Kingdom Hearts, "Til the World Ends" (Xigbar+Demyx)

[sincere]

He did it right, for once. He destroyed a world. Xigbar was a little disappointed he missed the fun, to be honest.

Pre-canon. Gen. Does terrible things to the Jungle Book. Was written a thousand years ago for the prompt "Xigbar+Demyx, natural disasters" at some prompt comm on DW, but never finished.


.til the world ends.
When he arrived in the Wolf Den, he found Demyx sitting on a rock, plucking the strings of his sitar and humming idly to himself. Xigbar surveyed the scene of what could modestly be termed carnage with raised eyebrows, a grin slowly stretching across his face.

"Nice, kid," he said, admiringly. "You did this? For real? I didn't think you had it in you."

"Yeah," returned Demyx, his voice light and cheerful. "It wasn't that bad. I mean -- for work."

Xigbar smirked and clapped him on the shoulder; Demyx wobbled uncomfortably on the edge of the rock for a brief moment before his balance reasserted itself. "You might yet turn out to have some talent for work! Wouldn't the boss be surprised?"

"No kidding! I don't get any respect around here, Xiggy. You really ought to do something about that."

He wasn't going to get any respect from anybody as long as he kept casually referring to his superiors by friendly nicknames and socializing with them as if they were his beer buddies. But Xigbar wasn't about to tell him so; for one, the dumb kid probably wouldn't listen. And for two, it was pretty nice having someone else in the Organization who didn't think darkness was such serious business that they spent all their damn time brooding about it. The others from Radiant Garden could produce dark crystals from their asses with all the time they spent frowning and discussing ominous portents. If Xigbar told him the truth -- that respect, for those boring bastards, meant conforming to their standards -- he might decide to do something crazy, like conform. Although it was more likely that either way he'd probably end up going into a sulk and refusing to come out of his room for days.

Instead, he patted the blond on the shoulder again, more reassuring, and told him, "Hey, you've got me on your side, right? What more do you want?" And paced out to take a look at the town again. "Tell me about this place. You know -- give me a mission report." He grinned again, showing fang.

Demyx laughed. "Oh, this old thing? Okay, well." He set his sitar aside, leaning back on his hands instead. "So there was this kid who was being raised by animals. Pretty bizarre, right? I had fun talking to him and his buddies, but they were just -- totally killing me. They couldn't offer me anything to drink except like, guava juice or something, and when I played for them, they couldn't even appreciate good music!"

"A real crime," Xigbar agreed sympathetically. "Then?"

"Well -- I knew I was supposed to, you know. Destroy the place, but I was having a real hell of a time getting myself psyched up for it. I mean, they sucked, but they weren't bad kids, or... animals, or anything. Cute! I kind of wanted to pet the bear, but I got the feeling he wasn't really into it."

Xigbar rolled his eyes. This was the report he'd been expecting to hear when he first arrived. Demyx was good at recon, observation and interaction, but he was crap when it came to the actual action. It was Xigbar's favorite part, and in fact he'd been more or less hoping that Demyx would be in his usual state of helplessness when he got here, so Xigbar would get to do the fun part -- the actual destroying of the world.

"And?" he prodded. "How did you get from petting bears to wasteland?"

The trees were pulled-up and tossed around, littering the ruined region. It was raining, black clouds looming over black earth. In an hour or so the world would break apart, its heart fully dead, and the mission would be an unadulterated success. And Xigbar would've missed the fun part.

The least Demyx could do would be to tell a good story so he could live vicariously.

"Well!" said Demyx, again, grin breaking out over his impish face. "I thought maybe I should extricate myself, that a little distance might help me free myself from the sympathy trap... But then suddenly all the animals started freaking out, man. They're all, 'Oh no, Shere Khan is coming, what are we going to do, Shere Khan is coming!' And I'm like, 'Who's Shere Khan?' So it turns out that there's this tiger they're all afraid of, and can you believe this -- they ask me to help the kid defeat the tiger!"

Xigbar laughed, short. "They mistook you for a hero, dude!"

"So, you know me, I'm not really much for adventure and heroism, I start trying to back out, but then I have a brilliant idea." Demyx held up his hands, bidding Xigbar to wait to hear news of his brilliant idea. "I can go with them and say I'm going to take out the tiger -- and then take down the whole place instead! Everyone'll be counting on me but I'll let them down on purpose. For once."

Xigbar felt his lips curve up in a bigger grin. "For once," he agreed.

"Hey." Demyx pouted at him, and he laughed.

The older Nobody paced to the edge of their outcropping, peering out over the edge. The level of devastation was impressive, more than enough to destroy the world; the way some of the trees had been unearthed and even torn apart, the landmarks shattered... The Dancers were a brutal lot of servants, especially for a master as lenient as Demyx, but even they weren't this good.

He turned and glanced back over his shoulder. "How'd you do it, kid?"

Demyx looked up from his sitar, thoughtful. "You mean this?"

As if he might be asking about something else. Xigbar raised his eyebrows. "Yeah, this. I'm not asking how you got your hair to do that. I don't even want to know."

"It's good hair," Demyx protested. "I don't get why everyone's always ragging on my hair. You guys wouldn't know cool if it bit you in the--"

"Just tell me," Xigbar said, amused.

Demyx's fingers caressed the strings of his instrument, gently dancing from first one to a second to a third in a quick, flawless rhythm. "This area is prone to monsoons," he said simply.

A grin curved up Xigbar's lips, knowing and appreciative. Demyx was a lot of things -- lazy, for instance, and dishonest, and cheap. But stupid he was not, and harnessing the power of a monsoon and bending it to his will was a stroke of genius for someone as miserable at real fighting as Demyx.

"Not bad, Nocturne," Xigbar said, letting just a little bit of his admiration show in his tone. "Not bad at all."

That won him a genuine smile from the blond, bright as the sun and perfectly, artlessly genuine.

"You're still a terrible Nobody," Xigbar informed him, thusly reminded.

But Demyx's good mood remained, and he played a cheerful song for the older man as the world died all around them.