A/N: Just wanted to try if I could write a good oneshot. Guys, tell me if I can.

Disclaimer: If I owned Kingdom Hearts, I wouldn't be writing this disclaimer, right?

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--Alive--

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"Thirteen," he called.

Naminé sighed as she tried to concentrate on the white sheet of drawing paper in front of her.

"Go away, Roxas," she said tiredly. "You know you're not allowed to see me."

"So..?"

"Xemnas' going to kill you if he finds out you're visiting me."

"Technically he can't kill me if I'm not even alive."

"He'll still kill you. Go away and leave me alone." She let her fingers fly over the paper, the graphite lines forming what would be a face.

"Okay fine, Naminé, but I'm not moving from this spot until you let me in," he called again in an annoying singsong voice, which she thought only Demyx could pull off.

If I ignore him, he'll just go away, she chanted. Go away before Xemnas gets mad. The pencil slipped, a curve out of place. She reached for the eraser, irritated with herself. She had always been a perfectionist. Rechaining memories apart and together required perfection. Roxas remained blessedly quiet.

She had erased the unruly mark when his voice startled her, making her erase more than she had intended to.

"So if Superior finds me here standing outside your door and kills me, I'll make sure I'll scream and yell and call out your name. You'll never sleep again in your entire life."

"Roxas."

"Naminé."

She threw her hands up in frustration, letting the eraser bounce on the table. "I can't feel guilty, Roxas. You know that."

Silence.

Her brows drew together. Maybe he did give up. She got up from her white high-backed chair and put her hand on the doorknob.

Sadly, Roxas never gave up.

"Boo."

She jerked backward and tried to slam the door, but Roxas grinned and put a hand on her arm. "I can't feel guilty, Roxas," he imitated in an annoyingly high-pitched voice (seriously, she'll give Demyx a piece of her mind later). She threw him a look that could scorch the very coat he was wearing (and, hopefully, set his hair on fire) before returning to her sketch.

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A curve here, a sprinkling of dashes there, some shadows here...Naminé looked up. She had expected Roxas to start talking and annoying her to death. Instead, he was sitting on the chair across the table as he stared at her. That was infinitely more disturbing.

"Is this a new way of annoying me?" she asked as she tried restore her broken concentration, the pencil scraping the paper a bit too hard.

"Are you really leaving?" he asked back, his words echoing off the walls.

"Finished with the meeting, huh?"

"No," he said sarcastically, leaning back into his chair. "So, are you going with Marluxia's group to this...Castle Oblivion?"

"Sadly, yes," she cocked her head, setting down the pencil. "DiZ requested Xemnas to let me join... why are you asking?"

"How long will the mission take?"

She was getting tired of her questions spawning other questions. "About three weeks, a month, tops." She arched an eyebrow as he suddenly grinned. "What?"

"You're cute when you're mad." He grinned even wider.

"Shut it, Roxie."

"Don't call me that."

She shrugged as she picked her pencil up and tried to finish her sketch. "Anyway, Roxie (she bit her lip to keep from laughing), how come you didn't just portal in instead of shouting through my door?"

"Hey, I do have manners, you know," he answered. Naminé froze as she realized Roxas was sitting on the table beside her sketch. "It's not polite to barge into girls' rooms, you have to ask them first, otherwise they claw at you and eat you whole. Of course, when they invite you inside... that's another story."

"Funny, I don't remember inviting you in." She commented, trying to ignore the growing heat creeping up her face. "Get off my table."

Roxas portaled off and reappeared behind her. She could feel his eyes on her back.

"And I thought you were the shy girl," he said dryly.

"And I thought you were the angsty guy," she shot back.

"Who told you that?"

"Pretty much everyone down from number seven."

"Yeahhh... that everyone includes me. I am supposed to be angsty. DiZ says Sora's the happy guy," he mused wonderingly. "Why am I like this, anyway?"

"Stop monologuing, it's driving me crazy."

"Oh yeah, about that." A star-shaped keychain dropped into the paper in front of her. She fingered it, admiring the handiwork.

"What's this? Yes, I know it's a keychain."

He laughed again. "You know me too well. Well, since I suppose there's no one to annoy you or drive you crazy at Castle Oblivion, I'm giving you that. Everytime you see it, you'll remember me, and then I can ruin your day even if I'm far, far, away, and you can't get back at me unless you go back here." he paused. "Hey, even I'm confused with what I'm saying."

"An annoyance charm." she murmured as she stood up and held the star to the light. It was beautiful. Very well made. "Catchy name, huh?"

"Naminé, Marluxia says they're already at the other Castle...oh. Number Thirteen."

She whirled around, recognizing the scientist's drawl. If he told on Roxas being in her room, both of them would be in deep Xemnas-induced hot water. "Vexen---"

"Say hi to Axel for me, Vex," Roxas said loudly.

Vexen sneered at him before turning back to her. "Hurry up. Marluxia's already found the world they're in." He shot Roxas a snicker before portaling out. Sometimes Vexen was just...unreadable. She fervently hoped he wouldn't go and tell Xemnas that number thirteen had been breaking rules again.

Naminé sighed as she set the keychain on the table with her sketchpad, intending to begin taking down her sketches posted around her room.

"An annoyance charm? Man, where'd you come up with those?"

"That was the first thing that came to my mind. I told you, get off my table." She reached out and started taking down a sheet, careful not to tear off the edge.

"Uh... Naminé? Would you mind leaving those...sketches?" Roxas asked quietly. Disturbingly quiet.

"Why?" she continued prying the page (she'll never use scotch tape ever again) off the wall, chipping paint off in the process. "So you can draw on them while I'm gone? No way, Roxas."

"So whenever I come here, I won't miss you so much."

Naminé's eyes widened, he had just breathed those words down her neck. He was now standing so close behind her she could feel him breathing.

"Hey, to you, it may be a month, but to me, it's going to be a long year." he added.

She released the stubborn corner of paper she was trying to pry off the wall, feeling scarlet rush up her face. "So go annoy someone else."

"Awww, but it's not going to be as fun," he answered. Her supposed to be scathing reply caught in her throat as his arms wrapped around her waist tightly. "You know, whenever I'm around you, things don't seem so angsty anymore."

She was stunned for a few seconds before she gathered her wits and portaled out of Roxas' grasp to the other side of her table. He sighed and turned around to look at her, a forlorn expression on his face.

"Just what do you think you're doing?" she asked, a trifle too nervously for her liking.

He sat in the chair she had occupied not so long ago and started twirling the pencil around in his fingers. "I'm not sure. I just...feel like I'm never gonna see you again."

She arched an eyebrow, still breathing hard. "It's not like I'm going to die. And that's not what I meant. What's up with the...the sudden... ahhh..." she trailed off, knowing that Roxas got the hint.

"I kinda realized, now that you'll be going away... I'm gonna miss you, because," he looked down, his ears turning red. "I like you. As in like you---love you thing."

She made a little spluttering noise.

"I know what you're going to say, that we can't even feel, but honestly, I don't care. I still love you. Even though we've just met, it feels like I've known you since forever."

"Annoying you was kinda the way I thought I could, you know, stay close to you," he continued, spreading his hands helplessly, "without you suspecting that.. you know...darn it's so hard to say."

Naminé giggled at the expression on Roxas' face, which was now a mixture of acute nervousness, glee, sadness, and a whole lot of red. She also giggled at herself. That she didn't even know the reason for.

"Are you...mad?"

She giggled again, a high-pitched, girlish giggle. "No, silly. It's just weird. I thought Nobodies couldn't feel anything."

"Do I look like I don't feel to you?"

"Do I look like I'm blind?"

He grinned. She realized she thought that grin was adorable.

"Roxie," she tried to look anywhere but at him, because she knew if she did, she would faint. "I like you too. As in like you---love you thing." Nobodies couldn't feel, but she barely qualified as a Nobody. Maybe that counted for something.

"One: I'm not Roxie. Two: Stop imitating me. You're horrible."

She pouted at him. "But I really do like you."

He smiled at her.

She smiled at him.

"Are we just going to grin at each other for the rest of this nonexistent day?" he said in one breath before disappearing in strands of darkness, portaling, again, right behind her.

"If we could, yeah. Sadly, I have to go," she bowed her head as Roxas' hands encircled her waist. "I'm going to miss you, too."

"Well, I could go and visit you time to time," he suggested, resting his chin on her shoulder, every strand of spiky hair tracing her cheek making her shudder.

"Marluxia'll kill you."

"Technically he can't kill me if I'm not even---"

She finished his sentence for him. "--alive." So what if they were only nobodies who couldn't feel? What counted was that the two of them found solace in each other. Comfort. That was something that made her feel alive.

She reached for his gloved hands and grasped them tightly in hers.

"It is only a month," she said aloud, not knowing that her month will grow into forever, for as she will unchain Sora's memories, she will be unchaining hers as well, for she was born of him, and that any memory before Castle Oblivion will fade into eternal darkness, and she will only catch snatches of those memories in her dreams.

"Don't ever forget about me, Naminé."

"Who could forget you, Roxie."

They laughed together, finding joy not in their nonexistent hearts, but in each other's company.

Love is like that.

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Sappiness. Damn.

Review please. Guys who flame, go ahead. Give me your best shot.