A/n Hi guys! Sorry I haven't updated in a long time, but now here is the next chapter! I made you guys wait long enough, so I won't take up your time.
Disclaimer: I don't own Kingdom Hearts. If I did, I would make sure Riku wasn't so lonely, Axel wouldn't have faded away, Namine and Roxas would be whole (with or without their other selves), and Sora and Kairi would have kissed at least once in the 2nd game!
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Chapter 3: Kirei na aozora no shita de... (Below the brilliantly blue sky...)
Namine lay back on her bed, surprisingly relaxed from her near-breakdown from a few hours ago. Curfew reared its ugly head in a form of a dorm advisor named Tifa, whose surprising strength (the door now sported wooden dents that nearly splintered into holes), spoke for herself. Needless to say, they didn't need to be told twice to go to bed.
She turned to see her red-haired cousin snoring slightly, the blankets flung in a heap on the floor. Namine giggled, her cousin was so silly sometimes. She got up and walked over to Kairi, picking up the pink sheets and comforter and laying them over her cousin's body. Namine smiled, and then walked back to her own bed, reflecting over her first day at Twilight High Prepatory Academy.
Everything was fine until she decided to act like a brat and cry her eyes out. Namine frowned; if it were one thing that she did consider a flaw in her emotions (she was normally pretty cheerful despite any situation; though this situation was not one of those times), it was that once she felt depressed or angry, she felt immediate guilt afterwards, like those Sour Patch Kids commercials.
What I wouldn't give to start the day over again...Namine sighed as she unconsciously decided to have a conversation with her conscience once again.
Well, you made some wrong decisions, but let's face it; you can fix it. The tiny voice began as her mind began to wander.
Sure, I can rewind this whole day with my universal radioactive super-remote and then start the whole day with a cheesy smile on my face. Namine replied irritably as she folded her arms behind her head, relaxing on her satin pillow despite her cranky attitude.
I'm ignoring your sarcasm.
You can ignore me all you want, but in the end, you're me, and I'll always win. Namine smirked as she imagined her conscience pouting.
You're just saying that. How 'bout we talk about something else...or rather someone else? The little voice inquired innocently. Instantly, Roxas flashed in her mind's eye, and her face grew warm.
He's pretty cute ya know...The voice went on, with a dreamy tone one might add. He even invited you to eat lunch with him, and he's sweet and has the most beautiful eyes you have ever seen...
Oh shut up, will you? Namine angrily retorted. He was just being polite...he could be crushing on Axel for all I know...
Yet again, I'm ignoring your sarcasm. Her inner voice said with slight amusement. Plus, you and I know he's interested in you, besides, Axel is his best friend, duh.
Yeah, yeah...quit distracting me from the main problem...
What problem?
The current one involving the marriage, you dimwit. Namine's blonde brows furrowed in bitterness. In frustration, she whispered, a sharpness cutting through the silent room.
"Why can't I just let it go? Why can't I just accept they're married?"
Unfortunately, that's something I can't tell you. Your mother hasn't forgotten about your father, and you know the true answer why she married Wise-san even though it was an arranged marriage. You need to stop blaming her...it's not like she is doing this to hurt you. You know why and you have to figure that one out for yourself. The voice faded, and Namine finally let herself fall victim to sleep.
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Namine woke to a bright sunlight peeking in through her blinds. Raking her nails through her hair, she crawled out of bed despite her body's protest for at least five more minutes of sleep.
She slowly got dressed in her uniform and brushed her blonde hair into a messy ponytail with a light blue ribbon and a few hair pins. Kairi finally woke up, rubbing sleep from her sapphire orbs, looking at her cousin in a sleepy daze.
"What are you doing Namine-chan?" Kairi asked as she propped her head with her elbow.
"Getting ready for school," Namine replied as she buckled on her Mary Janes.
"This early in the morning?" The girl yawned, rubbing her head, a mop of red strands standing on end.
Namine stared at her, a smirk threatening to grace her innocent face.
"7:13."
Kairi's eyes snapped opened.
"Why didn't you wake me, Namine-chan? You know how long it takes for me to get ready!" Kairi flew off her bed in what seemed like seconds, and ran around the room in various stages of putting on clothes and trying to brush her teeth at the same time.
"Not my fault you can't wake up on time, Kairi-chan." Namine said sweetly as she waltzed into the bathroom to brush her teeth.
"It's like you have some internal clock inside you...so I take it that you're feeling better?" Kairi inquired as she hopped on one foot, pulling on her knee-high socks.
"Seeing you getting dressed in the morning like you always do, you better believe it." Namine answered before she spat into the sink, giving her reflection a smile.
The two girls continued getting ready and headed downstairs to the dorm common room, where various students were chatting, eating breakfast, or finishing assignments at the last minute. Namine spotted two girls waving to them, and dragged Kairi to them.
"Hey Kairi-chan, hello Namine-chan." Olette said happily, nudging Selphie who was about to fall asleep. The green-eyed girl sat upright, rubbing the back of her head sheepishly.
"Sorry. Just a little sleepy from the last night...Roxas couldn't get to sleep, so he asked me to talk to him on the phone until he felt tired..." Selphie rubbed her eyes, while watching Namine's face turn from happy to curious.
"What was wrong with him?"
"Wouldn't say...but he kept me up all night...talking about the most random topics..."
"Like what?" Namine inquired, sitting beside Selphie and pulling out her sketchpad to work on her art assignment.
"I dunno...he kept asking me about pickles, depression, and..." Selphie cleared her throat in awkwardness. "And...PMS."
Namine, Kairi, and Olette stared at her, aghast that Roxas was asking about this kind of stuff.
"He...sure sounds...interesting…" Kairi said, laughing weirdly, while Namine gave her a look that said, "Leave me alone."
"Ah, he's never like that though...usually he's all angsty and brooding all the time..." Olette scratched her head in thought.
"Maybe we should take him out for a night on the town!"
All four girls turned to see a dark-haired girl bounced towards them. She had short dark hair and eyes the same colour, but along with her uniform, she wore a headband tied around her forehead and gave off an air of hyperness more dangerous than Olette and Selphie combined.
"Hey Yuffie-chan! And whaddya mean, 'night on the town'?" Selphie questioned as Yuffie plopped right next to her.
"Oh, and Yuffie-chan, this is Kairi-chan and Namine-chan. They just transferred here." Olette said as the two said girls meekly waved. Yuffie, for some apparent reason, scared them more than Tifa.
"Hi, anyways..." Yuffie smirked slyly, a skill perfected since she was two. "Maybe we should take Roxas and the boys clubbing! That would certainly get them loose!"
"Uh...are you sure that request wasn't just for your benefit? You always wanted to dance with Leon-kun..." Selphie suggested, causing Yuffie's face to flush pink.
"Ha ha...but we know you like the idea...especially with Tidus-kun being there..."
"Quit it!" Selphie accidentally squeaked. "Besides...he likes Yuna-chan..."
"Leave her alone Yuffie-chan!" Olette exclaimed, defending her love-struck friend.
"Why should I, Hayner-lover?" Yuffie teased while Olette's face started to resemble a tomato.
"Did we suddenly become forgotten?" Namine inquired her cousin, who stared at the squabbling group of girls with equal confusion.
"I think we did..." Kairi responded, sitting up from her place on the couch. "C'mon, let's go get breakfast."
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"Hey Roxas, what's up with you? You look like you got run over by a truck or something..." Hayner commented on his friend's tired appearance. Truth be told, Roxas looked more depressed than exhausted.
"It's nothing Hayner..." Roxas banged his head on his desk, trying to remove the memories of last night's 'Namine' incident (as Roxas had dubbed it).
"It has to do with the new girl, huh?"
"No!" Roxas replied a little too quickly, causing his equally blonde friend to raise an eyebrow over his hazel eyes.
"Okay, yes."
"Wanna talk about it?"
"No, we can't. The teacher..."
"Roxas, Demyx-sensei has been listening to Utada Hikaru for the last half-hour, and no one has bothered to pay attention. We can discuss it." Hayner nodded his head towards the currently dancing blonde-haired teacher listening to his i-Pod. (A/n Just wanted to point this out: I wanted to make some sort of reference to Utada Hikaru, and I figured, with Demyx loving music and everything with his short attention span, he'd be doing this...plus, he's just plain awesome.)
"It's just...let's just say it has to do...um...what I mean is...ARGH!" Roxas banged his head repeatedly with a book, his friend staring at him, aggravated.
"Wouldja quit doing that? You're going to give yourself a concussion..." Hayner took the book away from Roxas, who now sported a slight bruise on his forehead. "Anyway...I'm assuming this has something to do with her family."
Roxas usually appreciated Hayner's right-on-the-dot intuition/gut feeling, but at the moment, all he wanted was to give the boy amnesia.
"...Just don't tell anyone..." Roxas laid his tired head on the desk exhausted.
"Promise...plus, it's not my place to say...but everyone has problems with their parents."
"Bet yours are okay..." Roxas retorted.
"...May I remind you that my parents are dead?" Hayner said nonchalantly, causing Roxas's head to snap up in panic, babbling out apologies and what-not.
"Relax Roxas...I'm adopted, remember?"
Hayner...well...when he was about 3, his parents left him with his nanny while they went out for a drive. It was raining pretty hard, but when they left, it was just fine. It was about 2:00 in the morning when the police came to his parent's house...and well...that was that, so to speak.
About a year after that, he was officially taken in by his godfather, who coincidently was Riku's dad, Sephiroth Arima. Hayner officially became Riku's brother, and had been living with them ever since.
"I keep forgetting that Arima-san is now your father..." Roxas said sheepishly, while Hayner shrugged like it was no big deal. "I'm sorry about your parents..."
"It's no big deal but it's hard having Otou-san around sometimes...especially with his sword-fetish...but at least we know where Riku gets his personality from..."
"M'yep."
The two sat in silence for a bit, straying from the issue at hand, until Demyx started singing along to his music and doing the air guitar thing on his desk.
"That's just really..." Hayner started, staring at the blonde-haired mullet-haired teacher make screechy noises, totally oblivious that most of the conscious population of the class was now staring at him.
"Creepy? Strange? Unusual?" Roxas offered questioningly as he aimed a rubber band gun at the teacher.
"Weird..."
"M'yep." Roxas agreed, letting the paperclip fly at Demyx, flying directly into his forehead...hard.
"Iota-san..." Demyx inquired, as he rubbed the light pink gash on his forehead, Roxas came forward. "I was dancing again, wasn't I?"
"Yes you were sensei..."
"Okay...just making sure." Demyx then threw a water balloon at Roxas, making his spiky-hair do fall flat in seconds. "Accept your punishment with open arms, because I'd feel too guilty giving you detention..."
"You lack the evil factor." Hayner stated helpfully, while Roxas pouted and began to ring the water out of his hair.
"Don't encourage him."
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The week pretty much passed uneventfully. With the new school year starting, the teachers decided to evilly load up as much homework as they could on their students, some workloads leading to mental breakdowns, and one boy sitting on top of the cafeteria, trying to boycott homework. (A/n this sounds so familiar...)
Namine, Kairi, and a few of the other girls spent their lunch time with the boys, mostly doing their work, leaving some to give up in frustration and take an F.
Fortunately, Namine was not that kind of person.
"Geez Namine-chan, how can you handle all that homework and still have time for everything else?" Yuffie asked as Namine put away her final assignment; normally, it would take the average person about 2 hours to finish an 8 page report on a 500 page book. For Namine, it took about 45 minutes.
"It was nothing." Namine smiled triumphantly as she checked the assignment in her planner. "I already read the book before, so it was no big deal."
"You never cease to amaze us, Wise-san." Riku complimented, flashing a smile towards the blonde girl. Namine giggled and blushed slightly, flattered.
"You can call me Namine..." Namine said, not catching sight of Roxas's disappointed look. Fortunately, Yuffie caught wind of it, and stood up to put her plan into action.
"Hey guys!" Everyone turned to Yuffie's direction, who was currently standing in her seat. "I know that we've been busy all week (this comment received some well-understood groans), but how 'bout we go to this hot new club that just opened up? It's called the Twilight Lock, and it's supposed to be really awesome!"
"And this is has nothing to do with some half-brained scheme of yours that we don't know about?" Roxas asked sarcastically, earning a giggle from Namine.
"C'mon Roxas, this could be awesome!" Axel threw an arm around his friend. "Think of it, hot lights, pulsing music, and the chance to dance with someone and they don't even know it's you!" Axel winked mischievously at his flustered friend, trying to get him to take the hint.
"So, this Friday night! Everyone in?" Everyone automatically raised their hands, Namine excluded.
"Hey Namine-chan, don't you wanna go?" Kairi nudged her cousin, concern spreading over her face.
"But Okaa-san wouldn't want me to go..."
"But nothing! You're going to enjoy the time that you're spending here with me whether you like it or not!" Kairi flashed her cousin a smile, Namine gaining confidence as she raised her hand with everyone else.
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A/n And that concludes this chapter. Remember, this is just an itty, bitty taster to what's to come...'tis yummy. Remember to review!