting up a band or something, right? My roommate told me about it," he explained with a smile.

[sitard3d]

"Ah, c'mon," Demyx complained. "You had the Keyblade! That's gotta count for at least, like...ten. Maybe twenty!" Not that he was really objecting, but something about the relaxed debate reminded him of hanging out with Roxas and arguing with him during some of the boy's more lighthearted moments, and it was...comfortable, in a way. Like the pattern was old and familiar even if Sora wasn't, exactly.

He brightened at the mention of the band almost immediately. "Yeah! I'm calling it The Nobodies, just 'cause...well, most of the people I've made friends with are sort of the weak, underappreciated types, y'know?" He raked a hand sheepishly through his hair. "And, y'know, for more obvious reasons, even if I'm the only real Nobody in the group. Anyway, I figured if we all got together, we could look out for each other...and play music at the same time, because life without music is really boring."

After a pause, Demyx sighed. "I wouldn't mind letting Xigbar and Luxord join; I mean, I'm sort of friends with them, and they're Nobodies like me, y'know? But they hate my music, and they made fun of the band idea when I first had it...plus they always just hang out with each other, anyway. They'd probably just laugh at me if I asked them...or worse, they'd join and then screw everything up just to be jerks."

[scintillatingly]

"I guess you have a point there," Sora agreed with a sage nod. The Keyblade was specifically meant to take out Heartless, and that apparently transferred pretty well to Nobodies too. The battles Sora had had with the Organization had still been tough (he hadn't even been able to beat Xemnas without Riku's help), but he probably wouldn't have stood a chance without the Keyblade.

Then again, if he hadn't had the Keyblade he wouldn't have been fighting them in the first place.

Either way, he was more than willing to move onto an easier subject, and so he listened carefully to the explanation of the band. It was kind of sad to hear that it was meant for "nobodies," but Sora figured it was also good to have a group like that for such people. Apparently Hanatarou fit into that category, which made Sora feel kind of guilty.

"Yeah, it sounds like a good idea," he agreed. "And hey, if they don't like music and think it's stupid, then it's their loss, right?" Xigbar and Luxord really seemed like the types who would rather stick to each other and poke fun at everyone else, as pointless as that was. Sora didn't concern himself with them more than he had to, but he could see why Demyx might feel obligated.