Complicated

Saix opened the door to his dorm quietly and tried to sneak inside, but he forgot who he was dealing with. Three pairs of eyes turned to him the instant he entered the room, making him internally squirm while trying to remain stoic.

"Can I help you?" he asked coldly.

"You can tell us the gorey details now or later," the red-headed Axel replied, turning to his childhood friend, head shaking slightly.

"Excuse me?"

"We know where you were last night," the less social Zexion replied, rolling his eyes at the slightly older man.

"Excuse me?" Saix asked again, earning an irritated huff from Zexion, who shook his head and turned back to his book.

"It's the exact same place you always are when you return home in the morning," Marluxia, the pink-haired botany major, replied. "So, tell us one more time just how complicated this...relationship is."

"It's no relationship," Saix snarled, opening the fridge to look for some food. His last meal had been hours ago and consisted of nothing but popcorn and beer, so he was understandaly hungry.

"Saix, wake up and smell the roses!" Zexion yelled at him, "You spend more time with Xemnas than you do here with us! We all know the only thing you two do is-" Axel cut off the angry man by covering his mouth.

"Play some games!" Marluxia yelled out.

"In bed!" Axel added, no longer able to keep it in. Zexion bit Axel's hand, causing the red-head to scream, and jumped off the couch, pointing an accusing finger at Saix.

"Do you know how long we looked for you last night!?" he yelled, "When we heard the news-"

"What news?" Saix asked.

"The fire," Axel replied, "It was at the bar you said you were going to with Xemnas."

"After we heard," Zexion continued, "we went all over campus looking for you. After we realized where you were-"

"We waited up all night for you," Marluxia said calmly.

"Will you stop interrupting me!?" Zexion yelled.

"No," Marluxia and Axel both replied. Zexion shook in anger, ready to pounce on them, so Axel wrapped an arm around him and led him in the direction of the bedrooms.

"I think you need some rest, Zex," he said, "Oh, and no more caffine for you, obviously makes you cranky."

"No, you make me cranky," he hissed, but allowed himself to be led to his room for a few hours of sleep.

Saix sat down on the couch with a bowl of ramen in hand, keeping his eyes away from Marluxia, who respected his need for silence. He opened his textbook and began taking notes for his botany class.

"So," Axel said when he re-entered the living room, "now that our precious little baby's asleep, why don't you tell me how you're helping the incubation and spread of HIV?"

"No one has HIV, Avel," Saix replied quietly.

"Actually, I know of quite a few people on campus alone that do."

"Fine, neither I nor Xemnas have HIV."

"Geez, Saix, you're making this hard on everyone involved." Axel sighed and cupped Saix's face in his hand and made him turn his face to look at him, much to Saix's displeasure as he was still trying to suck up a mouthful of noodles. "We can all see that you're lying to yourself, Saix."

"What?" the older man managed around his noodles, unable to say more.

"He thinks you want to be more than Xemnas' friend with benefits," Marluxia replied.

"We're not-"

"Then what are you?" Axel asked him seriously. This was a very strange tone coming from the happy-go-lucky Axel who partied way too hard and way too often.

"Since when are you a psyche major?" Saix growled out.

"I'm curious, too," Marluxia replied, not lifting his eyes from his textbook. Saix sighed and put his bowl down, looking for the best way to describe it to them.

"We're not looking for anything serious," he finally said.

"Really?" Axel asked skeptically, "You spend more time together than most 'couples' like that."

"Oh?" Axel rolled his eyes and sighed in frustration.

"Tell yourself that all you want, Sai, but we can all see the truth. Xemnas may not be ready to go further, but you obviously are." Saix tilted his head curiously to the side, wanting to know what he was talking about. "You remember the other day when I took you out because Xemnas was 'busy'? You got hammered, so you probably don't remember this, but you got so emotional. I actually got scared. I didn't know you were capable of feeling. Anyway, you told me you thought the guy was out with someone else and you just started crying your heart out. At that moment, a part of me died. You might not realize it, or are just in denial, but I still treat you like a brother and because of that, I'm a bit protective of you. When someone hurts you, it hurts me, and in that moment, I just wanted to find Xemnas and beat the shit out of him. No one treats you like that."

"I think what hurts most," Marluxia added, "is that you don't realize how much we do for you." Saix hugn his head, not wanting to hear what his roommates had to say. "That night, Axel carried you home and took you into your room like it was normal. When you woke up at three in the morning and fell down in the hallway like the drunken sloor bag you were, Zexion woke up, took you to the bathroom and held your hair while you threw up. When you felt like you were dying from the hangover, I stayed home with you and gave you every remedy I could think of to help the pain."

"We care Saix," Axel summed up, "Even Zexion. More than you'd think."

"It's not healthy to be acting like this." Saix, no longer hungry, stood up and walked out of the living room, going into his own room to rest. He had slept a couple hours, but it wasn't enough. It was never enough. Not when he had long talks with his roommates about deep things that revolved around him. Sometimes he really hated those three.

He closed the door with the weight of his body. There was a soft knock on the wall that his room shared with Zexion's and something that sounded suspiciously like "I love you" before the whole dorm fell silent. He walked over to his bed and slowly sunk into it, trying to fall asleep.

He rolled onto his back and looked up at the ceiling, waiting for boredom to force him into dreamland, but it didn't. All he could think about was the discussion he'd just had. He was just starting to think about what Axel had told him about being protective when his phone buzzed, so he lazily reached into his pocket for the device and looked at it.

It was from Xemnas.

He wanted to have dinner. When Saix pushed further, asking for specifics, there was no reply. He finally pushed himself to say something, so he decided to send something he wouldn't have had the guts to say an hour ago.

We need to talk.

Several minutes passed and there was no reply. Saix couldn't pry his eyes away from the screen, wondering, hoping, if there would be a reply. Soon, the fatigue was too much for him and he fell asleep, his phone falling next to his chest. It was a fitful slumber, but it was enough. He just needed a bit more sleep.

He didn't feel his phone vibrate.

Deciding he should still see what Xemnas wanted, he left his dorm and headed in the direction of the other man's. Dinner probably meant some takeout, if it didn't mean a whole bucket full of popcorn again, or perhaps hotdogs. Now he was craving a chili dog. The last time the two of them had gotten chili dogs, they had gone to the team's basketball game together. They didn't really know what was going on, so Saix brought Axel along with him, but they had gone because Xehanort, Xemnas' younger brother, was playing. He always got the feeling that the younger brother hated him, and Ansem had something against him, too. That one was obvious, though. Perhaps it was them being protective, like his roommates.

He pressed the call button on the elevator and waited for it to arrive. Once the doors open, he stepped inside, pushing the button for the first floor and waited again.

When he stepped off, Xehanort and his roommates had just entered the building. The younger whispered something to his roommates, who entered the elevator without him.

"Not ready to go home?" Saix asked, still approaching the door.

"Nah," Xehanort replied and wrapped an arm around Saix's shoulders, "I wanna talk to you. It was perfect timing." Saix tilted his head slightly to the side, wondering what the youngest of the brothers could possibly want to say to him.

"Um-"

"Let me just let you in on a little something: you don't want to be with my brother."

"What?" For what felt like the thousandth time that day, Saix was left in utter confusion about what someone was talking about. Xehanort just sighed and shook his head.

"My brother, Xemnas, you don't want to be with him. Why, you ask? Because I know him better than you. He's a player, he'll never settle for one person. And even though right now it seems like he's only into you, it's only a matter of time before he gets bored and moves on. So, just go ahead and let him go. I don't want your heart broken by somoene like him." Was that a smirk in his voice?

"Well...thanks for the advice," Saix said and brushed his arm off of him, "I'll think about it." WIth that, he rushed out of the dorm, across the parking lot and into his car. He sighed and rested his head on the steering wheel, thinking about what Xehanort said. He didn't know silent tears had fallen down his cheeks until they fell down his arms. He didn't try to stop them, just let them fall, months upon months of stress, anger and so many other pent up emotions coming out after so long. When he finally stopped he felt better, less tense. He turned on his car and pulled out of his spot, on his way to Xemnas'.

Once he got to the dorm, Xemnas pushed him out in a hurry. Saix just followed, deciding to wait and ask once he didn't look so tense.

"What was that about?" he asked once they were outside, back in the parking lot. Xemnas sighed and led him to his car.

"Ansem's home," he replied, "and we both know how much he doesn't like you." Saix sighed and looked the other in the eyes.

"How long are we going to do this?" Xemnas shook his head, not really knowing what to say to him. "Why do your brothers hate me?"

"They aren't fond of anyone," Xemnas replied and opened the car door, "I don't know why, though. It only seems to be when I'm-"

"So it's only you then?" Xemnas sighed and got into his car.

"I'm the only one that ever has."

"Wait, you mean to tell me basketball star Xehanort's never dated before?"

"Key word there is dated."

"Can we even call this dating?" They sat for a moment in silence, and they realized it was the first time since they met that is was tense. Saix felt the car move, so he looked up to see Xemnas pulling out of the parking lot.

"What would you call it?" he finally asked.

"Hmm...is college dating a thing?" They both chuckled, but they both knew what he really meant, and it wasn't funny.

They drove around aimlessly for a long time, making small talk, neither wanting to discuss what they needed to discuss. They were afraid to break what relationship they had, but finally, it couldn't wait any longer. It wasn't brought up in the most graceful manner, either.

"Do you really throw people away once you're bored?" Saix asked, not making eye contact, choosing instead to look out his window at the scenery. They had left campus about an hour ago and were now traversing the open country.

"Where did you get that idea?" Xemnas asked, an edge of anger creeping up in his voice.

"Your brother."

"Which one?"

"The only one who will pretend to have a civil conversation at me, but is really just passive aggressively letting me know he hates me. He stopped me in the hall earlier and said as soon as you get bored with me, you'll throw me away."

"He's bending the truth for the result he wants."

"So, what's the truth then?" Xemnas pulled over, onto what appeared to be an old baseball field. They turned and looked at each other, one looking for the right words, and the other waiting for them.

"I admit, I've been with my fair share of people," Xemnas told him, "but never once did I leave without reason."

"That being?"

"Let's just say I apparently am a bad judge of character." Xemnas turned away so he wasn't looking anymore at Saix. "Everyone I was with, absolutely crazy. I think the reason my brothers aren't fond of having you around is because they just don't want to get attached. It seems like every time they do, things fall apart. They don't want to deal with it anymore."

"So they won't even give me a chance?"

"They won't give anyone a chance."

"So, I'm guessing you don't really care about what they think?" Xemnas shrugged.

"What's the worst they can do?"

"I don't know, star athlete goes around, calling somoene a whore, says they have an STD, something else, everyone avoids them like the plague. It's happened before, I've seen it."

"So let's say they did that. What do you think I would do to them?"

"Your brothers?" Xemnas nodded. "I don't know. What would you do?"

"Probably beat them senseless." The image of Xemnas beating his brothers for spreading lies popped into Saix's head, and it was terrifying, to say the least.

"Alright, but that still leaves one question."

"I know." Neither said anything for a moment, but Xemnas finally turned to Saix.

"I'm willing to try if you are," he said. Saix chuckled.

"So am I. Dinner still an option?"

"Always." Xemnas turned the car back on and headed back to town.