._. .-. ._. .-. ._. The Everything Player: Chapter 2 ._. .-. ._. .-. ._.

Demyx looked at Marluxia out of the corner of his eye nervously as everyone took their seats.

It was their first official day of wind ensemble for the year, and Marluxia already looked ready to kill.

I hope he doesn't stay mad at me forever. This guy is scary, Demyx thought.

Demyx looked at the flute in his hands as the band director did attendance and announcements.

It sure was weird moving from section to section like this. Everyone else seemed to be family with their respective sections. It seemed that instead of being family with all of his sections, Demyx was like family to none of the sections.

Demyx, without thinking, let out a sad sigh. Marluxia glared. Demyx shot back a scared smile.

The teacher was now roaming around the room handing out sheet music. He handed Demyx the flute parts.

Three first flute, five second flute.

Demyx handed the first flute parts to Marluxia (who didn't hesitate to continue glaring) and another male student that he didn't know the name of.

Wow, breaking the flute stereotype here, uh?

He handed the rest of the sheet music to the fourth chair flute player to hand down.

The band director was saying a short bit on the concept of the piece, and Demyx was only half-listening. He couldn't get past the fact that Marluxia was still shooting glares occasionally.

"Now, I'm going to play the recording and you follow along with your sheet music so you can get a sort of feel for the song."

Demyx looked down at the sheet music as the song began, and he was already itching to just get playing.

._. .-. ._. .-. ._.

Marluxia wanted to close his eyes and enjoy the music, but he knew he should follow along, reading the sheet music. He needed to do his absolute best, so that, even though he couldn't reach first chair until challenges, he could at least make the band director regret not choosing him!

Marluxia knew this was an awful train of thought, but he couldn't help but be vengeful! This Demyx kid thought he could waltz right in and steal Marluxia's rightful place with no push-back? Well, he thought wrong.

His eyes reached the double bar line as the music on the recording drew to a smooth, fermata-ed close.

"Are you guys ready to sightread this?" The teacher asked, walking back to the podium. The class gave a mumbled reply.

Marluxia smirked. Sightreading was one of his strong points! Demyx must've practiced a lot to get first chair on a new instrument!

But he can't practice ahead now~! Marluxia looked over at Demyx, expecting to see a worried look or to see Demyx concentrating on his sheet music.

Instead, Demyx was looking up at the band director, with an eager light in his eyes.

That little snot. Marluxia narrowed his eyes competitively.

The band director raised his hands and counted off aloud, slower than the recording was, because the band was playing this for the first time, after all.

The flutes started right off the bat, and Marluxia concentrated on the sheet music as he played.

All of a sudden, classes didn't matter, outdoing the twerp next to him didn't matter, and all he could hear and see was the music.

He felt the speed of the air whislting through at the high notes, and the declining low notes deep in the back of his throat. He wanted to enjoy it, but he didn't dare lose focus or lose count.

He heard a great chord building to a crescendo from the low brass and saxophones, and there was, distantly registering in his mind, the pulse of the percussion steadily getting louder.

Rather than dramatically increasing the dynamics, though, the flutes' melody carried them up higher, and they pulled out on a high note.

The whole band dropped down, save for a few dynamically challenged sightreaders in the high brass and clarinets. Marluxia rolled his eyes, as he sat with his flute in a rest position.

There was a long rest for the flutes, and Marluxia carefully counted on the fingers of his right hand, and he could see the other flutes doing similar things, such as mouthing the counts, tapping them, or also counting on their fingers.

Marluxia peeked at Demyx, though, and saw him with his eyes closed, and slightly rocking to the beat.

Marluxia saw Demyx flinch a little at a mistake in the auxiliary percussion, and Marluxia let out a little laugh at the reaction, while still counting on his fingers. No one could hear his laugh over the powerful dynamics of the low brass booming behind him somewhere.

Demyx began lifting his flute to his lips right before the band director cued them back in, and Marluxia hurriedly did the same.

The midsection of the piece, through most of the top of the second page, was pretty simple and boring to play, but still interesting, as it was a trumpet feature.

The first trumpets squealed a bit at a high note, and it was obvious that the second and third trumpets were having trouble keeping to their own respective harmonies, but it was still impressive when the flutes picked up the main harmony and the trumpets came together with the melody for a powerful fanfare-esque moment.

Then the dynamics dropped down, and the brass and saxaphones held a low chord and the clarinets trilled as the flutes pulled a chromatic-filled run to the top.

Then the whole band finished out the two of the last measures together, with a snare shakily pulling it out unconfidently in the background.

Then there was a high, smooth fermata on the release, and the band director teasingly held it out too long to make sure the students were paying attention to his hands. Marluxia heard a few of the flutes to his left drop out early from not watching, and the rest ran out of breath after a few seconds longer.

Much to his chagrin, both he and Demyx held it until the Band Director was satisfied and cut off.

"Mr. Bernaa-aard!" a brunette freshman trumpet called from the back, and some of the class laughed.

What was that kid's name again? Did it start with an S? Or an A...

Whatever.

Marluxia looked over at Demyx, who appeared lost in thought (as if he could think), until Demyx looked up at Marluxia and smiled,

"I like that song."

Marluxia thought over what to say for a moment, just looking at him, before facing forward again, "You would, twerp."

._. .-. ._. .-. ._.

Demyx walked through the halls to a catchy beat in his mind as he headed to the lunch lines.

In band, they had taken a few of the particularly difficult sections of the music over again, before the band director had given a few wrap-up reminders and they packed up.

Demyx reached the lunch line, where a gaggle of older girls, probably juniors or seniors, almost instantly cut in line to stand with the girl who was originally in front of him.

He managed to make eye contact with more than one of them, and he pouted a bit, glad for his young-looking face.

One of the girls standing further away from him audibly said "Aww! What a cute freshie!" to one of her friends. The girl who was originally standing in front of Demyx smiled sympathetically and motioned for him to go ahead of them.

His eyes lit up, "Really?" A few girls giggled and most of them nodded.

He gladly slipped past them, and the rest of the wait was relatively quick.

When he had his food, he walked back to the band room.

When he opened the door, he was unsure of where to sit, despite having been in band all year.

He sat with a different group pretty much every day.

His eyes caught sight of a senior, Xigbar, waving him over.

Demyx trotted over to the older student's group and sat down on the ground next to them.

"Hey, kiddo." Xigbar greeted.

"Hey, Xig!" Demyx grinned, "What's up?"

"Not much," the baritone player and drumline section leader shrugged.

"Hey, Lux! Hi Xaldin!" Demyx greeted the other two students, who seemed to be intently concentrating on a fast-paced game of cards, which involved slapping the ground and the cards, for some reason.

The two gaming students just grunted in reply.

"Luxord's going to win, you know!" Xigbar commented through a mouthful of school vending machine pickle.

Xaldin used one of his hands to flip Xigbar off, as he kept the other at ready for whatever it was they were supposed to do.

Demyx wrinkled his nose, "How can you eat that?"

Xigbar swallowed and grinned, "How could I not eat this?" Then Xigbar's grin faltered, "Dude, what's up with Marluxia?"

Demyx glanced over, to catch Marluxia staring- no, glaring- in his direction. Instead of turning away, Marluxia just narrowed his eyes further.

Demyx quickly turned back to his lunch and shuddered, "He wants to skin me for taking his chair."

Xigbar raised his eyebrows, "His chair? Dem, it's your chair! You got it fair and square!"

Demyx shrugged, "Not in his mind."

Xigbar then turned to face Marluxia and glared back.

Usually a glare would not phase Marluxia, but Xigbar, even though he was just a big goof, had incredibly intimidating glares.

The reason for this was a childhood incident, which tore up his face and took out his eye, resulting in his self-proclaimed "awesome" scars and eyepatch.

Somehow, with only one gold-tinted eye, the amount of anger encompassed by the glare was doubled in this one eye to accommodate for the missing eye, and your brain automatically assumed that if he had another eye, its glare would be just intense, so, in a way, his glares were way more intimidating than any other glare out there.

Demyx glanced at Marluxia and saw that he turned back to his own homemade lunch.

"Thanks, Xigbar." Demyx laughed.

"No problem, kid!" Xigbar grinned.

"GOD. DAMNIT." Xaldin shoved his plastic knife straight through his tupperware lunch container (including its contents) and he harshly threw a five dollar bill at Luxord's face, before storming out of the band room through the instrument locker room door.

"Told you!" Xigbar called after him

._. .-. ._. .-. ._.

Marluxia paced fiercely, next to the picnic table where he and a couple of classmates hung out to study at the park.

"That little brat! He thinks he's all that and a bag of chips, doesn't he?" Marluxia fumed.

"Or at least a cheese stick," Axel commented unhelpfully from his seat atop the table.

"Please move, Axel," a blonde senior named Vexen said, annoyed, "If you sit any closer, your rear will be in my science home work."

"You know you like it." Axel wiggled his butt on the table.

Larxene was sitting on the other side of Axel on the bench, facing away from the table, toward Marluxia. She leaned over Axel's feet to examine Vexen's work.

"Are you actually trying on that shit? I heard from Xigbar that she gives you credit for doing it, whether or not you do it right."

"Yes, but unlike Xigbar, I intend to also pass the test." Vexen replied testily.

"And XIGBAR. That JERK is taking Demyx's side like some sort of cyclops bodyguard!" Marluxia ranted.

"Marluxia, you're distracting me." Zexion, a sophomore who hung out with Vexen often complained in a blunt, monotone voice. "And if Xigbar hears that you called him 'cyclops,' you're going to end up without an eye as well."

Marluxia flopped down next to Zexion, directly across from Vexen, and put his face on the table (dangerously close to Axel's rear end, I might add.)

"I just don't know what to dooo..."

Zexion closed his advanced literature textbook with a sigh and turned to Marluxia. "Who's this 'brat' you're going on about, again?"

Marluxia turned his head in his arms so that he could look sideways at Zexion. "Demyx..."

Zexion looked surprised, "I think that kid's in my PE period."

Marluxia sat up, "Really? Is he a noodle like he looks?"

Zexion thought for a moment, "Well, he has the best swimming time and is one of the top runners in my period, so I wouldn't say a complete noodle, but he's not exactly a shining star when we go to the weight room."

Marluxia grinned like the Cheshire Cat, "Could you sabotage him in some way?"

Zexion rolled his eyes, "No way. I'm not going to ruin my record because of some grudge you're harboring against some innocent frosh."

Marluxia huffed, "You have no problem messing with your enemies."

Zexion opened his book again, shaking his head, "That's because they're my enemies, genius. Not yours."

There was a long silence, then Marluxia looked to the other side of the table at a tall, quiet senior, "What say you, Lexaeus?"

Lexaeus looked at the school, then Marluxia, then Zexion, then out into the space in front of him, and said, "Hm."

._. .-. ._. .-. ._.

I can honestly say that I have, as a member of the female gender, shown compassion to younger guys in my school-line-cutting career, merely because they were cute little munchkins.

So the behavior of the females that Demyx encountered is not invalid, and it does not mean they are attracted to him. It just mean his face and a pitbull puppy have the same perfect cuteness/manlieness ratio. XD

Should I write further? It's up to you to motivate me!

Honestly, if it weren't for that one reviewer last chapter, I wouldn't've even considered keeping this going.

So, many awesome points to Danneee, for being, well... Awesome