At Last!
It took me forever and a day. It's only the first chapter of what will be several. Inexplicably, my crack pairing fic developed plot and demanded chapters.
But at long last, I present my currently untitled Demyx/Sora crackfic, Chapter 1. Huge thanks to my lovely beta, rhaella.
Warnings: I have played through Kingdom Hearts and Kingdom Hearts II. While spoilers aren't deliberately included, I'm sure they're in here, particularly for the second game. There might be, and later will be, language. Otherwise, it's incredibly tame.
Xigbar tossed back his head and roared with laughter, spine contorting over the back of the white couch. “Demyx wants what?!”
“A date, I believe was the term he used,” Luxord answered, a dark gloved finger rubbing slowly at his chin.
The other Nobody barked in amusement again. The sudden sound startled several Dusks and sent the pale figures twisting off to quieter corners of the monochrome castle. “And how is he gonna get Roxas to agree?”
“Sora,” the blond Nobody corrected. When the solitary golden eye continued to stare impassively, Luxord continued. “Demyx is aware that the odds are not in his favor. He came to me seeking assistance.”
“Ah.” The scarred face broke into a grin. “We’ll need something to write on.”
“Provided.” Luxord smirked, and held a small notepad aloft.
***
For all that Atlantica was a great place to visit, it was a miserable place to try to sleep. The compromised gravity didn’t help, but the main problem… Two thunderous snores broke his musing. Sora stroked his arms against the water, propelling himself into a vertical position. It was easier to see out the wide window that way.
The moonlight was unfiltered by the layers of marine water. If not for the intermittent sounds of bubbles, lightning-fast cameos of fish and occasionally more bizarre marine life, and well, water, Sora would have thought he was under the clear skies of his island home. The translucent water actually seemed to magnify the light, which caused the sea floor to gleam a bright puce.
Donald quacked indignantly in his sleep, and Sora turned to face them. His traveling companions seemed to have adjusted to the situation with far greater ease. Donald had anchored himself, blue tentacles clutching to the rocky protrusion that served as his bed. While each noisy exhalation sent the duck’s transformed body bobbing upwards, the tentacles pulled him back down before he could drift off. Goofy apparently took his altered state of being in stride. His snores swayed him to and fro like a rocking horse.
Sora sighed and stared at his own alteration. A dolphin tail was not conducive to either Donald or Goofy’s sleeping style. It was perfect, however, for a late night swim. Deep blue eyes shifted from the large window - honestly, that thing was as big as some of the many doors he’d wandered through - to his friends. The Keybearer jetted out the window before Donald and Goofy could snore again.
***
He’d forgotten how nice Atlantica was when it wasn't crawling with Heartless or requiring daily performances in an effort to fix Ariel’s love life. For the time being, the Heartless had left the aquatic paradise in peace, and Ariel had gone to the surface for another prenuptial visit. King Triton had rather agreeably allowed Sora, Donald, and Goofy to stay the night in the palace in thanks. No one had turned it down; it certainly beat sprawling out to the best of one’s capabilities in the chairs of the Gummi Ship. The waters of Atlantica guaranteed a peace and quiet that was hard to find elsewhere these days.
And it was dull. Not that Sora wanted any of his friends’ worlds flooded with Heartless, or Nobodies, or whatever else the Organization, Maleficent, or whoever had under their control. It was just unusual, being able to land in a world and not having to fight anythi -
A gigantic school of radiant long-finned tropical fish practically materialized out of thin… water for all the suddenness and speed with which they appeared. Sora doubled over quickly, cobalt dolphin tail flicking him in a magnificent arc behind a large clamshell. “What was that?” His eyes followed the receding school until the dissonant sound of wailing strings reached his ears.
Like any good “junior” hero would, Sora moved slowly from his hiding spot to investigate. The music swelled as Sora followed the winding pathway to the large, perforated shell in the center of the palace courtyard. He peered around the broken edge of the shell, eyes and ears both drawn to the notes. Dark gloved fingers nimbly weaved among strings on a long-necked guitar-like instrument. The guitar-thing in turn nestled in the curved lap of a black-cloaked figure.
“The Organization!” Sora shouted, all pretensions of stealth forgotten. Brilliant strands of light coalesced between his hands to form the Keyblade.
“Wait wait wait!” The man pushed himself off the shell wall he had been leaning on, both hands in the air. The effect was somewhat ruined by the giant purple instrument dangling from his left hand, but the earnestness in his voice kept Sora from charging forward with his considerable dolphin-tailed speed. “I come in peace! I just want to talk.”
“You expect me to believe that?” But Sora’s stance moved from offensive to defensive, his expression more baffled than angry.
The cloaked figure drooped dramatically, shoulders and knees both caving inward. “It would help. I’ve never done this before.”
“‘Thi-’” Sora couldn’t even get the word out before the figure straightened and tossed back his hood. Bright blue eyes and slicked-back blonde hair… “You’re that weird guy from the Underworld,” Sora identified.
The Organization member drew himself up even further. “That’s not very nice,” he scolded in a tone that came across as more indignant than authoritative. “I have a name, you know. It’s Demyx. And you’re Sora, right?”
The Keyblade Master blinked in response. Then, realizing his grip on the Keyblade had unconsciously slackened, he tightened his grip and leaned forward in an offensive stance. “Fine, what do you want, Demyx?”
It was Demyx’s turn to blink, blue eyes reflecting some of the confusion Sora’s had shown just moments before. “What do I- oh! Let’s see, where did I put it?” For the second time that night, Sora could only stare in consternation as Demyx’s instrument vanished in a stream of bubbles, and the Nobody used his newly liberated hands to fumble with various folds of his cloak. With a triumphant exclamation of “Aha!” Demyx withdrew a notepad from… Sora really didn’t need to think about that… somewhere in that cloak.
“Did that, did that. Working on it… ‘Compliment the subject to express interest,’” the blond read aloud slowly, as though pondering each word. His eyes darted from the notepad to Sora. “You’re very good at killing Heartless,” he said abruptly, and then yanked his eyes back to the notepad. “‘Should the subject not appear receptive, attempt to make yourself more appealing.’ It’s too late for that, guys.”
Two frantic cries of “Sora!” interrupted Demyx’s dialogue with his notes, causing both males to turn to the source. A duck-squid and dog-turtle propelled themselves towards Sora as fast as they were capable. It wasn’t fast enough.
“Ah!” Demyx sounded triumphant. Really, the startling number of breakthroughs those notes seemed to cause were somewhat concerning. A snap of gloved fingers preceded a startled grunt from Goofy and a string of angry quacks from Donald.
“Donald! Goofy!” Both of Sora’s friends thrashed and flailed their various aquatic appendages to no avail. Cuffs of condensed water held their midsections and arms (if present) in place. “You!” Sora growled, tensed his body to charge forward, kicked his tail -
And shouted in frustrated surprise as he found himself similarly bound, waist and wrists immobilized. The Keyblade fell to the ocean floor with a clang. Sora lashed his tail frantically, uselessly. The aquatic restraints seemed solidly moored to the surrounding water, like metal chains to stone walls.
“Please please stop struggling. You could really hurt yourself.” Sora paused, deep eyes staring at Demyx incredulously before narrowing in determination. Rebelliously the Keyblade hero whipped his tail, and grimaced back the pain as the water manacle dug into his waist. Demyx sighed and hunched his shoulders. When he straightened, his gaze was hard and resolute, a thin veil of icy regret almost unidentifiable behind his resignation. The Melodious Nocturne snapped again, and Sora found the base of his tail constricted.
Donald and Goofy’s sounds of struggle became muffled as the water wound about their beak and snout like a muzzle, effectively gagging them. Background noise reduced, Demyx straightened and walked deliberately up to Sora. The dramatic effect was somewhat ruined by the fact that Sora was suspended a good several inches above the path, and the Nobody had to crane his neck upwards to meet the Keyblade wielder’s eyes.
“Sora,” Demyx declared, leaving sufficient length for a suspense-building pause. “I would like a date.” Blissfully unaware of the warp reality had just undergone, a lone angelfish swam leisurely past the frozen crowd. At least until three shouts (or rather, one shout and two startled blurbs) implanted a lifelong fear of the Atlantica palace courtyard into the hapless angelfish.
“BWAA?!”
“HMMM?!”
“Look, I don’t know much about that kind of stuff…”
“That’s all right, I’d teach you.”
“So you’re better off asking- wait, what?”
“I’d teach you,” Demyx repeated patiently. “After all, I did ask you out on a date.”
A deadly silence thudded onto the ocean floor. It took Sora quite some time before he managed to stop gaping like the fish his mammalian hybrid body definitively wasn’t.
“You’re- you’re a member of the Organization.” Demyx grinned, nodding his head in affirmation. “You’re a Nobody! You don’t… date!”
“Well I would if you said ‘yes,’” Demyx rejoined, somewhat sulkily.
Grasping desperately for some convincing dissuader, Sora burst out, “You’re a guy!”
“As are you, and a rather adorable one, at that.”
“This has got to be some sort of joke, right?”
Demyx suddenly looked… embarrassed. “I almost wish it was,” he murmured quietly, rubbing the back of his neck and avoiding Sora’s pleading eyes. “Does this mean your answer is ‘no?’”
“I- YES!”
“Pity.” If Sora hadn’t already witnessed the Nobody’s drastic and obviously feigned mood swings, he might have believed the cold regret in that word. Demyx brought the notepad up abruptly, practically shoving it into Sora’s nose. “I’ve been advised not to take no for an answer. If necessary, I should ‘coerce the subject into compliance,’ - oh, that has to be Luxord…”
“For instance,” Demyx continued, as though the brief non sequitur had never occurred, “I could summon waves of Nobodies or water clones to attack you guys while you’re immobilized. Or I could take your friends here hostage. I could even-” he leaned forward, eyes glazed in a sort of manic somberness “-kill them, if you refuse.”
Sora’s eyes narrowed, and Demyx saw Roxas in that intense blazing blue, the promise of a painful death by serrated Keyblade. Demyx caught himself before he could step back, reminding himself that both Keyblade Master and Number XIII were bound in their respective shackles.
“Come on, a few hours of your time can’t be worth more than their lives.” Sora glared angrily and strained futilely against the wrist cuffs. “All of us Organization members have powers, you know,” Demyx continued conversationally. “I, as you may have guessed, can control water. I’d really rather not fight you, but if it came to that…”
Sora froze momentarily before shooting a desperate glance over his shoulder at his two friends. Both duck-squid and dog-turtle were having no success fighting the water that should have been their advantage. After lengthy deliberation, Sora turned his gaze back to his captor.
“You promise not to hurt them if I agree to this?”
“Cross my heart and hope to die!” Number IX responded immediately, and entirely too cheerfully. “I’ll even let you pick the place.”
Sora closed his eyes and bent his head in defeated acquiescence. “Okay.” Demyx didn’t even bother to internalize his jubilant cheer.
***
“Do you suppose he succeeded?”
Xigbar shrugged, placing down a Two of Spades. “Who knows with that guy?”
The swirling strands of coalescing darkness drew both mens’ attention from the card game. Demyx emerged from the portal, bright eyes and wide smile practically blinding. “Guess who’s got a date tomorrow night?”
Luxord smirked and quickly swept up the pile while Xigbar’s attention was focused on Number IX. “How’d you manage that?” the Freeshooter asked with effortlessly casual interest. The water wielder preened and drew himself up.
“I can be quite persuasive.” Two knowing chuckles agreed.
“Were the instructions of any efficacy?” Luxord queried as he began dealing out three piles of cards. Xigbar snorted at his playing partner’s gratuitous employment of grandiose vocabulary. Luxord ignored him. Demyx beamed.
“Oh yeah, they were really helpful. Thanks guys.”
“Care to join us?” Luxord invited, gesturing towards the unclaimed pile of cards.
“Yeah sure, I guess I have the time.” Demyx plopped down on the vacant sofa and picked up his pile. “So, what are we playing?”
Luxord couldn’t resist the irony. “Hearts.”
But at long last, I present my currently untitled Demyx/Sora crackfic, Chapter 1. Huge thanks to my lovely beta, rhaella.
Warnings: I have played through Kingdom Hearts and Kingdom Hearts II. While spoilers aren't deliberately included, I'm sure they're in here, particularly for the second game. There might be, and later will be, language. Otherwise, it's incredibly tame.
Xigbar tossed back his head and roared with laughter, spine contorting over the back of the white couch. “Demyx wants what?!”
“A date, I believe was the term he used,” Luxord answered, a dark gloved finger rubbing slowly at his chin.
The other Nobody barked in amusement again. The sudden sound startled several Dusks and sent the pale figures twisting off to quieter corners of the monochrome castle. “And how is he gonna get Roxas to agree?”
“Sora,” the blond Nobody corrected. When the solitary golden eye continued to stare impassively, Luxord continued. “Demyx is aware that the odds are not in his favor. He came to me seeking assistance.”
“Ah.” The scarred face broke into a grin. “We’ll need something to write on.”
“Provided.” Luxord smirked, and held a small notepad aloft.
***
For all that Atlantica was a great place to visit, it was a miserable place to try to sleep. The compromised gravity didn’t help, but the main problem… Two thunderous snores broke his musing. Sora stroked his arms against the water, propelling himself into a vertical position. It was easier to see out the wide window that way.
The moonlight was unfiltered by the layers of marine water. If not for the intermittent sounds of bubbles, lightning-fast cameos of fish and occasionally more bizarre marine life, and well, water, Sora would have thought he was under the clear skies of his island home. The translucent water actually seemed to magnify the light, which caused the sea floor to gleam a bright puce.
Donald quacked indignantly in his sleep, and Sora turned to face them. His traveling companions seemed to have adjusted to the situation with far greater ease. Donald had anchored himself, blue tentacles clutching to the rocky protrusion that served as his bed. While each noisy exhalation sent the duck’s transformed body bobbing upwards, the tentacles pulled him back down before he could drift off. Goofy apparently took his altered state of being in stride. His snores swayed him to and fro like a rocking horse.
Sora sighed and stared at his own alteration. A dolphin tail was not conducive to either Donald or Goofy’s sleeping style. It was perfect, however, for a late night swim. Deep blue eyes shifted from the large window - honestly, that thing was as big as some of the many doors he’d wandered through - to his friends. The Keybearer jetted out the window before Donald and Goofy could snore again.
***
He’d forgotten how nice Atlantica was when it wasn't crawling with Heartless or requiring daily performances in an effort to fix Ariel’s love life. For the time being, the Heartless had left the aquatic paradise in peace, and Ariel had gone to the surface for another prenuptial visit. King Triton had rather agreeably allowed Sora, Donald, and Goofy to stay the night in the palace in thanks. No one had turned it down; it certainly beat sprawling out to the best of one’s capabilities in the chairs of the Gummi Ship. The waters of Atlantica guaranteed a peace and quiet that was hard to find elsewhere these days.
And it was dull. Not that Sora wanted any of his friends’ worlds flooded with Heartless, or Nobodies, or whatever else the Organization, Maleficent, or whoever had under their control. It was just unusual, being able to land in a world and not having to fight anythi -
A gigantic school of radiant long-finned tropical fish practically materialized out of thin… water for all the suddenness and speed with which they appeared. Sora doubled over quickly, cobalt dolphin tail flicking him in a magnificent arc behind a large clamshell. “What was that?” His eyes followed the receding school until the dissonant sound of wailing strings reached his ears.
Like any good “junior” hero would, Sora moved slowly from his hiding spot to investigate. The music swelled as Sora followed the winding pathway to the large, perforated shell in the center of the palace courtyard. He peered around the broken edge of the shell, eyes and ears both drawn to the notes. Dark gloved fingers nimbly weaved among strings on a long-necked guitar-like instrument. The guitar-thing in turn nestled in the curved lap of a black-cloaked figure.
“The Organization!” Sora shouted, all pretensions of stealth forgotten. Brilliant strands of light coalesced between his hands to form the Keyblade.
“Wait wait wait!” The man pushed himself off the shell wall he had been leaning on, both hands in the air. The effect was somewhat ruined by the giant purple instrument dangling from his left hand, but the earnestness in his voice kept Sora from charging forward with his considerable dolphin-tailed speed. “I come in peace! I just want to talk.”
“You expect me to believe that?” But Sora’s stance moved from offensive to defensive, his expression more baffled than angry.
The cloaked figure drooped dramatically, shoulders and knees both caving inward. “It would help. I’ve never done this before.”
“‘Thi-’” Sora couldn’t even get the word out before the figure straightened and tossed back his hood. Bright blue eyes and slicked-back blonde hair… “You’re that weird guy from the Underworld,” Sora identified.
The Organization member drew himself up even further. “That’s not very nice,” he scolded in a tone that came across as more indignant than authoritative. “I have a name, you know. It’s Demyx. And you’re Sora, right?”
The Keyblade Master blinked in response. Then, realizing his grip on the Keyblade had unconsciously slackened, he tightened his grip and leaned forward in an offensive stance. “Fine, what do you want, Demyx?”
It was Demyx’s turn to blink, blue eyes reflecting some of the confusion Sora’s had shown just moments before. “What do I- oh! Let’s see, where did I put it?” For the second time that night, Sora could only stare in consternation as Demyx’s instrument vanished in a stream of bubbles, and the Nobody used his newly liberated hands to fumble with various folds of his cloak. With a triumphant exclamation of “Aha!” Demyx withdrew a notepad from… Sora really didn’t need to think about that… somewhere in that cloak.
“Did that, did that. Working on it… ‘Compliment the subject to express interest,’” the blond read aloud slowly, as though pondering each word. His eyes darted from the notepad to Sora. “You’re very good at killing Heartless,” he said abruptly, and then yanked his eyes back to the notepad. “‘Should the subject not appear receptive, attempt to make yourself more appealing.’ It’s too late for that, guys.”
Two frantic cries of “Sora!” interrupted Demyx’s dialogue with his notes, causing both males to turn to the source. A duck-squid and dog-turtle propelled themselves towards Sora as fast as they were capable. It wasn’t fast enough.
“Ah!” Demyx sounded triumphant. Really, the startling number of breakthroughs those notes seemed to cause were somewhat concerning. A snap of gloved fingers preceded a startled grunt from Goofy and a string of angry quacks from Donald.
“Donald! Goofy!” Both of Sora’s friends thrashed and flailed their various aquatic appendages to no avail. Cuffs of condensed water held their midsections and arms (if present) in place. “You!” Sora growled, tensed his body to charge forward, kicked his tail -
And shouted in frustrated surprise as he found himself similarly bound, waist and wrists immobilized. The Keyblade fell to the ocean floor with a clang. Sora lashed his tail frantically, uselessly. The aquatic restraints seemed solidly moored to the surrounding water, like metal chains to stone walls.
“Please please stop struggling. You could really hurt yourself.” Sora paused, deep eyes staring at Demyx incredulously before narrowing in determination. Rebelliously the Keyblade hero whipped his tail, and grimaced back the pain as the water manacle dug into his waist. Demyx sighed and hunched his shoulders. When he straightened, his gaze was hard and resolute, a thin veil of icy regret almost unidentifiable behind his resignation. The Melodious Nocturne snapped again, and Sora found the base of his tail constricted.
Donald and Goofy’s sounds of struggle became muffled as the water wound about their beak and snout like a muzzle, effectively gagging them. Background noise reduced, Demyx straightened and walked deliberately up to Sora. The dramatic effect was somewhat ruined by the fact that Sora was suspended a good several inches above the path, and the Nobody had to crane his neck upwards to meet the Keyblade wielder’s eyes.
“Sora,” Demyx declared, leaving sufficient length for a suspense-building pause. “I would like a date.” Blissfully unaware of the warp reality had just undergone, a lone angelfish swam leisurely past the frozen crowd. At least until three shouts (or rather, one shout and two startled blurbs) implanted a lifelong fear of the Atlantica palace courtyard into the hapless angelfish.
“BWAA?!”
“HMMM?!”
“Look, I don’t know much about that kind of stuff…”
“That’s all right, I’d teach you.”
“So you’re better off asking- wait, what?”
“I’d teach you,” Demyx repeated patiently. “After all, I did ask you out on a date.”
A deadly silence thudded onto the ocean floor. It took Sora quite some time before he managed to stop gaping like the fish his mammalian hybrid body definitively wasn’t.
“You’re- you’re a member of the Organization.” Demyx grinned, nodding his head in affirmation. “You’re a Nobody! You don’t… date!”
“Well I would if you said ‘yes,’” Demyx rejoined, somewhat sulkily.
Grasping desperately for some convincing dissuader, Sora burst out, “You’re a guy!”
“As are you, and a rather adorable one, at that.”
“This has got to be some sort of joke, right?”
Demyx suddenly looked… embarrassed. “I almost wish it was,” he murmured quietly, rubbing the back of his neck and avoiding Sora’s pleading eyes. “Does this mean your answer is ‘no?’”
“I- YES!”
“Pity.” If Sora hadn’t already witnessed the Nobody’s drastic and obviously feigned mood swings, he might have believed the cold regret in that word. Demyx brought the notepad up abruptly, practically shoving it into Sora’s nose. “I’ve been advised not to take no for an answer. If necessary, I should ‘coerce the subject into compliance,’ - oh, that has to be Luxord…”
“For instance,” Demyx continued, as though the brief non sequitur had never occurred, “I could summon waves of Nobodies or water clones to attack you guys while you’re immobilized. Or I could take your friends here hostage. I could even-” he leaned forward, eyes glazed in a sort of manic somberness “-kill them, if you refuse.”
Sora’s eyes narrowed, and Demyx saw Roxas in that intense blazing blue, the promise of a painful death by serrated Keyblade. Demyx caught himself before he could step back, reminding himself that both Keyblade Master and Number XIII were bound in their respective shackles.
“Come on, a few hours of your time can’t be worth more than their lives.” Sora glared angrily and strained futilely against the wrist cuffs. “All of us Organization members have powers, you know,” Demyx continued conversationally. “I, as you may have guessed, can control water. I’d really rather not fight you, but if it came to that…”
Sora froze momentarily before shooting a desperate glance over his shoulder at his two friends. Both duck-squid and dog-turtle were having no success fighting the water that should have been their advantage. After lengthy deliberation, Sora turned his gaze back to his captor.
“You promise not to hurt them if I agree to this?”
“Cross my heart and hope to die!” Number IX responded immediately, and entirely too cheerfully. “I’ll even let you pick the place.”
Sora closed his eyes and bent his head in defeated acquiescence. “Okay.” Demyx didn’t even bother to internalize his jubilant cheer.
***
“Do you suppose he succeeded?”
Xigbar shrugged, placing down a Two of Spades. “Who knows with that guy?”
The swirling strands of coalescing darkness drew both mens’ attention from the card game. Demyx emerged from the portal, bright eyes and wide smile practically blinding. “Guess who’s got a date tomorrow night?”
Luxord smirked and quickly swept up the pile while Xigbar’s attention was focused on Number IX. “How’d you manage that?” the Freeshooter asked with effortlessly casual interest. The water wielder preened and drew himself up.
“I can be quite persuasive.” Two knowing chuckles agreed.
“Were the instructions of any efficacy?” Luxord queried as he began dealing out three piles of cards. Xigbar snorted at his playing partner’s gratuitous employment of grandiose vocabulary. Luxord ignored him. Demyx beamed.
“Oh yeah, they were really helpful. Thanks guys.”
“Care to join us?” Luxord invited, gesturing towards the unclaimed pile of cards.
“Yeah sure, I guess I have the time.” Demyx plopped down on the vacant sofa and picked up his pile. “So, what are we playing?”
Luxord couldn’t resist the irony. “Hearts.”