Take yer pants off- chapter 17

Vexen ran a hand through his hair slowly, and let out a sigh. He was still sitting on the cold floor, and was slowly regaining his right mind from the fall.

"What a fall..." He muttered quietly, adjusting his glasses further up his nose. "You ought to be more careful next time, XIV."

Vexen shook his head lightly, then looked back up when he didn't get a response from the younger. "XIV?"

The Academic turned his body over so he was sitting on his knees. He picked up his stool, and crawled slowly over towards Maxis, who was laying on the ground in silence. "Maxis..?"

Vexen saw that Maxis was laying with her face down to the ground, and her legs were tangled up in the feet of her stool. The Academic saw all the shattered glass that was on the floor, and that water was dripping from the table onto the floor. He examined Maxis' hands, and saw that the broken glass pierced through her gloves, and blood was staining them.  

He turned over her body, and saw that Maxis had a couple cuts from the glass on her face, along with a big chunk of the beaker sticking out from under her right eye. He gasped slightly, and looked around the room, wondering what to do.

Maxis had hit her head on the table, knocking her out. She blinked ever so slightly, moved her hand over to the side, and grabbed Vexen's pants with one of the last strengths in her hands. Vexen picked up Maxis slowly, her legs propped up by one arm, and her head held up with the other. He placed her hands onto her lap, not noticing his jeans held in her right hand, and carried her quickly out of the room.

He swore at himself, knowing that if the Superior found out that somebody else hurt themselves out of his own carelessness, that he'd be punished. Not to mention that he had to bring her down to the emergency room to get the glass out of her hands and face.

He turned around a corner, and the two could smell the sweet smell of flowers. Maxis, with her last sense, let go of the pants in the hallway, knowing that if Marluxia was watching, he'd see the pants, and bring them into his room.

---

Marluxia crossed his arms, glaring slightly at Larxene, wanting her to hurry up with her monologue about how she shouldn't have shocked him.  

"-- And I'm really sorry, as I said before but I just--" Larxene started, before Marluxia cut her off.

"Look, Larxene, I don't care if you're sorry. Me and Dem are busy, and you're interrupting." He said with a scowl.

"... Excuse me?" She gapped, glaring slightly at her friend.

Marluxia unfolded his arms, and narrowed his eyes at the Nymph. "And frankly, thanks to you I can't touch anything metal, or anybody, because I'm fully charged because of you."

"And I just came to appologize! Weren't you listening?" She said, baffled with the Assassin.

"Yes I was listening, but as I said before, I don't care right now." He said, walking back over towards Demyx. "Now leave! We're busy!"

Larxene glared at the Assassin for another moment, before storming out of the room, and swearing at Marluxia. The door slammed behind her, and the two watched for another second as they heard her yell loudly at something. The Nymph opened up Marluxia's door once more, and poked her head in.

"By the way ass hole, watch where you put your fucking clothes! I nearly fell flat on my face out here!" She said, before slamming the door once again, and portalling away.

Marluxia and Demyx stared for a second, then looked at each other. Marluxia walked to his door, slightly confused, and looked out in the hall. Sure enough, there was a pair of black jeans laying on the floor just down the hall, not too far from his door.

Demyx poked his head out into the hallway as well, as Marluxia walked over to grab the pants. "Are those yours?" The Nocturne asked.

Marluxia shook his head, holding them up. "No, they're way too long to be mine... Unless..." Marluxia bunched them in his hands slightly, and took a big sniff of them. Demyx frowned, wondering what the hell he was doing.

Marluxia exhaled, and held the pants back up in front of his again. "Yup, these are defiantly Vexen's."

Demyx opened his mouth to ask how he knew that, but decided not to bother. "So, Max dropped them off? Then where is she?"

"I don't know..." Marluxia eyed the hole in the jeans, rushed back to his room, and into his back room, looking at the glass ball again. "But I think we're going to find out."

Demyx followed behind him, and looked at the picture in the ball. When they didn't see anybody in Vexen's lab, he looked up at Marluxia. "They're both gone..."

Marluxia nodded quickly, throwing the pants to the side. "Yeah... Hey wait, look at that..." He said, pointing down at the table. "See that?"

"...What?" Demyx asked, not sure what he saw at all.

Marluxia created a portal, and nodded for Demyx to come with him. "C'mon. I got a bad feeling about this..."

Demyx followed once more, and they both went down to Vexen's laboratory. Marluxia walked over towards the table, and looked down at the spilt water and broken glass.

Demyx came up behind him, and knelt down to the ground. "Look," He said, staring at the water and shards of glass. "Is that... blood?" He asked quietly, looking up at Marluxia.

Marluxia nodded, then ran back out the door, with Demyx getting up and running behind him.

Marluxia turned around his hallway, in the direction that the emergency room. "I think that this is our worst idea yet." He muttered.

---

Vexen set Maxis on the bed in the hospital room, while Zexion - who he had run into while going to the emergency room - walked over to a cabinet and got out tweezers and bandages.

"So, what exactly happened?" The Schemer asked, taking off Maxis' gloves and pulling out small shards in her skin, placing them in a glass next to where Maxis was laying.

Vexen shrugged, shaking his head at the same time. "I'm really not sure myself. I asked her to get me a beaker filled with water that was across the table, and the next thing I knew it, I was flat on the ground, and she had her face down in glass." He replied, beginning to put bandage on the cuts on her hands.

Zexion nodded slowly, but couldn't help notice that under the Academic's cloak, were bare legs, other then his boxer shorts. Zexion moved over towards the girl's face, and wiped away some blood that was dripping down her cheek.

The Schemer cleared his throat, then glanced back up at Vexen. "And... why, may I ask, don't you have any pants on?"

Vexen stammered, and zipped the lower clasp down his zipper more, attempting to cover himself up. "Apparently, when Maxis knocked back, she knocked some chemicals on my leg, and it burned through the jean, and was going into my skin."

"I see..." Zexion answered quietly, moving over towards the big shard of glass stuck under Maxis' right eye. "This piece is really deep... There's no way that it's going to heal like the other, smaller wounds."

Vexen took the cloth this time, and wiped more blood that was dripping from the gash which Zexion was talking about. "She was lucky it wasn't her eye. Should we stitch it?"

Zexion examined the wound, then took the tweezers once more, grabbing the shard of glass, and pulling it out slowly. He set the shard on the tray, as well as the tweezers, and cleaned up the blood around it. He took another look at the gash, and shook his head.

"The cut is deep and long, but not wide enough for stitches. There would be no point, it will heal on it's own, but either way, she'll have a good size scar. Stitches or no stitches." He explained.

"Alright then." Vexen took a roll of bandage and began unrolling, until he heard the door open. The two looked over at the door, and saw Marluxia and Demyx run inside, over towards Vexen.

Marluxia looked at Maxis' face, and saw the gash, then he glared at Vexen. "What the hell happened to her?"

Vexen shook his head in defense. "It was an accident. Some glass broke in my lab, and she fell in it."

Demyx looked up at Vexen aswell, with a more, questionable glance on his face. "How does someone just fall in broken glass?"

Vexen shrugged once more, the same way as when Zexion asked him. "I don't know. I asked her to get me a beaker filled with water, and it broke in her hands. I was knocked back onto the ground, and she fell into a pill of glass. I heard something hit the table before she fell..."

"She hit her head on the table." Zexion interrupted, noticing the bump on her forehead.

"... Then I brought her here." Vexen finished, continuing to wrap the bandage around her scar and head.

Marluxia frowned, in slight anger. He was slightly frustrated with Vexen, since he was there, and should have stopped her. He was more pissed at Larxene though, for interrupting Demyx and himself while they were watching her. But mostly, he was mad at himself for having Maxis hurt herself. Knowing Maxis, she would probably wake up and yell at him.

Demyx watched Vexen wrapping the bandage, and noticed her bandaged hands as well. "So, she's fine, right?"

"She's perfectly fine." Zexion said, throwing out the pieces of glass into the garbage. "Although she'll have a scar under her right eye, that's about it."

Demyx nodded, understand the situation. "Okay, but then why is she asleep?"

"She must have lost conscience when she hit the table. She'll wake up either tonight or tomorrow morning at the latest." Zexion finished, before walking over towards the door to leave. "There's nothing more to do. She'll wake up tomorrow, and have to wear those bandages for a few days. The rest of you can get some sleep, show's over."

Vexen sighed, and ran a hand through his hair, pulling out the pony tail he had up. "This wouldn't have happened if she was more careful..." He muttered under his breath.

Marluxia scoffed, and crossed his arms, changing his gaze to the Academic. "This wouldn't have happened if you were more careful."

Vexen blinked, baffled by what Marluxia had just said to him.

"I mean, I'm sure if you were watching her better, then she wouldn't have fallen. She's usually very careful in your lab," Unless Maxis and himself went down there to annoy the Academic out of the seventh hell, "but she wasn't tonight? Maybe that was because you were more interested in your experiments then anyone else, as usual? Leading her to accidently break something, and get hurt?"

Demyx watched silently as Marluxia argued to Vexen, and he grabbed the Assassin's arm, pulling him over towards the door. "Easy, Mar. He might find out about the dare..." He whispered, walking out of the room with Marluxia linked to his arm.

Marluxia narrowed his eyes, and sighed. "What ever, it's his fault that Max smashed her face into glass..." He hissed under his breath.

Demyx rolled his slowly, then there was quiet between the two for a couple moments. Once the two turned down Marluxia's hallway, Demyx spoke up, after rethinking the situation. "Well, technically it was your fault for making the card say hurt yourself. I mean, she wouldn't have broke that beaker on purpose then." He explained.

Marluxia frowned, and sighed slightly, as he realized that it was pretty much all his fault. As the two walked up to Marluxia's door, the Assassin entered then shut the door before Demyx could get inside. The Nocturne blinked, then heard a click come from the other side of the door.

Demyx frowned, sighing loudly, as Marluxia locked the door on him.