Disclaimer: I don't own Kingdom Hearts or Shenandoah.
Oh, Shenandoah
"Okay, everyone... here's our new piece that we're going to play for the concert." Miss Gainsborough seemed extremely excited and peppy. She ruffled the papers so they would be loose, because she hated having to lick the pages to separate them, and then handed them out by section.
"Roxas... please come up here and get all of the trumpets' parts." Yes, it was always his job to get up and get the new music for all of the trumpets. He hated being last chair- now, what did being last chair have to do with it? It was an unwritten rule in the Destiny High Bands- that the last chair would always be the one doing the chores.
He groaned before he got up, and was handed a stack of papers by the band director. He read the title. "Shenandoah? What kind of name is that?"
Every laughed at his comment. At least there was one thing that he could do- he could cheer the band members up. It was one of the only strings that he was hanging on to stay in the group. Other than that, there was absolutely no reason to stay- and he really wouldn't have, if it weren't for the fact that his family forced him to.
Miss Gainsborough was not pleased to hear his comment. "Please sit down, Mr. Strife, before I give you detention for being a smart-alec."
Typical Miss Gainsborough. That woman was so bipolar that it scared him. A minute ago, she was all hyper and happy, and now, she looked as if she was going to stab Roxas with her conductor's stick.
He was used to it- after all, every time the band laughed at his comments, the same thing would happen. It was no different from before. It was the only time that he was actually acknowledged in the band room, and he enjoyed that time and attention.
He gave out the parts quickly, smirking at the first chair, and sat down in his seat, trumpet in his lap. What was so special about this song? He wondered, as he gazed at the music.
"Alright. Has anyone ever heard this song?" She questioned, and a few girl clarinet and flute players raised their hands. One guy, laughing, put up his own hand.
"Then I must ask, to those of you who actually know what you're talking about-" she glared right at Roxas- "which genre would this song fall into?"
The guy called out, "A love song!"
Was he kidding? Roxas wondered. A love song? The band was notorious for playing "loud, obnoxious music" as his sister always said. What kind of school concert band played a LOVE song?
"That's right." So he wasn't kidding. The teacher continued, "I've chosen this song for a special reason- because you are one of the few band groups who can play in such perfect tone with perfect legato."
Roxas sputtered. Was the whole band on crack today? He never played with good tone, he just let his trumpet blare out. And the Italian word, legato, meant absolutely nothing to him.
"But, some people-" She turned to glare at Roxas again, "need to grow up, or we're cutting this from the concert." The flutes and most of the clarinets started to glare at him, too.
He rolled his eyes- typical flutists. They all wanted everything pretty. Too bad the trumpets usually ruined it for them.
"The trumpet has most of the melody in this piece-" Roxas now took the chance to groan, and interrupted the teacher, once again. She was on her last straw. It was typical for this to happen, but she had hoped that he would have given it up today. She tried to be cheerful, but no matter how happy she was feeling that day, he would ruin her class. "Roxas." She said, firmly. "Out."
"Yes'm." He obeyed. Nobody wanted to get on Miss Gainsborough's bad side... too bad he was the only one in the Freshman Concert Band who could.
He walked outside, and leaned against the wall as he slid down to sit. Nothing was right in his life...
He had a musical family. Everyone played an instrument perfectly... his oldest brother, Cloud, had been judging groups at the Islands festivals- both band AND orchestra- for about 4 years now... his older sister, Hannah, was first chair violinist in the Destiny High Symphony, and even his younger sister, Julia, was playing flute pieces that were of higher level than his own trumpet pieces.
He was the one who stuck out. The one who was neglected and grounded every time he got last chair, or didn't practice for just one busy night.
He was nobody.
-
Namine listened intently at the usual table she was sitting at- one "reserved" for her, Selphie, Yuffie, and Kairi. Her best friends.
They were all talking about orchestra together. She knew nothing about orchestra... she was the artist out of the four of them. They all admired her artwork, and Kairi especially loved watching her draw.
But that really didn't help when she felt like the one that stuck out of the group. She seemed to be like a fourth corner on their orchestra triangle. They'd be talking, and she'd be drawing while trying to understand what they were talking about.
Why was it like this? Why couldn't she be musical like the rest of them?
Before, she always had Kairi with her... but now, Kairi was pursuing her dream of playing the cello... and when Kairi quit, she was happy. She wasn't by herself anymore, and it would be like before. It was, for about a month. And then Kairi went back. She hated feeling so selfish about it, but who could control the way they felt?
The bell rang- it was time for French, her most hated class of the day, next to English. She really wasn't the type to hate classes, but for those two, there was an exception.
She used to love French. She was the best, and according to her teacher, spoke with no accent at all. But now... everything was different. Everything was different because of just one person- her tormentor.
Selphie was convinced that he liked her, but she thought- no wait, she KNEW- that he was just out to hurt her, to upset her, and to torture her in other ways.
He'd been nicer to her since that one incident where Riku stood up for her... but when they weren't alone in the hallways, he'd still pester her. Constantly.
And in both of those classes- French and English- he sat around her. In English it was next to, and French was behind. She couldn't decide which one was better- next to meant that he was closer to her, but behind meant that he could poke and prod her to death or play with her hair.
He made her feel miserable. He always made it an announcement when he did better than her in French, which was seldom, but in English, he would always correct her, saying that she wasn't speaking in proper grammar.
Because of him, she wanted to crawl out of her shell. The shell that had been her support for fourteen long years of her life...
But according to him...
She was nobody.
-
She changed his life. From the day that he met her, he knew that he was special.
He never knew what attracted him to her, but who really did when they were fazed with attraction? All he knew... was that he was obsessed. Every moment he was away from her, he felt as if something was missing.
She would always be beautiful to his eyes... with the soft blonde hair that he longed to play with, and the beautiful blue eyes that she had...
They would be perfect together.
Except for the fact that she hated him. She would always swat him away. Well, not her, but she would indirectly. Her tomboy friend, Yuffie, usually did the job for her.
And then there was this one incident in the hallway where he'd been teasing her, and then some Sophomore hall monitor told him practically beat him up over a little teasing.
He really didn't think that he was doing any harm to her... except maybe teasing her, just a little.
She was really shy, but maybe that's why he was so attracted to her.
But he really couldn't hold his feelings inside anymore.
He tried to tell her one day, but then he lost control of his actions when he started to play with her hair, and then Yuffie shooed him off.
That day, he had seen her walk out of the school with her friends. He started to chase after her, but then he stopped when he realized that the hyper girl noticed him.
The hyper girl giggled. "Look, Namine, he's a band geek!"
She just shrugged him off. Maybe she really did need to get out of her shell a little bit more...
Because he was pretty confident that she liked him too...
Or was it just him?
He got on the bus, and rode silently home. He lived farther than most of the kids who went to Destiny High, because he knew that Namine and her friends always walked to and from school together.
He walked into his house, only to see his band teacher having a little "chat" with his oldest brother. That was another reason why Miss Gainsborough loathed him- because she knew of the evident musical talent in the Strife family, and thought that he was just a waste. His misbehaviors were always sent straight to Cloud, not his parents. Most people would think that the brother wouldn't care. Wrong, Cloud's punishment would be just as bad as his parents'.
He didn't exactly favor his teacher, either. Because it's not exactly fun to walk home to see your teacher everyday... especially since she was your older brother's girlfriend. And then, there was that one time when he caught them making out...
"Cloud, I need to go... I have to make lesson plans for next week." She gave him a kiss on the cheek.
Cloud blushed, knowing that his baby brother was watching. "Bye..." he gave a little wave.
Once Miss Gainsborough left, Cloud's demeanor completely changed. "I can't believe you! Every day, you mock Aerith! Can't you at least give her some sort of respect?"
He didn't stop there. "She told me about how she was worried that band would be in shame at the next concert. You're the only one bringing the band program down at Destiny High- can't you see that? Everyone else is perfect- they follow their passions! Do you even know what passion is? You show absolutely no passion in your trumpet playing. NONE. Which is why you have last chair."
"I HAVE no passion for the trumpet." Roxas retorted.
"THEN FIND IT! There's no point in you being in this family if you have no passion in your instrument." Cloud gave a little huff, and turned away. "Go practice."
He wanted to throw a tantrum, the way he did when he was eight. No one could ever find passion in what they did out of duty. That's all trumpet ever was to him- a duty. Every time he played it, he felt like a stoic guard on duty. No emotion, no feelings, no movement out side of his fingers and his vibrating lips.
He walked up to his room- it was easier to obey Cloud than to defy him. Once Cloud had gotten a stable job, he was pretty much the parent of the household, considering that their actual parents found a job that required commuting to the mainland New York. They came home about once a moth.
As he heard the perfect notes of the flute next door in Julia's room, he slammed the door. Why was he the only one in his family without a musical talent? He whined to himself as he unpacked his trumpet, and slammed the sheet of music that read "Shenandoah" on his music stand. The notes stared back at him, mocking his every move.
The sheet of music ended up winning. He was so upset with himself, his brother, his stupid band teacher, that he just blew as hard as he could into the mouthpiece of his trumpet.
Bad idea. That was just begging for another lecture from Cloud, Hannah, and even little Julia.
"My solo is due in two weeks! What if my eardrums die, thanks to my obnoxious trumpet player of a brother?" Hannah screamed louder than his burst.
"Roxas, you need to play softer." Julia was whimpering, upset from the outburst.
"WHAT did I just tell you about passion?" Cloud was ready for another lecture.
After about five minutes of surrendering to his pissed family, he turned back to the sheet of music. Since there was no more arguing without getting into more trouble and getting assigned more chores, he just decided to play the music.
As he played, he thought, Wow, this is pretty. I never knew band music could be this pretty... WAIT, what am I thinking? Since when do guys call music "pretty?"
His thoughts were the solid truth, though. What did Miss Gainsborough say this song was? He wondered to himself. Oh... the answer came to him. A love song.
This is perfect... he thought. Perfect for his plan. He devised it in his head as he continued to practice the page for the next hour.
Cloud smiled to himself from his book he was reading. His kid brother was learning what passion really was. I wonder who I have to thank for it, he wondered.
-
The phone rang as Namine was working on a sketch. She moaned... she didn't want to get up to pick it up. But she had to, there was no one else at home to do it for her.
She looked at the Caller ID. It was Yuffie. Hm, it was a bit odd for Yuffie to be calling her- it was usually Kairi who called to tell her of whatever plans they had. Maybe it was something important that Kairi couldn't get to her on.
"Hello?" Namine answered the phone meekly. She hated the phone, even if she was speaking to one of her best friends.
"Hey, Namine, is that you?" Yup, it was Yuffie.
"Yeah... what's up?"
"Well..." Yuffie paused, thinking of a way to say it. She suddenly burst out, "Namine, don't trust Roxas. As much as Selphie wants to set you guys up... don't trust him."
She wondered what had made Yuffie bring up the topic so quickly. "You don't have to worry, Yuf... I never trusted him in the first place." There was little firmness in her voice.
"Well, then, you've got to stand up for yourself! Don't let him push you around the way he always has!"
"It's okay, Yuffie... you really don't have to worry. I'm a big girl, I can take care of myself." There seemed to be more confidence in her voice.
"Okay... well... I was just checking up on you. He seemed to be following us after school today."
"Yeah, I heard Selphie's comment."
"But he usually doesn't go in our direction. I've never seen him there before, have you?"
"No... but maybe he just needed a change."
"Okay... I won't worry, then."
"Thanks for being so nice to worry, though... I've got to go," Namine said, thinking about her sketch sitting on the table.
"Okay. Bye!"
"Bye!" Namine hung up the phone. That was odd, Yuffie seemed to have something else on her mind that she wouldn't mention.
-
That next night, Namine had gotten another phone call from Yuffie- except this time, she heard sobbing on the other end.
This picture just wasn't right- Yuffie never cried. Not if she got punched, not if she got last chair viola (which wasn't likely to happen anyway), and not if she lost her race. What exactly triggered her to cry so hard?
"Yuffie... what's wrong?" Namine felt like she would cry, too, if Yuffie had cried any longer.
Yuffie responded with more sobs. Namine felt complete guilty. Yuffie was always there to protect her, and she had nothing to give in return.
"Yuffie... talk to me. Let everything out." Namine desperately wanted her to feel better.
"Well... you know the orchestra teacher, Mr. Leonhart? I've..."
-
Putting his plan into action was, most definitely, not going to be easy. But it was the perfect solution to all of his love problems. If you could really call whatever he felt for Namine "love."
The worst that could happen... he didn't even want to think of that. But the worst that could happen, right now, would be that he played the notes wrong, and she laughed at him. But most likely- no, wait, hopefully she wouldn't laugh at him. She just wasn't like that.
He would have to sneak out of the house- Cloud was obsessive about no one leaving the house without his permission at least a day in advance, but there was no way that he was going to tell Cloud where and, even more so, WHY he was going to wherever he was.
Sneaking couldn't be too hard. Julia and Hannah would be lost in their own little worlds... and hopefully Cloud would be busy in his own room, probably asleep. Roxas swore that he never saw his older brother do anything but read, sleep, work, or play their grand piano.
He got out of the house just fine... now hopefully he could get back in, later that night, just as easily. Now... which way was to her house? He wasn't a stalker...
How could he have been so stupid? He couldn't have his plan put into action without her address! Now, he had to ponder who he could trust with his secret. Certainly not any of his friends... they'd make him the laughing stock of the school.
He waltzed back into the house only to run into his sleepy older brother. "What were you doing outside?" He asked.
"Just taking a breath of fresh air." Roxas tried to hide his trumpet.
"I'm so sure that you just went out for a breath of fresh air with your trumpet." Roxas braced himself for another lecture, but instead, his brother plopped himself on the couch and fell back asleep.
He walked up to his room to find the student directory that was given to him at the beginning of the year. Where was it? He searched through a stack of papers before he could find the small book of phone numbers.
"Tilmitt..." He flipped through the book, found the number, and dialed it. He knew the girl was a no-lived romantic... so maybe she'd help him.
"Hello?" The girl sounded curious, but slightly pissed.
How was he going to ask? Would he sound like a stalker?
"I'm going to hang up the phone if you don't talk soon, whoever you are."
He suddenly sputtered, "Where does Namine live?"
He could feel her glaring through the phone. "Who is this, and why are you stalking my best friend?"
"This is... um, Roxas... and I'm not stalking her! I was going to go over and tell her how much I love her!" What the heck was he saying? He sounded like some lovesick idiot!
"What?" the girl was surprised, then realized his intentions. "In that case..." she rambled off a series of directions.
-
Click, click. There were rocks hitting the outside of Namine's window. What was up with that? She was on the second story of her house, there was no way that the wind, however strong, could blow rocks up there.
She ignored them, and continued to listen to Yuffie talk. She was no longer sobbing, but Namine could tell that she was still a wreck.
After about the twentieth click, Namine had lost it. She was trying to comfort her friend, and something just wouldn't leave her alone. She decided to take a peek outside her window.
"OH MY GOD." She cried into the phone.
Yuffie suddenly stopped talking. "What happened, Namine?"
"Roxas... he's outside my window... he wants me to open it..."
"Don't, Namine... I told you not to trust him..."
"Oh, I'm sure that it'll be fine..." she opened the window, raising an eyebrow at him.
"Um... Namine..." His voice was barely audible, and he looked a little bit embarrassed with the tint of pink on his cheeks.
"What?" she didn't mean to sound so snappy, but her friend was emotionally dying on the other end of the phone.
"I wanted to play something for you." Was this a joke? Surely it was... there was no way that he'd do something like that for her!
Without another word, he took a big breath, and started to play the melodic lines of Shenandoah. It was amazing how he memorized them, all in one night, just for her.
It wasn't until he needed to take a breath that he realized she was ignoring him to talk on the phone with her friend. Maybe she really wasn't who he thought she was...
Namine, on the inside of the house, probably looked like a red tomato at the moment. She tried to listen to what Yuffie was saying, but had only been able to mutter for her to follow her heart- the worst advice that she could ever give. She was too busy wondering why Roxas would be playing Shenandoah for her.
Yes, she had recognized the tune immediately. It was a love song- to her, out of all people! From him, which just happened even more shocking.
Finally, she just couldn't take it anymore. She needed to be listening to what Yuffie was saying, and give her decent advice, not contemplating about whether a guy liked her or not. Her problems were far less complicated than Yuffie's. Plus, everything was probably a joke, anyway- just to push her farther towards the limit.
She shouted out the window, "Fuck off, I'm busy!" She honestly couldn't believe what was coming out of her mouth, but she didn't care anymore. She didn't want Roxas to be playing a sick joke on her, and she didn't want Yuffie to be feeling even more dejected than she already was.
Roxas walked away, in a slump. He was almost sure that she liked her back, in her own shy way- until tonight.
He had never heard her use those words, never heard her say it in such a tone. The worst had happened.
But the worst was yet to come. When he walked into his home, he saw Cloud glaring down at him. "What do you think you're doing? I was about to call the police on you, you were gone for so late. Where did you go? Tell me, now, or face more punishment later."
He couldn't take it anymore- absolutely everything had gone wrong tonight. "I was at a girl's house, okay? I was trying to confess my love with the stupid song that Miss Gainsborough chose!" And, even now, he still sounded like a lovesick freak. Maybe that's what he was, as much as he hated to admit it.
Cloud was shocked- so shocked that his mouth was hanging open. So his kid brother really did learn what passion was last night. And could he have possibly grown hormones?
-
He saw her laughing with a new loudness yesterday. They were probably talking about the fool that he made of himself the night before.
He poked at his lunch, not completely able to eat. How was he going to tell her? Obviously, the communication that had not gone through properly the night before.
Well, at least she got passed her shyness, he thought to himself. I guess I should be happy for her...
He thought that, after last night, he couldn't look at her the same way anymore. She wasn't the sweet angel that he had thought she was...
And yet, every time he looked at her, he seemed to be falling harder. Did he find something last night that wasn't there before?
Maybe he'd talk to her during French. And maybe, this time, it would work out right.
-
"Namine," she heard Roxas whisper, and then felt a tap on her shoulder.
"What?" She glared at him, signaling that wasn't in the mood for jokes and teasing.
"Here," he passed her a note. Hmmm... this was odd; no one ever passed her notes in French- she barely even knew anyone in her class. And there was no way that Roxas could have written something to her.
She quietly opened the note as the teacher continued to lecture. There was something written in squabbled writing. The sloppiness of it all told her that it was from a guy.
The note read, "Meet me outside after class... yesterday night wasn't a joke. -Roxas"
Could he read her mind? She thought, as she anxiously sat through class.
After class, she met with him, completely forgetting Yuffie's warnings. "Hi..." she said.
"Hi..." What was he supposed to say now? That he was obsessed with her? That he wanted to be with her forever? He could only produce one sentence. "Last night wasn't a joke..."
"I realize that now." Namine was nervous, but she spoke with confidence.
"So..." he shoved his hands in his pockets.
"So, what?"
"So... I... I like you a lot." He managed to stutter out.
She couldn't think of anything to say. Really, what was she supposed to? Thanks, I don't like you? No, that was a little too insensitive. But what else was there?
And suddenly, she knew the right thing to say. It might not have been the truth then...
But when his lips met hers in a short kiss, she knew that it would be the truth now.
-
YAY for RoxasXNamine... tEEhEE.
YAY for corniness!
most of all, YAY for a long oneshot:D
So you know what I think you should do?
REVIEW! Because that button needs some love...