Challenge post
Challenge: [124] Traditions
Title: Today is Your Birthday
Word Count: 574
Spoilers: None
Notes: Neophytes-based, Demyx-centered.
“We should celebrate our birthdays.” That received a stare. “Because,” Demyx continued, tuning his sitar, “it’s important. Just because we’ve changed a little bit doesn’t mean that having a birthday isn’t important anymore. It might be even more important.”
The stare turned hostile.
“Oh, and just how is that so big a deal?” Axel asked in a snarky tone.
“It reminds us who we are.”
“Then go flatter yourself, birthday boy. I’m not into something that doesn’t make any sense.”
* * *
“I liked cake the most. Chocolate and with glazed strawberries. What was your favourite thing about having a birthday?”
Pausing as he walked down the row of Venus fly traps, idly petting one on its bulbous head, Marluxia looked at IX. “When people did as I told them.”
Demyx tilted his head to one side in confusion. “But that’s not much fun for anyone else.”
“It’s not supposed to be for them.” Marluxia continued to tend to his flora. “A birthday party that is hosted for me should be about me. I make the decisions.”
* * *
“Saix, what about balloons? Don’t you remember when you were a kid and there would be a clown at your birthday party, and he’d make animals from balloons?”
Demyx seemed to be lost in the memory, but Saix growled in the back of his throat. Who was the musician trying to fool the most?
“No,” the Diviner gave a look that was as flat as his voice, warning Demyx to end the subject.
“Presents. Everybody likes getting presents. See, you must remember something nice with the way you’re grinning about it, Saix.”
* * *
“Entertainment? I remember as the older I became, the more mature the diversions became as well.” Luxord fanned out his cards and offered Demyx to pick one, turning a blind eye to the blush on the younger man’s face. “Why is celebrating a birthday so important to you? You realize that you would have to count from the beginning again.”
Demyx laid the card face up; the Jack of Spades. “Why couldn’t I just continue from the age I was before I lost my heart, Luxord?” Even thinking of that, accepting the possibility, caused the musician to wince.
Stroking his goatee, the gambler drew the card back to him without putting it into the deck. “It is a form of cheating. You are a new individual, not an old shade. Now, about the Jack of Spades…”
* * *
It was pointless to continue talking about birthdays. None of the neophytes seemed to understand what Demyx was getting at. Even if they were changed, why did they have to discard something that could allow a break from the normal, something for old time’s sake? Perhaps it was just that, Demyx realized. None of them wanted to do anything to remember the ‘old times’.
Opening the door to his bedroom, Demyx paused over the threshold. Sitting innocently on his desk was a cupcake covered in chocolate frosting with a single lit candle. There was even a card next to it which the young man opened eagerly.
Because this is the only way to shut you up, and if you tell anyone else about this I will make you the newest lightning rod in the castle. Don’t think this changes anything about me. Happy un-Birthday. Enjoy your cupcake.
~Larxene
It was the best birthday Demyx had by far.
Title: Today is Your Birthday
Word Count: 574
Spoilers: None
Notes: Neophytes-based, Demyx-centered.
“We should celebrate our birthdays.” That received a stare. “Because,” Demyx continued, tuning his sitar, “it’s important. Just because we’ve changed a little bit doesn’t mean that having a birthday isn’t important anymore. It might be even more important.”
The stare turned hostile.
“Oh, and just how is that so big a deal?” Axel asked in a snarky tone.
“It reminds us who we are.”
“Then go flatter yourself, birthday boy. I’m not into something that doesn’t make any sense.”
* * *
“I liked cake the most. Chocolate and with glazed strawberries. What was your favourite thing about having a birthday?”
Pausing as he walked down the row of Venus fly traps, idly petting one on its bulbous head, Marluxia looked at IX. “When people did as I told them.”
Demyx tilted his head to one side in confusion. “But that’s not much fun for anyone else.”
“It’s not supposed to be for them.” Marluxia continued to tend to his flora. “A birthday party that is hosted for me should be about me. I make the decisions.”
* * *
“Saix, what about balloons? Don’t you remember when you were a kid and there would be a clown at your birthday party, and he’d make animals from balloons?”
Demyx seemed to be lost in the memory, but Saix growled in the back of his throat. Who was the musician trying to fool the most?
“No,” the Diviner gave a look that was as flat as his voice, warning Demyx to end the subject.
“Presents. Everybody likes getting presents. See, you must remember something nice with the way you’re grinning about it, Saix.”
* * *
“Entertainment? I remember as the older I became, the more mature the diversions became as well.” Luxord fanned out his cards and offered Demyx to pick one, turning a blind eye to the blush on the younger man’s face. “Why is celebrating a birthday so important to you? You realize that you would have to count from the beginning again.”
Demyx laid the card face up; the Jack of Spades. “Why couldn’t I just continue from the age I was before I lost my heart, Luxord?” Even thinking of that, accepting the possibility, caused the musician to wince.
Stroking his goatee, the gambler drew the card back to him without putting it into the deck. “It is a form of cheating. You are a new individual, not an old shade. Now, about the Jack of Spades…”
* * *
It was pointless to continue talking about birthdays. None of the neophytes seemed to understand what Demyx was getting at. Even if they were changed, why did they have to discard something that could allow a break from the normal, something for old time’s sake? Perhaps it was just that, Demyx realized. None of them wanted to do anything to remember the ‘old times’.
Opening the door to his bedroom, Demyx paused over the threshold. Sitting innocently on his desk was a cupcake covered in chocolate frosting with a single lit candle. There was even a card next to it which the young man opened eagerly.
Because this is the only way to shut you up, and if you tell anyone else about this I will make you the newest lightning rod in the castle. Don’t think this changes anything about me. Happy un-Birthday. Enjoy your cupcake.
~Larxene
It was the best birthday Demyx had by far.