Fifth Wheel

Hayner, contrary to popular opinion, was a creature of habit. Of course, here we diverge from the normal definition of the term. He was not a creature of habit in the sense that he found comfort in routine, wanting to do specific things in a specific order at a specific time of the day. He was a creature of habit in the sense that rather than seeking comfort in habit, his habit was comfort.

He ordered sea-salt ice cream all the time not because of routine, but because it was a constant source of comfort for him (besides the fact that it was the only sweet he could consistently afford). He constantly mocked and challenged Seifer not because of convention, but because he sincerely wanted to wipe the ugly smirk off his sneering face with the smack of a Struggle club (which he managed to do a handful of times so far, one of which resulted in hours of running away and needing an intervention from Roxas). He was always with Roxas, Pence, and Olette because he knew that no matter what they were doing, or where they were doing it, he would be having fun as long as he was with those people he called his best friends. And he would fight tooth and nail to keep these comforts constant in his life.

Taking this into consideration, we can understand why Hayner was uncomfortable. He was hanging out at the Usual Spot after school, another one of those constant comforts of his. With him were Roxas, Pence, and Olette, and they were engaged in lively conversation.

But there was one extra factor, something Hayner wasn't used to, the one complicating his appreciation of the moment: Naminé. It was around her that lively conversation was centering around. Ever since she and Roxas had gotten together a few weeks back, Roxas was now splitting his time between her, Xion and Axel, and Hayner and the gang. And, every so often, he would bring her along to hang out with them. This was one of those times.

It wasn't that Hayner had anything against the girl. If it wasn't for her, he wouldn't have been able to tease Roxas half as much as he did. But interacting with her was a whole other thing. He had never talked to the girl directly (the only exception being when he had asked her to start waking Roxas up in the mornings) and here she was, hanging out with them like it was the most natural thing in the world.

And it wasn't just that. He had nothing in common with the girl. She was a soft-spoken but well-respected student with great interest in art. He was (according to Olette) loud, obnoxious, and could stand to learn a thing or two from her. What could they even talk about?

He watched them talk from the corner, sitting on top of a crate, observing them carefully. Naminé was sitting on the couch, next to Roxas. They weren't sickeningly intimate (at least not yet), but their pinkies overlapped as their hands rested on the couch cushion between them. She was talking to Pence and Olette while Roxas kept quiet, an annoyingly calm and content expression on his face as he watched the interchange of words. And there was Hayner, sitting in the corner, being a friggin' fifth wheel. I mean, who gets to that point? If you're the third wheel, you have a tricycle. A fourth wheel, then you've got a car. But what the heck is the fifth wheel supposed to do?

Roxas stood up, their pinkies still intertwined. "I'm gonna go get some ice cream. Pence, Olette, you mind joining me?" The two nodded and stood up as well.

"Want me to come along?" Naminé asked.

"Nah, we'll only be out for a bit," Roxas answered. "Just stay here and relax." Roxas gave her pinky a gentle squeeze with his own before letting go. Hayner rolled his eyes at that. While they weren't showy like other couples, the way they were being all discrete yet simple about it made it even more sickeningly sweet.

Hayner was about to get up to join them but Olette stopped him. "I think we can handle it Hayner, so just stay here and keep Naminé company."

"Wha-? Hey! Wait just a-" And they were gone.

Hayner clicked his tongue in frustration. They had planned this. He didn't know when, but they had planned this, probably for the same reasons he was just thinking of. And their brilliant idea was to put him in the exact situation he had been avoiding.

There was a moment of awkwardness as the two adjusted to the silence in the Usual Spot. Hayner groaned to himself. He wasn't supposed to be awkward, especially not here of all places. This was his turf. If anyone was supposed to be awkward, it should be her… which, after a quick peek, she was.

They just had to talk, that's it. But what to talk about? If it was Olette, she'd talk about school. They were both reliable students after all. If it was Pence, he'd talk about photography stuff. They were both artsy people, though Pence was more technologically artsy as compared to Naminé who was traditionally artsy. And if it was Roxas… actually, scratch that, he didn't want to think about what nauseatingly sweet things those two talked about when they were alone together. But what could he talk about? His eyes searched the room, landing on her dress.

"So… you like… white?" Hayner nearly smacked himself over the head. Of all things to talk about, he had to pick something as lame as that.

Naminé smiled crookedly. "Given my complexion, it's more the result of an elimination process. How about you? Are you planning on joining the military?" she asked, gesturing to the camouflage print on his clothes.

"Huh? Oh, no, not really. You know, people wear clothes and I just… happened to wear these… and stuff."

Silence settled between them again. Well, that went well. Maybe he should just bolt for it and come back with everyone. As he was juggling that thought in his head, Naminé spoke up.

"Would it be awkward to mention how awkward it is right now?" she asked with a hint of a smile.

Hayner let out a small chuckle at that. "Only if it wasn't, which it is. And I doubt it could get any more awkward that it is already."

She giggled, and a small weight slid off Hayner's shoulders. "Good, I thought it might be just me." A small, slightly more comfortable pause. "Roxas really wants me to get along with all his friends. Especially you."

So she had noticed that they had been left alone on purpose. Then again, it wasn't the most subtle of plans.

Hayner made a face. "Especially me? What's that supposed to mean?"

"It means, you're a close friend of Roxas, and he'd be happy if we got along."

"Huh… okay." Hayner shrugged. "So, what do you think? Where are we on this 'getting along' thing?"

Naminé canted her head. "I'm not too sure. I don't really know you too well. Do you think we have any common interests?"

Hayner laced his hands lazily behind his head. "Sorry, but I think we're not gonna have any luck there. I think the only thing we have in common is our friends."

"Oh… I see." A small beat. "Well, do you want to talk about them?"

"Huh? What do you mean?"

She shrugged. "I only got to know everyone about a year ago. I'm sure you know lots of stuff about them that I don't. And I get to be with Roxas and the others when you're not around, so I bet I could tell you some stuff about them that even you don't know."

Hayner scoffed. "I've known Pence since kindergarten, Olette since first grade, and Roxas since sixth. I doubt you could tell me anything-"

"Olette's left knee is ticklish."

Hayner blinked. "…what?"

"Olette's left knee is ticklish," she repeated. "We were working on poster together one time and I accidentally ran my paintbrush across her knee. She collapsed in laughter within half a second."

Hayner blinked again. "…her left knee?"

"Yeah, I don't really get it either," she admitted. "Out of curiosity, I tried it again on her right knee but nothing happened. So it's really just her left."

"Huh… I had no idea." A small pause. "Did you know Roxas sleeps with a Tigger plushie?"

There was a small spark of surprise and delight in Naminé's eyes. "Really? But I wake him up on weekday mornings, and I've never seen it."

"Yeah, he hides it now," Hayner explains. "He still goes to bed with it but before he falls asleep, he carefully tucks it under his bed. You can check it out tomorrow morning, before you wake him up."

"Hm, maybe I will," she said, a rare smirk on her face. She canted her head, thinking of another tidbit to tell Hayner. "Did you know that Pence named his camera? He calls it-

"-Peppy, I know. And don't call Peppy 'it'. She is a girl… for some reason." Hayner grinned. He was enjoying this. "Did you know that Roxas has a thing for hand-holding?"

"What do you mean?"

"When he first moved here from Destiny Islands a few years back, we'd sometimes run into him and his mom holding hands. It was kind of a natural thing for him, but he got embarrassed about it when it was pointed out to him so he stopped. But even now, if you pay attention, he makes a small motion to hold hands with others, before he catches himself and shoves his hand into his pocket."

"Aww, that's kind of sweet," Naminé gushed. She paused, thinking something over. "You've only been mentioning stuff about Roxas. How about Pence and Olette?"

"Yeah, I guess I could mention stuff about them," he said offhandedly. "But wouldn't you want me to mention more stuff about Roxas?"

"Hm, I guess," she admitted shyly. Then, there was a small glint in her eyes. "My turn. Did you know that Olette has a thing for guys in suits?"

"W-What are you telling me that for?" Hayner asked, his face turning pink. He suddenly remembered that modeling job he did. Olette did seem to be a little off that day. Was it because of him?

She smiled innocently. "It's something about Olette that I know. Did you know about it?"

"Well… no, but-"

"Would you like me to stop?"

Hayner shifted uncomfortably. "Well… no, but-"

"Okay, then," Naminé said with a smile. "Did you know her favorite flowers are tulips?"

-x-x-x-

"So, what do you think?" Olette asked on the way back to the Usual Spot. She had in her hands a small bag of sea-salt ice cream, which they had taken as much time as possible to buy. "Maybe they're getting along by now?"

"I'm just hoping they managed to say more than two lines by the time we get back," Roxas said. "Naminé is a little intimidated by Hayner."

"And Hayner is terrible at small talk," Pence added. "I'm betting he started with something like the color of her hair."

"I'll take you on," Roxas said, smirking. "I bet my ice cream he started on the color of her dress."

The two turned to Olette. Frowning, she caved, saying, "Fine, I'll weigh in too. The color of her eyes."

Roxas snorted. "If Hayner did that, it'll probably be the most romantic thing he's ever said."

"Yeah, I guess," she agreed, sighing. The two boys stared at her, eyebrows raised.

"Uh… Olette? Why the sigh?" Pence asked.

Olette straightened, snapping back to herself. "Huh? Oh, uh… I just thought, um, you know, it's kind of depressing that Hayner is completely incapable of being romantic. Yeah… that."

Roxas and Pence glanced at each other, exchanging a quick wordless debate. Hm, to press or not to press. They turned back to the girl and Roxas spoke up, "Olette, is there something you want to tell us?"

"I… uh…" Her eyes shifted, unsure about talking or not talking. Her internal struggle went on for a full minute, with the two boys waiting patiently. She finally let out a sigh. "…no, never mind."

The boys' shoulders dropped, disappointed. Here they were actually hoping that something would finally happen. She moved, walking ahead of them, but then stopped. She turned, shyly, her cheeks tinged a light pink. "But… maybe ask me some other time."

She faced forward again, and shuffled herself away. Roxas blinked, absolutely floored. "Pence, pinch me."

"I think you should be the one to pinch me," Pence answered, equally stunned. "I've been waiting for this since before you even moved here."

"On three, then?"

"Sure. One, two, three!" At the same time, the two boys reached out and pinched the other as hard as they could. After a yelp from each of them, confirming that they indeed were not in a dream, they grinned at each other. It was a tiny half-step and they had no idea what was the cause of it, but it was a step nonetheless. A couple more of those, and something interesting was bound to happen.

They caught up to Olette, who for some reason, was waiting at the gate outside the Usual Spot, her cheeks even redder than when she had left them.

"Hey Olette, what's up?" Roxas asked. "Why are you waiting out here?"

"Um, I-I'm not sure what's going on in there," Olette said, "but-"

"Olette thinks foot rubs are romantic!" Naminé shouted from inside.

Pence blinked. "What was that?"

"Roxas' hobby is making women's accessories!" Hayner yelled back.

A splash of red hit Roxas' cheeks as his eyes widened in shock. "What the heck is-"

The three entered the Usual Spot in time to hear Naminé respond with, "Olette's favorite dating spot is the beach!" Both were still seated where they had last seen them, but they were clearly riled up, sitting on the edge of their seats.

Seeing that both Roxas and Olette were a bit too stunned to say anything, Pence took it upon himself to intrude on… whatever it is that they were doing.

"So… we're back… with ice cream."

Hayner and Naminé both started in surprise, having been too absorbed in what they were doing to notice everyone returning. Pence looked around the room and noted the red colored faces, grinning all the while. Being uninvolved in all this, he was the only one who could fully appreciate what was going on.

He turned to Roxas and Olette. "I think they're getting along now."

-x-x-x-

"So… what was that all about again?" Roxas asked. They had somehow managed to diffuse the situation by wordlessly agreeing that no one wanted to talk about what was happening (excluding Pence, who took a few jabs at it a number of times). The afternoon hours passed normally enough, and now Roxas was walking Naminé home. Given the smaller number of involved people, he deemed it safe to try and broach the topic again.

Naminé turned pink. "It's… well, I'm not really sure how we got so heated up, but we started off just telling each other about what we knew about our friends, you, Pence, and Olette. And from there… yeah…"

"…I see." There was a small pause in the conversation. Unable to help herself, Naminé broke it.

"Is it true that your hobby is making women's accessories?" she asked. "Not that it bothers me or anything, I'm just a little surprised," she quickly added.

"N-No!" he retorted. "I mean, I know how to make them, but it's my mom's hobby, and she wanted someone to compare her work to, so she got me to learn also."

"Ah, I see." She smiled to herself, an image of Roxas working together with his mom on little trinkets and bracelets forming in her head. It was a rather cute image. She wondered if she could maybe join in on one of those sessions.

"What else did Hayner tell you?" Roxas asked nervously.

"Oh, nothing much," she said cheerfully. Feeling emboldened, she reached out and grasped Roxas' hand, intertwining her fingers with his. She could feel him tense up for a moment, but quickly relaxed into it. Roxas grumbled inaudibly, feeling conflicted. He'd thank Hayner for this, but only after a good hit or two.

Naminé squeezed his hand affectionately. "So how long has Hayner liked Olette?"

"Oh, you picked up on that already?" Roxas asked, smiling warmly. "It's actually a long story, starting from before I even came to Twilight Town…"

A/N: Hm, I got this down a bit quicker than I expected. It's a shorter chapter (I think) and has a lot more prose than usual, kind of breaking the usual balance dialogue and prose. Writing originals is sticking a lot more than I thought it would. Anyway, hope you enjoy the chapter.