[KH] Undistorted: Innocent Times (prompt 10)

Undistorted, a Kingdom Hearts fanwork:  Drabble challenge by Cherished Tenshi, written by Raberba girl
10. Innocent Times (rough draft)

For Demyx/Zexion Day, 6 September 2012

Summary:  ...Demyx, don't try to feed the evil Heartless, plz. -.-

A/N:  Lol, this is my preferred Somebody name for Demyx, even though it's the most unlikely...I just think it fits his personality.  "Oh, you need an X in there?  I'll just add it to the end, then.  Done!" XD

I had the vague idea at first that this was before Ienzo lost his parents, but after writing it, I'm not sure. :/  Seems to make more sense if they're in middle school - but then that would make it a slight AU.  Gah, I dunno.  Will fix later. orz

"Art hater!" Demy yelled as a parting shot, then hurried the rest of the way out the door before his mother could march over and smack him or something.  "Man, I'm never gonna get awesome if she keeps kicking me out...."  Seriously, he wasn't that loud.  But practicing on the street somewhere was better than having to put the guitar away and help with dinner, so now here he was, looking for someplace to play where he wouldn't get interrupted.

The shop owners downtown gave him warning looks before he could even sit down, there were some shady-looking guys down in the Fountain Court, and he knew that all the high schoolers making out in the Gardens would be just as appreciative of his music as his mother had been.  Demy eventually came to the Outer Gardens, which was relatively deserted.  A bit of traffic from people entering or leaving the city, but no one who would yell at him.  So he sat down by a fountain, took the guitar back out of its case, tuned it again, and began to play.

Two songs.  He didn't even make it through two songs before an annoyed voice cut through the melody.  "Must you make your noise pollution here?  Surely there's somewhere else more suited to your occupation."  The kid who was talking came into sight from around the fountain - an itty bitty guy, even smaller than Demy, his hair hanging in his face like an emo and a scarily thick book tucked under his arm.  He was still in his school uniform.

"Dude, have you even been home yet?  It's almost 6:00!"

"Well, there is no point in returning to the house when it's still devoid of other inhabitants," the kid grumbled.  "And I believe you dodged my request.  I would appreciate it very much if you took your activities elsewhere.  I'm trying to read."

"Man, talk normal," Demy complained.

"I am using proper grammar, which is more than I can say for you."

"Whatever.  And you don't own the fountain, I can play wherever I want."

The kid sighed and sat down, opening the book and hunching over it with his hands over his ears.

Demy went back to practicing, singing this time, with one mischievous eye on his companion until the nerdy kid finally couldn't take it anymore.  "How can you tolerate that, much less enjoy it?!  Is that really music to you?"

"Then what's your idea of music?" Demy challenged.

The kid took out a fancy phone that usually only high schoolers got to have.  He pushed buttons until some kind of classical junk started coming out.  "Please tell me you've at least heard this somewhere.  It's so famous that even someone as uncultured as you can't have avoided it."

The music did sound familiar, as if it was from a commercial or a cartoon or something.  Demy listened thoughtfully, then started plucking out the main melody on his guitar.

It took a few tries, but eventually he got it, at least the beginning of it.  The phone was silent now, it was all guitar.  Demy looked up and grinned.  "How's that?"

"...Not intolerable."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"I liked it better than your earlier noise pollution."

"Noise can't even be pollution, idiot."

"Ugh...."

"Hey, give me another one."

After a while, it had actually gotten kind of fun, trying to re-create the classical music with his own instrument and getting better at it the more he tried.  So of course they had to get interrupted again.

"What is that?!" Ienzo yelled, leaping to his feet.

"Oh, come on, I wasn't that far off."

"No!  That!"

Demy looked where he was pointing.  "Eep!"

There was a creepy shadow struggling out of the ground nearby, twitching like an insect.  It had a head and arms and legs, but there was no way it could be a person, with those glowing yellow eyes and antennae....

"What is that?!"

"How should I know?!"

"Well, you know everything else, don't you?" Demy said sarcastically.

The shadow lurched closer to them.

"It's kind of cute...."

"What?  It's disgusting!"

"Maybe it's hungry."  Demy pulled a candy bar out of his pocket, broke off a piece of it, and tossed it to the shadow.  The shadow tripped over it a little.  "No, silly, you're supposed to eat it."  He crouched down, picked up the bit of chocolate, and held it up to the shadow's face-thing.

"Demy, I don't think--"

"AAAHH!"

"Demy!"

"Get it off!"  The thing had latched onto him and was, like...sucking at him.  Like a freaking vampire or something, except it was his heart that hurt rather than his wrist.  "Gghh...."  He felt so ugly...like if he threw up, it'd all be himself he threw up and he was disgusting, and he kinda liked it that way, he wanted to ooze around and dirty everything up so everyone else could be just as ugly as him--

The giant book came crashing down on the shadow's head, again and again until it finally stumbled loose.  Demy fell, his injury looking black instead of the red he'd expected, pain flaring in his chest.  "Ienzo...."

"Get up, fool!  Run!"

Ienzo caught his other arm and heaved it up around his shoulders, but they had only taken a few steps when Demy suddenly cried out.  "My guitar!"

"Leave it!"

"Are you crazy?"  That thing was his baby.  He pulled free and ran to grab it.

"Demy!"

He turned around just in time and instinctively smashed his baby into the shadow thing as it tried to claw at him.  "AAAHH!"

"Again?" Ienzo said in exasperation as he started hitting it with his book some more.

"Noooo, my guitar!"  Completely ruined.  The claws had shattered the hollow wood, leaving a broken mess dangling from the strings.  Demy's eyes narrowed.  "Yaaaahhhh!"  He viciously began bashing the shadow as hard as he could with the guitar's surviving neck.

To his and Ienzo's surprise, the shadow suddenly burst into a brief cloud of vapor and then disappeared.  A small munny orb had popped out and went rolling to Ienzo's feet, as a squishy green ball came flying at Demy, hitting his arm and then vanishing into the skin.  "AAAHH!"

"You have a very piercing distress cry," Ienzo muttered, rubbing his ear and wincing.

"GET IT OUT!"

"What is it?"

"I DUNNO, BUT IT--!  ...Feels kind of good, actually."  The ominous black tinge in his skin was gone, and he felt more fresh and healthy and energized, especially after that gross feeling the shadow had given him.  He couldn't say the same for his guitar, though - he sadly held up the wreckage.  "I need a baby that can make music and kick butt."

"I'll look into that for you," Ienzo said dryly, examining his own hobby-turned-weapon.  "It's a good thing this volume was so thick, I'm not sure it would have withstood the trauma otherwise...."

Demy looked nervously around the courtyard.  "Hey, Ienzo?"

"Yes?"

"We should probably go home now."

"I suppose so...."

That's right, Ienzo's parents didn't get home 'til late.  "Ienzo?"

"What is it now?" the other boy asked, a little impatiently this time.

"You wanna come have dinner with us?"

Ienzo stared in surprise.  "Er...well...I suppose I...am not adverse to the idea...."

"Man, is that a yes or a no?" Demy said, his turn now to be impatient.

Ienzo smiled a little.  "I accept your offer."

"Cool.  C'mon, let's hurry before anymore of those shadow monsters show up."

"You're spacin' out, Zexy."

Zexion blinked, looking up from the book he had not been reading.  Demyx lounged at the other end of the couch, still strumming gently as he watched him.

"Whatcha thinkin' about?"

"Oh...just, more innocent times, I suppose...."  He shook his head.  "You were playing that same song right before we encountered our first Heartless."

Demyx laughed.  "Oh yeah, that was when we first met.  Man, you're still a nerd."

"And you are still irritating."  Not unduly so, however.  Zexion returned his attention to the book and did not mind much at all as the work of his favorite composer continued to shape the atmosphere.

Author's Notes:  ...The KH wiki hath failed me.  It doesn't have a proper list of Radiant Garden's areas and their names in BBS, and I didn't have time to double-check with the game itself. DX  Sorry if I got some of them wrong, I'll fix it for the final draft....

Complete:  10/100.  Next:  "A Walk in Andante"