Kingdom Hearts Fan Fiction ❯ Motivation ❯ Motivation ( Chapter 1 )

[ P - Pre-Teen ]

Summary: Goes along with “Best Friends”. AU. One-shot. Demyx is horrible at anything in his English class. He has an even worse time than Roxas when it comes to writing assignments. That is, until he finds his motivation.

Disclaimer: I do not own Kingdom Hearts.

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The fourth period English 11 class sits in silence while the students look anxiously at the clock. They’re all waiting for the bell to ring. It finally does and all heads turn to the English teacher, waiting for his okay to go.

“You have a page on ‘what motivates you’ that is due tomorrow.” Mr. Wreath reminds them. “You may go.”

There’s a flurry of movement as all of the students rush out of the classroom. They’re all eager to get home and relax. Demyx follows at a slightly slower pace while he tries to think of what he could write. His ‘Best Friend’ paper, along with every other paper he’s written, didn’t turn out so well.

“Demyx, buddy, why the long face?” Axel asks, swinging an arm around Demyx’s shoulders and dragging him down.

Demyx struggles to stand under Axel’s weight. Thankfully, Roxas soon comes to the rescue and makes Axel let go of Demyx.

“Problem with Mr. Wreath again?” Roxas guesses when he notices that Demyx isn’t his normal cheerful self. “You didn’t fail another essay, did you?”

“No. At least not yet.” Demyx says in a dejected tone. “Now we’ve got to write a page on what motivates us. I don’t know what I’m motivated by!”

“Pride?” Roxas suggests.

Demyx shakes his head. “How am I suppose to write a whole page on how pride motivates me? Unless I write in huge letters that take up two lines, then it might make it to a page.”

Axel roughly pats Demyx on the back. “You’ll think of something. But right now Roxas and I need to go meet Sora and the emo bastard. Are you coming over after your drama practice thing?”

Demyx nods. “Yeah. And it’s a rehearsal, Axel.”

Axel waves his hand dismissively. “To-may-to, to-mah-to.”

Roxas rolls his eyes and starts walking off. Axel notices and says a quick goodbye before running after the blonde. Demyx sighs and then heads off to the auditorium.

0-0-0

With his job in the Drama club being to help oversee the making of props and costumes and make any repairs or changes to them, Demyx usually has some free time. Normally he sits out in the seats to watch the actors rehearse, but today he has something else he needs to do: The English assignment.

Which is why he’s sitting backstage with balls of paper on the floor around the stool he’s sitting on. He sighs heavily and crumples up his fifth piece of paper before tossing it onto the floor with the others. They will later find their way to the recycling bin.

So caught up in his English dilemma as he is, Demyx doesn’t notice that his actions have attracted the attention of one of his fellow Drama club members.

“Working on a new song?”

Demyx jumps in fright and nearly falls off of the stool. “Z-Zexion!” He stutters when he sees who it is. “You surprised me!”

Zexion calmly regards Demyx, waiting for the answer to his question. It takes Demyx a moment to realize this.

Demyx sighs and looks down at his paper. “No. It’s an assignment for English class. I’ve either failed or gotten a D on every essay we’ve done.”

Zexion gives a small nod. He’s noticed that every time Mr. Wreath gives writing assignments back that Demyx always looks depressed. “You don’t know what motivates you?” He questions. Unlike Demyx who puts thought into his essays, Zexion always just writes what the teacher wants to hear. In other words, he makes up something.

Demyx shakes his head. “I have no idea. And I’ve thought the word ‘motivates’ so much that I don’t even know what it means anymore!” He tugs fretfully at his hair, beginning to stress out over the assignment. If he doesn’t get a good grade on this one he’ll be failing the class.

“You need some inspiration.” Zexion says. “Come.”

“Huh?” Demyx looks at the slate-gray haired male in confusion.

Zexion ignores the confused look and takes Demyx by the arm. He then leads him to a back room where some sound equipment and instruments are kept.

“You’re concentrating too hard.” Zexion explains. He knows from experience that concentrating too hard on something often means that every little thing can become a distraction and frustration comes more easily. “Relax.”

“But--!” Demyx is interrupted by Zexion handing him an acoustic guitar.

“Play.” Zexion instructs.

Demyx falls silent and looks around for a place to sit. Not once does it cross his mind to ask Zexion how he knows that he plays guitars. Most people only know about his sitar playing.

He spots a desk a foot or two to his left and takes a seat on it. He then turns his attention to the guitar and plucks the low E string to see if it’s in tune. A low hum that vibrates through the guitar puts a smile on Demyx’s face. He then goes through the rest of the strings, tweaking the D and B strings so they suit his liking. He goes back and picks the strings again and then begins playing a song.

Zexion leans against a wall and listens to the flowing tune while he watches as Demyx’s stress melts away. His sensitive ears easily pick up the gentle sound of callused fingertips sliding up and down the strings. His ears also pick up the sound of each individual note.

The song comes to an end all too soon for Demyx and he almost begins another before he remembers that Zexion is still there with him. A faint blush of embarrassment rises onto his cheeks as he carefully leans the guitar against a wall. “Thanks, Zexion.” He murmurs gratefully.

“Feeling inspired now?” Zexion asks. He steps away from the wall and stands up straight.

Demyx shakes his head and looks down at the ground, his depressed mood falling back over him. “No, not rea--” A thought enters his mind and he mentally replays what Zexion said. The depressed mood fades away as fast as it came. “Inspires is another word for motivates, isn’t it?” He looks up at Zexion and somewhere in the back of his mind notes that the quiet male is quite a bit taller than he is.

Zexion nods.

“And music always inspires me!” Demyx says excitedly. “That’s what I can write about!” He jumps up and throws his arms around Zexion’s neck without thinking. He does this with Sora a lot, since usually it’s the shortest of the Strife boys who gives him a new idea. “Thank you!”

As soon as Demyx realizes that he’s hugging Zexion he lets go and takes a step back. A darker blush spreads across his cheeks. “S-sorry!”

Before Zexion can say anything, the door flies open and one of the female drama club members bursts into the room. “Demyx, come quickly! Joshua fell on some of the props and we need you to check the damage!”

Thankful for the interruption, Demyx follows the girl back to the stage. Zexion stays in the room for a moment longer, cursing the fact he said nothing to Demyx after the hug, and then leaves the room.

0-0-0

Later that night Demyx lays on his bed with a notebook laying in front of him. He thoughtfully taps his pencil on the side of the notebook, wondering how he should begin the paper. Finally he gets an idea and starts writing.

When he’s done he goes back and rereads the page and corrects any grammar errors he finds. With a smile, he closes the notebook and tosses it onto the floor. Then he pulls his old dolphin plushie to his chest and drifts off to sleep.

Two days later after school Demyx hurries to the auditorium in search of Zexion. When he can’t find the slate-gray haired male he asks a few of the other drama club members if they’ve seen him. A couple of them don’t even know who Zexion is. After fifteen minutes of searching, Demyx gives up and gets to work on the broken props.

Fifteen minutes pass with people briefly stopping to say hello or to ask about a certain prop. Every so often Demyx asks about Zexion, but none of them have seen or heard from him.

More than halfway through the rehearsal, Demyx gives up and falls into his normal rhythm of working on props and answering any questions he gets.

“Demyx.”

Demyx doesn’t look up as he tapes one of the broken props. “Can I help you with something?” He asks.

“I heard you wanted to see me.”

Demyx looks up in surprise when his brain registers whose voice it is that he is hearing. “Zexion!” He exclaims. He drops what he’s doing and stands up. Unfortunately for Demyx, his leg has fallen asleep so he falls over right onto Zexion.

Zexion keeps him upright until he can feel his leg. When Demyx can finally feel is leg he steps away from Zexion. His face burns bright red from embarrassment.

“Sorry!” Demyx apologizes.

Zexion wait’s a minute or two for Demyx to tell him what he wants. Usually Demyx is good at figuring out what Zexion is trying to tell him without him saying anything. This day, however, Demyx isn’t all that aware.

“Demyx.” Is all Zexion gives as a reminder after a few minutes of awkward silence.

“Oh!” The blush that Demyx managed to lose comes back. “I wanted to show you!” He drops to his knees and pulls his bag over. He quickly unzips it and pulls out a binder. He takes a piece of paper out of the binder and then drops the plastic contraption to the side. Then he stands up and proudly hands the paper to Zexion. “It’s my first 100 on a writing assignment!” He happily tells his newfound friend. “I just wanted to thank you and let you read it.”

Zexion begins to read the paper without saying a word. Demyx anxiously waits while Zexion reads it, unable to even think of working on the props while he waits for Zexion’s opinion.

The slate-gray haired male finishes reading the paper within minutes and hands it back to Demyx without a word. Demyx takes the paper and looks hopefully at Zexion.

“What do you think?” He asks. “I know I should have asked, but--”

“It’s fine.” Zexion interrupts. “I am honored to be one who inspires you.”

Demyx smiles brightly and gives Zexion a hug.

A bright friendship is in store for the two in the future.

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Shiro: Well, I was going to drag it out a bit, but I decided I took too long writing it to do that. This is not the sequel to 'Best Friends' that I mentioned, it's just a fanfiction to go along with it. I tell you, Zexion is a pain to work with!