Chapter Text
I Just Want The Stars
Star Light
Star light, star bright,
First star I see tonight,
I wish I may, I wish I might,
Have the wish I wish tonight.
When Xemnas designed the Castle That Never Was, he made Zexion cast an illusion of darkness on all the ceilings so that his second in command could spy on everyone without them knowing. Allegedly, Xemnas had insisted that Zexion cast it in such a way that even the Schemer himself wouldn’t be able to tell when the Freeshooter was above him.
Demyx just thought that it made the ceilings look boring. He stared up at the blackness, knees hooked around the arm of the couch in the Grey Area, and threw a small red rubber ball up into the darkness, studiously ignoring the Xigbar shaped network of blood and water he could see relaxing above him and to his left. He wasn’t great at throwing, and the ball fell in a parabola which would have made it land beyond his feet, if he hadn’t hummed a little, and sent a tendril of water to catch it and bring it back, yo-yo like.
Well, since Xigbar was here and listening, he supposed it wouldn’t hurt to complain. The ceilings were for his sake, after all.
“Hey, Axel,” he addressed his friend (sometimes with benefits), who was sprawled on the couch across from him. “Don’t you think the ceilings look too dull and boring? I mean, all you’d have to do is add something small, like stars, and they’d look amazing.” Demyx thought about his own words for a moment. “Yeah! Stars would be awesome!” Then he joked: “I demand we have stars!”
“Isn’t the whole point,” Axel replied tiredly, head tilted up with his neck against the backrest as he rested his eyes. “That we NOT look at the ceiling? So that the old man can do his thing?”
“Uhhhh… Axel…” Demyx didn’t know how to tell his friend to watch his words without giving away to Xigbar that he knew he was up there. Oh, well, at least Demyx wasn’t the one saying it, so Xigbar shouldn’t want revenge on him. “He’s not that old…” He weakly defended. Best to make sure Xigbar didn’t want revenge on him for not saying anything at all. Besides, whenever he saw Xigbar, he had the strangest, incongruous sense that Xigbar was somehow younger than him. Anyone with eyes could see it wasn’t true, but Demyx couldn’t help his own feelings, the ones that made him want to reach out and ruffle Xigbar’s hair and call him “kiddo.” Of course, he’d never dare.
“What, you have a crush or something?” Axel lifted his head from its resting position to look at and tease the supine blond.
Demyx snorted, unamused, knowing that if he denied it, it’d just seem suspicious. He had no particular feelings for Xigbar beyond the incomprehensible urge to treat him like a favorite kid to babysit. Rather, those weird feelings made Demyx more determined to stay out of the sharpshooter’s way.
Demyx threw his ball again, and this time it almost hit him in the face as he fumbled to catch it. He saw Xigbar’s arm reach up to cover his mouth as he shook, the blood rushing to his face indicating that the long haired man was laughing at him.
Demyx pouted and turned on his side to face the couch, but unfortunately this didn’t turn off his ability. His shirt had ridden up a bit with his turn, and Demyx cursed himself for not wearing his coat for greater modesty, as he could tell that his red headed friend was getting turned on. Or it could just be because his butt was sticking out. Who knows?
“Hey, Demyx,” Axel called. “It’s just us here. Wanna do it?”
“Nope. Not in the mood.” Demyx firmly rejected. Like he’d agree to have sex when Xigbar was right there! He wondered if Axel would be so eager if he knew they had an audience…
“You sure? I could get you in the mood.” Demyx turned his head to squint disbelievingly at the horny beanpole whose emerald eyes glinted at him. Yeah, Xigbar was still there and still lying on the ceiling, one leg crossed over the other knee, hands behind his head, clearly not intending on leaving anytime soon.
“No.” Demyx turned back around and figured he’d take a nap. The couches in the Grey Area weren’t very comfortable, but he wasn’t in the mood to return to his own room and be completely isolated yet.
“Your loss.” Axel shrugged. “I’m going back to my room to sleep. That mission was just too much.” Demyx lazily lifted a hand to give a quarter hearted wave, then tucked his arms in.
He thought it might be hard to fall asleep, knowing that Xigbar was watching him, but he drifted off before he knew it.
***
When Demyx woke up, he found he’d slept past 10 pm. He knew that, because the lights in the common areas of the Castle were set to dim at that time, unless someone asked a Dusk to manually turn them back up, and right now the room was fairly dark.
As he sat up, he found someone had placed a coat on top of him as a blanket, although it was too dark for him to tell whose it was.
The Castle was very still and silent, the way places often are at night. Xigbar wasn’t on the ceiling anymore.
Knowing there’d be no hope of getting dinner at this hour, Demyx shrugged the unknown person’s coat on and stumbled back to his room, determined to dig into his Secret Emergency Stash of Most Awesomeness Food Stuff.
Demyx opened his door, and with his hand on the light switch, he froze.
Even the members’ personal rooms hadn’t been immune to Xemnas’ ceiling defacement orders. But now Demyx was stunned to see his entire room covered in pinpricks of light. Not just the ceiling, walls, and floor, even the empty space in the middle of the room seemed to be magically glowing in places.
It must have taken him at least five minutes for him to decide to flip the switch. When he did, the illusion shifted and congregated on the ceiling, restoring the rest of his room to normal. But there were stars on his ceiling now. He turned the light off, and the room flooded with the stars again.
He stepped into the room and with his chest full of wonder, he tried to catch one of the lights. His hand passed through, but that didn’t erase the magic of the moment. He placed a hand where his heart was supposed to be, and felt a thump of excitement and awe.
Someone had put this together for him. Someone had cared enough about what he thought to go above and beyond his request to ask Zexion to make this illusion for him.
Demyx’s eyes stung, both from the sheer beauty before him and from knowing that someone wanted him to be happy.
Demyx didn’t need to guess who that person was. Who could it be other than the person quietly waiting and watching him from his ceiling?
He spoke a hoarse “thank you,” and the person left, satisfied at a job well done.
Still in the dark, Demyx sat on his bed, and pulled out his food from underneath it, munching on it as best he could with a lump in his throat and watched the stars around him.
He went to bed that night feeling soothed by the starlight. When he woke up the next morning finally to take a good look at the coat he’d been wearing, he wasn’t surprised to see it was Xigbar’s.