Someday

Right now, I know you can't tell,

I'm down and I'm not doing well,

But one day these tears, they will all run dry,

I won't have to cry,

Sweet Goodbye

Train Trip to Destiny Islands

"How can he be so calm at a time like this?" Namine thought to herself. Throughout the trip, she had been looking over at Roxas wondering why he hadn't said anything besides him insisting on going with her earlier.

So far, he had been keeping his composure and, "Wait," Namine blinked when she noticed the wires of his earphones, "he was listening to music this whole time?" she sighed, "No wonder he's been quiet. He's not worried about anything. It's all in my head."

"We're here."

Namine glanced up, "Huh?"

"C'mon," Roxas took her by the hand, "this is our stop."

She let herself get dragged by the boy, hand in hand in awkward silence as she sighed nervously. She couldn't tell if Roxas was still upset or if he was just, "Are you still mad at me?"

He stopped walking as her eyes widened in surprise. She didn't mean to let that slip. "What?" She heard him ask, she winced at the thought that she made this even more awkward between them. "Of course not," he breathed softly, "I mean, I was never mad at you in the first place."

Namine blinked, "But you seemed…earlier…you sounded like…" she was referring to his attitude earlier when he got on the train with her. Concern fell over his face as he listened patiently as she sighed, "Never mind, I just…you didn't have to come along…"

"Is it a bother to you?"

"N-No!" She shook her head, "That wasn't what I meant! I feel bad that you're using up your free time coming with me, when you could be back at home-"

"Doing what?" He interrupted her, "Running around with our friends having snowball fights while you're here by yourself? I'm not that heartless to do that."

Her face slightly reddened. There he goes again, acting like his usual self to make any girl swoon. She was sure that he would've done this for anyone and she was just one of the many to feel this way. To Roxas, this was probably the norm for him, helping any lady in need. Inhale, exhale. "Why are you doing this?"

"We had an agreement, that I was going to come with you, if you came here," he wanted to tell her. She may have thought that he was wasting his time being with her, but that wasn't the case. "You're wasting your time going after Sora." Roxas held her hand firmly, "We better go before it gets dark."

Roxas Residence

Inhale, exhale. The room smelled of sweet lavender and everything about this place was neat, but with one problem. Namine sighed, "Now how did I get from the plan confessing to Sora to staying at Roxas' house?" It was almost midnight, hours after they ate dinner downstairs and here she was, laying on the bed, unable to fall asleep. How could she? It was only her and Roxas in the house since his parents were on a business trip. Oh if Olette found out about this…"I need some air."

She peered over at the windows, "There's a balcony out there?" She sat up from the bed and walked to see that with a simple pull, the doors lead her to a small balcony revealing the view of the ocean before her. "Wow, I would love to sketch this!" She was in awe at the sight of Destiny Islands at night. "I understand why Sora would want to live here, it's pretty…" She walked over to the balcony's edge, staring at the ocean's water. "I wonder why Roxas decided to leave this place. Because his parents are always traveling, they left the house for him, but he still lives alone, even when they let him transfer to Twilight Town." Her gaze began to soften, "I wonder if he ever feels lonely…" she sighed, "Roxas…"

"Yeah?"

She jumped in fright, completely caught off-guard that he was behind her. "Roxas? H-How long were you s-standing there?"

"Oh you didn't know?" His hand ran through the strands of his hair as he smiled sheepishly, "I thought you noticed me, isn't that why you said my name?" All the blond girl could do was blush, he took that as a no. "Sorry, I didn't mean to scare you. I walked upstairs and saw that your light was on, I thought maybe you fell asleep. I was going to turn it off until I saw you standing here."

"O-Oh, I see," Namine hoped her pink face would fade back to its normal color soon, "I couldn't get to sleep."

"You too?" He decided to stand beside her, "I might see why if you saw this. It's been awhile since I've stood here."

"Really?" She tried to act casual, her heart was beating fast from what had just happened. Inhale, exhale.

"Namine, look up at the sky."

Namine looked at him. Roxas smiled, pointing a finger towards the sky, motioning her to look up as well. She hoped he wasn't playing a dirty trick on her. But once she did, a smile grew on her face, "Stars…"

"Cool, huh?"

"Definitely."

"Good, she's happy." Roxas saw the genuine smile upon her face turn into a soft giggle as she pointed to several stars above them. He was worried that he would never be able to see her this happy again unless if she was with Sora. Speaking of Sora, they still needed to get that taken care of.

Namine beamed when he caught eye contact with her, making him feel more nervous. How was he going to fix that without hurting her? He didn't want this to be the last time he was going to see her smile. He sighed, maybe he was thinking too much about it.

"Roxas?" He turned to look at her, "Do you ever wish that you could control time? You know, make time stop at the moments you never want to end or fast forward to the future when you're finally happy in the end?"

She's thinking about Sora again, it was easy for him to read that expression on her face. He shrugged, "Sometimes, but when you think about it, if we did have that power to control time, we'd never be able to face the future ahead of us." They both stared at the sky as a few shooting stars sped by, "You know, there are many people that can potentially fall in love with you as there are stars in the sky," he said quietly.

Namine glanced at the boy beside her, who was busy naming the constellations in his head, "What?" She thought she heard him mumble something.

He didn't need to see her reaction, "Someday, you'll get there and realize what you've been missing all along. That's my answer to your question."

Her expression changed into her thinking mode, "But that answer doesn't make any sense."

Roxas chuckled, "Well don't spend too much time thinking about it. We should probably get some sleep if we're going to find Sora tomorrow."

"Right," she could feel herself blushing hearing Sora's name. She walked over to her bed as Roxas began to leave the room, "Roxas?" He heard her call out, "Thank you. You're a good friend you know that?" He paused. Of course, she would mention that, that's all they were weren't they? "Anytime." He gave her an all knowing smile, before shutting the door behind him. "If only…"

School Dormitory

"Wait," Namine grabbed his hand to stop him from reaching the doorknob in front of them, "we shouldn't go in."

"Why not?" Roxas sighed. It nearly took them two hours to convince Namine that they should go visit Sora at school after they visited his house only to find out from his mother that he decided to live in the school dorms.

"I'm starting to have second thoughts about this."

"He's not here anyways," With the turn of the knob, they were stunned to see that the room was completely organized and clean, "wow, I didn't know he's become such a neat freak."

"Me neither." Namine hesitated to step in the room, worried that they had mistaken this room for someone else. "The Sora I know back at home would've had all his laundry laying around, his desk would've been full of assignments that he was supposed to do, and empty pocky boxes would be everywhere."

Roxas laughed, "Maybe he's changed."

"Change, huh?" Namine murmured. Before she could add any more to that, something from the shelf of his desk caught her eye, making her walk towards it to give it a closer look. Her hand reached for it, carefully making sure it wouldn't break. "He still has this," she smiled, holding it close to her, "I thought he was going to keep it with him always, but I guess he wanted to keep it safe," she closed her eyes, "the paopu star charm I gave him…"

"It must be important to him if he left it out on display like that."

She opened her eyes, realizing that Roxas was still there. "U-Um, you d-didn't see me just-" her face began to turn red, too embarrassed to finish her sentence.

Roxas chuckled at her embarrassed expression, "You looked cute for a moment there."

Speechless, her face reddened even more as she quickly placed the star charm back on the shelf. She needed to learn how to handle flattery more.

"Roxas?" Thank goodness, someone was there to save the moment. In fact, that voice sounded familiar as they both looked over to see the famous brown haired boy standing before them.

"Sora! Hey," Roxas slapped high five with him, "decided to drop by for a surprise visit. Surprise."

"Yeah, I'm definitely surprised," Sora laughed. He grinned at his cousin before noticing the blond girl standing by his desk. He was stunned, "Namine?" he walked over to her, as she stood frozen in spot, unable to move or speak in deep shock. He smiled, "Do I at least get a hug?"

"Eh?" Her heart began to beat rapidly, "Can I?"

This made Sora laugh, "C'mon Namine, I don't think you ever had to ask for permission to- woah!" He nearly fell over as the blond girl immediately embraced him, "I missed you!" she grinned.

"Yeah," he happily returned the hug, holding her close to him, "it's been awhile, Namine," he whispered softly.

"Namine," she liked the sound of her name when he said it. She closed her eyes, enjoying the moment. It was definitely better than a dream.

Of course, their moment was ruined by the sound of ringing from Sora's cell phone. "Sorry," he murmured, as he reached for the phone in his pocket and answered it.

"Aren't you glad you got to see him?" Namine nearly jumped at the sound of Roxas' voice beside her. She looked at him, a smile pasted on his face. She reached for his hand and held it firmly, "Thank you, Roxas." She smiled, "Otherwise, I would've gotten lost if I had gone alone."

He rolled his eyes, making Namine giggle, "Yeah I know, you'd be doomed without me."

"They have better chemistry than I thought," Sora observed the two, while he talked on the phone, "Alright, I meet you there." He hung up the phone as his familiar giddy expression reappeared, "Hope you both don't mind, but I have to meet up with a classmate to finish some final touches for our school project."

"Sure, we better get out of your room anyways," Roxas agreed, "I'll give Namine a tour around the island."

"Cool, I'll see you both later then!" Sora waved as he ran out of the room.

"Strange…He was sure in a hurry for a project like that. He's never eager to do homework. Maybe his partner is super strict or something…" Namine shook her head. Maybe she was overanalyzing everything. Life here on Destiny Islands was completely different from Twilight Town, hence the names. Two different worlds.

Destiny Islands

"Too bad they don't sell sea salt ice cream like back in Twilight Town," Roxas comfortably sat himself next to the girl who was busy working on several sketches of the ocean. He looked over at her coloring utensils. They were nearly half buried in the sand. "You know, you should keep track of your colored pencils, unless if you plan on making your own treasure hunt later."

"Oh, you're right!" She immediately began reaching for several colors, placing them inside her bag, "I guess it'd be safer if I kept them in here," she chuckled at her carelessness.

"Here," he picked up a red pencil. For a moment, he was caught up in staring at the color. Red. It reminded him of her, "I wonder if she," he accidentally rambled off.

But Namine managed to hear his unfinished sentence, "She?" She took the pencil from his hand, placing it with the rest of the other colored pencils.

"Sorry," he didn't know why he was apologizing.

She smiled softly, "It's okay Roxas. You can tell me, it's already fair since you already know my story."

"Speaking of that," Roxas faced her, "when are you going to tell Sora?"

"I was thinking of-" Namine glanced at Roxas, only to stop mid-sentence. It surprised both of them how close their faces were to each other. Namine blushed, "Er, well…" She glanced away in embarrassment. "I-I'm not sure…"

"I see," Roxas wasn't sure why the girl had suddenly gotten self conscious again. Maybe the topic was still a sensitive subject for her. "This girl I liked," he referred back to her question, "is kind of like you." He could feel her staring at him, listening intently. "She's a little more outgoing, a bit of an airhead, but she still had her smarts." He smiled, "We grew up together here."

"So you really care about her," Namine concluded. She could tell in the tone of his voice and the expression on his face was genuine. Her fingers swayed back and forth in the sand, making endless random patterns, "is it…" she paused. Somehow, she had a hard time saying her name, "Xion?"

She closed her eyes in fear that he would say yes. "Hang on, why should I care who he likes?"

To her shock, he replied, "No."

"What?" She stared at him in disbelief, "I thought you had feelings for her since-"

"No, no," he shook his head, "It's someone you haven't met yet. Besides, Xion...she's a special person too, I care about her a lot, but…"

Ironically, this made Namine even more disappointed. It was bad watching him and Xion together like a third wheel when they hung out, but it was bad enough that there was another girl already set in his mind. "Someone I haven't met yet," she seemed unhappy at that line, "Are you…going to confess to that girl?"

She gazed at him, waiting for an answer. She froze. Why again was she concerned about his love life? He began to grin as her smile seemed to sink slowly. Maybe it just felt nice having a guy focus his attention on her. For once someone besides Sora. "Nope."

Namine blinked, "Why not? If I'm going to tell Sora my feelings, you should too. Wait, was this part of the reason why you wanted to come with me?"

"Not at all," he bluntly stated. "I had no intention of doing that. Besides," he swiped the excess sand that covered his pants and stood up, "she's already happy with her special someone."

Hesitantly, Namine stood up as well, but stared at the ocean in front of them as a mere distraction from any awkward eye contact. "But are you happy with that?"

"Yeah," he sighed, "I don't want to interfere with her happiness. The person she chose is like a brother to me. He's a perfect match for her, someone who's optimistic and well liked by everyone. Unlike me…" he forced a laugh, "you know that guy's always been the popular one, there's just something about him that people like."

Namine looked over to see Roxas walking ahead of her. He closed his eyes, feeling the ocean breeze pass by them. Though he didn't look like it, he was serious. She frowned. She hated it when her friends pretended that things didn't bother them, when it obviously did. Subconsciously, her hand tugged the sleeve of his jacket, "That's not true, Roxas!" she accidentally blurted.

He immediately opened his eyes just as she let the strands of her blond hair cover her face in embarrassment. At the same time, she couldn't believe that he would think that lowly of himself. Hearing things like giving up your happiness for someone else's made her tear up. Whoever his friend is, Roxas still had points about him that other people didn't have.

"Er I mean…no…I…" She shut her eyes when she felt his fingers push her blond strands of hair away from her face, "You're…" he touched her cheek softly, "quite the crybaby aren't you?"

Immediately, her eyes blinked open, "W-What?"

He grinned, "Not that I was complaining, at least you're letting people know how you feel. It's better than bottling it up inside."

She gave him a weird stare, "You sound like a therapist, in a good way."

Roxas shrugged, "Maybe I'll be a good therapist someday."

"Someday…" she repeated, remembering him saying that word last time, "sounds like never."

He tilted his head, "You don't think I'd be a good therapist?"

"W-What? N-No I didn't mean that at all I-"

"Namine, I was kidding."

"Oh." She watched him laugh at the embarrassed expression that was probably on her face right now. Not before long, it was replaced by her own genuine smile as she laughed along with him. Maybe it wasn't bad hanging out with someone else for a change.

"Shall we go back home?" He looked like he was back to his former self.

She didn't have to say anything, just simply holding his hand said all as she smiled, "Yeah."

At Roxas' house

"Don't go…"

Roxas silently placed a blanket over the blond girl's body as she fell asleep on the couch. He had been hearing her sleep talk for three nights already, he wasn't surprised at all. It was just a habit of hers.

"So..ra…" she held onto his hand, not letting go as he patiently sat on the floor beside her. "Namine," he muttered softly, "if I could control time, I would use it right now to stop you from getting hurt…" He felt her hand slowly let go of his as she fell into a peaceful slumber from hearing those words. It made him smile a little that-

He suddenly heard bags being dropped, "Roxas?" Another female voice gasped at the doorway as he blinked, stunned to see, "Xion?"

The next morning

"I'm so excited for you Namine!" Xion jumped up and down, dragging Namine with her into a little circle dance, "You're going to tell that boy you like him!" Apparently, after Xion had appeared last night, she had brought her belongings with her, meaning she had intended to stay with them. Surprisingly, this girl had enough energy to jump around so early in the morning.

The blond girl's face went red, "I-Well…he's-"

"And you're blushing, how cute!" Xion grinned. Roxas smacked her head with a plate.

"Will you stop that? Namine doesn't like that sort of attention," he scolded her. Xion pretended to pout, complaining about how he should be less abusive to his friends.

The blond girl simply smiled as she watched the two bicker. It made her feel nostalgic. Yes, her and Sora, they probably looked like that back then. Two good friends, hanging out as if they had all the time in the world. That made her feel…as a tear slipped, sad.

"Look what you did, you made Namine cry!" Xion glared at the boy who scoffed at her poor acting skills at trying to be funny. She crossed her arms, "Let's cheer her up by going outside then."

Destiny Islands

"Are you sure you're okay?"

Namine glanced up from her trance. Whenever she was in the mood to sketch a scenery or anything, she was always off in her own little world so it was hard to grab her attention. "Huh? Of course I am."

Roxas frowned as he sat beside her, "You seemed upset this morning."

"Oh, that?" Namine laughed nervously, "I was just feeling sentimental about something."

"It's Sora, isn't." She wondered if her face was that easy to tell. He grinned, "You've been talking about him in your sleep."

Her expression fell into an annoyed look. "You eavesdropper," she smacked him lightly with her sketchbook, trying to hide the blush on her cheeks. Roxas was the kind of guy who easily ruined moments with one sentence.

"Hey, you were the one talking aloud, I couldn't help it-" Roxas tried to restrain her hands from hitting him as they both later sat there laughing as Xion watched from afar. She didn't like how things were going between them, one bit.

"Xion! Look at the sandcastle we made," Roxas grinned as he waved his friend over, which she reluctantly did.

"Roxas! Wakka and I are going skim boarding, wanna come?" Tidus pointed to his board and winked, "I know you want to."

"No need to ask," Roxas knew fully well what Tidus meant, "you two will be fine here right?"

"Of course," Xion rolled her eyes sarcastically, "We don't need a babysitter to watch over us at a beach. Namine and I will just have to make a giant sandcastle without you," she stuck her tongue out at him as he ruffled with her hair, before running off to join the other guys. "You don't mind hanging out with me, right Namine?"

The blond girl handed her a sand shovel and smiled, "Course not."

"Too bad we couldn't take a picture of our awesome sand castle," Xion began as they started to gather up their belongings, "That big ocean wave just had to ruin the moment."

"It was fun while it lasted." Namine folded the towel neatly, noticing Xion's frozen state, "Something wrong?"

"My bracelet…"

"Huh?" Namine stared at Xion's wrist where the bracelet was supposed to be. The dark haired girl started to check her bag and her pockets, "It's not here…what if…" she looked over at the blue waters, "I can't lose it, I must've lost it when we were building sand castles."

"Your doctor said you're not allowed to swim until you've fully recovered from the hospital," Namine tried to tell her calmly, knowing that it would make it worse, "are you sure it's not somewhere in the sand or-"

"It's not in any of our belongings, we have to find it, Roxas gave it to me!" Xion panicked, making her cough from stress.

The blond girl froze. It's a no wonder why Xion had been frantic about it. If it were a normal bracelet, she would've shrugged it off, but this was… "I'll go find it. You're getting yourself sick." She patted her shoulder softly, before frowning, "Xion, you're burning, I think you have a fever."

"What? Namine, but you-"

"It's okay, I'll do my best to find it, go back to the house and if Roxas is there, tell him that I went out to sketch some more scenery and he shouldn't worry about me, okay? It'll give me enough time to go look for it."

Xion coughed slightly, "Okay. Good luck, Namine." She walked away, leaving the blond girl to search for her so-called lost item. She reached into the back pocket of her shorts, where her bracelet really was and smiled. That should keep her away from Roxas for a while. "I should ask Roxas to take me out to the movies, tonight."

- After time has passed by...

"This is impossible…" Namine sighed as she stood in shallow water. She had been retracing their steps for an hour and still no sign of where her bracelet might've been. She almost wanted to give up and tell Xion that since it was lost in the ocean, there was no hope in getting it back. "But I can't just tell her without trying." She walked into deeper waters, maybe it had gotten washed onto a nearby rock or something. "But it wouldn't be safe to go too far since-" a sudden wave surprised her, as it pulled her into the waters.

"-mine…Namine!"

Immediately, her blue eyes appeared as she blinked and sat up confused. "What happened?"

"That was close," She looked over at the boy who was sitting beside her. Tidus looked relieved, "I was heading home when I saw that wave nearly drown you. Why were you by yourself, that was dangerous you know, what if I hadn't been there, you-"

"Alright, I get it," she placed a hand over his mouth to stop him from continuing on, "thank you."

He began to inhale deeply, calming himself down. "What were you doing out here? Roxas thought you and Xion would be home by now."

"I was…trying to look for a bracelet Xion lost earlier."

He shook his head as Namine added, "I know. It was stupid, but I couldn't refuse and tell her that there was no way of finding it. I had to try."

"And risk this? If Roxas were here-"

She instantly looked at him, "You're not going to tell him are you? Please, don't tell him, I'll tell him personally. Trust me."

"But-"

"Thanks again!" She waved at the older boy, before heading back to the direction of Roxas' house. She didn't want to waste anymore time being outside when her friend was at home sick. As for Tidus who wasn't sure if she would keep her word, pulled out his cell phone and began to dial numbers.

"I can't actually tell Roxas what happened," Namine reminded herself, once Roxas worries, he won't keep his eyes off of you, and that was the part she wanted to avoid the most. Out of the corner of the older house shacks, she bumped into another person as they both fell onto the sand.

"Sorry!" they both said in unison.

Namine blinked, the girl in front of her also did the same, "Don't I know you?" they both asked each other at the same time again.

They both laughed, "Didn't we happen to do this exact same thing when we first met each other?" Namine bent down to reach for the belongings that fell out of Kairi's bag.

"Yeah, we did," Kairi grinned, "Namine, right?" She glanced at her face, happy to see that the blond girl had remembered her and her name, "What's gotten you down? You don't look happy."

"Eh?"

The redhead gave her an all knowing smile, "I can tell something's been on your mind. You can't lie to me."

"Oh, you can tell?" A faint blush grew on Namine's face as she tried to look away without seeming obvious, "S-So! Did you find yourself a special someone?"

"Me?" Kairi was about to point out that the girl was changing the subject, but it sounded like a hint that it was related to her situation. "It was a success," she beamed, "He now carries the star charm I gave him everywhere," she clapped her hands dreamily, "in fact, I'm meeting up with him now."

"Oh I'm sorry! I'm probably taking up your time-"

"Nonsense! That boy's never on time anyways," Kairi laughed, "Is there someone you've been looking for on the islands?" The look on Namine's face proved the obvious. The redhead was in awe, instantly, her hands took Namine's, "I have newfound respect for you! That's so romantic, coming all the way from another town! You're more courageous than I am."

"Well, I haven't talked to him just yet."

"Eh?" Kairi looked disappointed. "But you are, right? I mean you're not just going to give up are you?"

"Well no, but it's taking much more mental thought than I planned," she sheepishly tugged on her blond strands, "I'm more worried about what his answer will be. I mean if I get rejected, that'll ruin our friendship." She sighed, "That's much worse than not confessing at all."

"Namine," Kairi held her hand and squeezed it softly, "even though we haven't gotten to know each other that well, I believe there's nothing wrong with trying. You're both friends, you know him well enough what he likes and dislikes." She smiled, "I was scared too, but I'm glad I ended up saying it."

"She's right."

"And if it ends unhappily," Kairi patted her shoulder, "you can come to me. Well, if you want to…we're friends, right?"

Namine giggled and hugged her new friend, "We were already friends when we first ran into each other."

Kairi laughed, "I guess one of us should've slowed down then, we would've had a safer crash landing," she joked, making Namine laugh. "Where are you staying at? As you can tell by my uniform, I live in the school dorms, so I should walk you back before I stay out too late."

"Oh no you don't," the redheaded girl felt an older boy grab her arm, "I'm not letting two young ladies walk out by themselves, even if you know your way around the island in the dark."

"Riku!"

Namine watched Kairi argue with her silver haired friend. "Who's he?" she wondered if this was her boyfriend, a pretty faced, tall, protective type of boy. "Is he?" She gestured towards Riku.

"Eh?" Kairi shook her head furiously, "No, no! See, this guy here, is Riku he's-"

"I'm Kairi's babysitter, nice to meet you." Riku smiled, as if his role was something to be proud of.

"Dork, I'm old enough to look after myself."

"Well I'm already babysitting your boyfriend, I might as well look after you, too."

Her friend fumed either from the term boyfriend, or the comment about her having to be baby sat at this age, as the boy laughed at her expression. Scoreboard: Kairi 0, Riku 1

"Uh, Namine! I swear it's not like that between me and this guy," Kairi noticed the blond girl shaking only to realize she was trying hard not to laugh. "Uh…" she laughed nervously, "I guess I should just tell you as I tried to say earlier, that this dork, Riku happens to be one of my childhood friends. He likes to make fun of me all the time. That's why he made that babysitter joke."

"Actually, I was being serious."

"Shut up."

Roxas' House

"Thanks for walking me back you guys," Namine smiled, "I can walk to the front door from here."

"No problem," Riku nodded, Kairi grinned, waving farewell to her as they walked away, "See you later, Namine!"

Just as when she was about to open the door to go inside, someone else had already beaten her to it. "Oh, Roxas?" She was surprised not only to see him, but the expression he had on his face right now, looked upset.

"Namine!" Yep, he was definitely upset and at the same time relieved that she was back, "Where have you been?"

"Er…I was…" Namine didn't know how to explain, or if she was supposed to tell him about Xion losing the bracelet Roxas gave her. "Ah!" She needed to find Xion, "How's Xion's fever?"

"Namine, wait-" he grabbed her arm to stop her from walking away, "I heard from Tidus that you nearly drowned today."

She kept quiet, her back towards him so she didn't have to face him. She could hear an exasperated sigh from Roxas. Now what? She winced. Was he going to yell at her for being an airhead? Give her some sort of lecture? Or-

Instead, she was swept up into his arms as he held her tightly, "Namine…" he murmured.

"Uh…" She could feel herself blushing. "Roxas," He didn't say anything. "Roxas, I-"

"Do you know how worried I was when I couldn't find you today? Let alone have Tidus tell me you nearly drowned?" The tone of his voice wavered, as if he was trying not to get upset with her. Listening to him right now made her nervous, he was worried, but it almost sounded like…

"I mean, think of the people who care about you-"

She suddenly felt disappointed when he mentioned people. That's right, he was probably thinking of that deal they made from before, she was probably burdening him by being here…"I appreciate you trying to do this for Sora's sake-"

He cut her off, "It wasn't for Sora."

"Huh?" Roxas let go her and stared at her in disbelief that she hadn't gotten the point.

"I did all of this for you."

She froze. The look on his face was no joke, he meant every word. "You…" she tried to say, but now him staring at her made her self conscious.

But before either of them could say a word, they had forgotten someone else was in the room, "Nami…ne?" Xion had been sleeping a couple yards away from where they were standing. It looked like she had been sleep talking.

Namine walked away from Roxas towards Xion's sleeping figure on the couch, "Xion?"

The dark haired girl had been drifting on and off in her sleep, "Namine?" She murmured, the blond girl touched her forehead softly. Her fever was nearly gone. "I'm getting…better," Xion gave her a small smile, pushing Namine's hand aside to show she didn't need to worry.

"Ah," Namine noticed something dangling on her friend's wrist, "Is that…"

Xion slowly glanced at the wrist she was staring at, "Oh…Roxas…he found it on the kitchen floor…I thought I lost it, I'm pretty clumsy aren't I?" she laughed lightly, forcing a smile, "Sorry for making you go look for it."

"Um…no it's okay." Namine couldn't believe she spent all that time looking for something that wasn't even there in the first place, "I'm glad you're alright and that the bracelet's found." Xion nodded, drifting back to sleep, leaving Namine and Roxas the only ones awake. She glanced over at the blond boy who was leaning against the doorframe, waiting to talk to her again.

She placed the blanket over Xion, tucking her in carefully so she wouldn't wake up. "She'll be alright…"

"Yeah."

Namine blushed, remembering where they left off before Xion interrupted. "Uh, Roxas?" She nearly gasped, because he was a lot closer to her than she thought. He tended to have a habit of appearing here and there. He looked at her, waiting for her to continue on. "T-Thank you," she stammered and bowed her head slightly, "Good night, I'm going to bed!"

"Ah," Roxas wanted to keep talking to her, but she had already run upstairs, probably embarrassed after what happened. And suddenly, that just made him blush too. He wanted to mentally smack himself. "Great, I just ruined it…"

A Visit at Sora's House

"Hey, why does Sora's mom have all these photo albums out of their boxes?" Xion pointed to the mess of photos scattered around the room. "Oh! I remember this, you guys were trying to build your own boats so you could race and see who was the best sailor on the island," she snickered at the thought, "didn't you forget to put the sails on your boat and ended up being last in the race?"

He blushed immediately, swiping the picture away from her grasp, "Don't remind me."

"Aw, is Roxas embarrassed?" She teased, poking his shoulder as Namine simply chuckled at the two of them. "Namine, I bet you didn't know that Roxas could outrun Sora and Riku in a paopu fruit race."

She tilted her head in confusion, "A what race?"

"Oh that's right, if you had lived here you would know what that means," Xion muttered, "It's a race held every year to see who could get through these obstacle courses on wooden planks and win the paopu fruit in the end. It's really hard."

"Easy for you to say," Roxas rolled his eyes, "you never had to compete with us."

She grinned, "But I sure had fun watching you try."

For a moment, Namine forgot her reason for being here as she continued to smile and giggle at every occasional moment Xion and Roxas had a story to tell her from the photos they were looking through. Half of the time, she was interested and entertained by their stories, but the other half was her feeling…out of the picture. She couldn't blame them though, it's not like she could relate or add in any of her comments, because she didn't really know majority of what their conversations were about.

"Roxas! Look!" Xion grinned, pointing to one of the pictures in the book, "It's us when we were kids at the Starlight Festival!"

"Yeah, you're right, I almost forgot how much fun those were," Roxas chuckled, "there aren't many stars in Twilight Town."

"Eh? No way!" Xion stared at him in disbelief, "You should come visit us more often so you don't forget."

He smiled, ruffling with her short dark hair, "Alright, fine I'll reconsider it."

"Yay!"

The blond haired boy laughed at his friend's enthusiasm and glanced over at Namine who was sitting beside them looking at several photos displayed on the table. Feeling that she was being watched, she nervously looked up to see Roxas' cheerful expression as he gave her a small wave. She giggled softly and waved back to return the gesture.

"Roxas, could you please come over here for a moment?" another voice interrupted the trio sitting comfortably in the room.

"Be right back, my aunt needs me," Roxas stood up and ran over to the kitchen where the two girls were left to converse by themselves.

"I didn't realize how much pictures were taken at the time," Xion murmured, skimming through the pages of Roxas' photo albums, "it's a no wonder why his mom was nicknamed 'mamarazzi', she took so many."

"Yeah, she did." Namine agreed, her eyes keeping up with the pace of the amount of photos and pages were being turned until one specific photo had her hand stop Xion from continuing on. "Wait."

"What?" she muttered in a slightly irritated tone. She gazed at the photo Namine's hand stopped upon. The one with Roxas, Sora, Kairi, and herself. A smile formed upon her face, "Oh this?" She asked innocently, "Back when we were younger, the four of us used to play together all the time."

The blond girl was stunned, "Y-You guys all knew each other before?"

"Of course, aside from Sora and Roxas being cousins, Kairi is my twin sister, why else wouldn't we have gotten to know each other?"

"K-Kairi?"

Xion gazed at her, "Looks like you're still getting it in your head." She pointed to the redhead in the photo, "See here? That's my twin sister Kairi, she's had a crush on Sora since we were little." She smirked, "Maybe when he came to visit us over spring break last year was when he decided to move back to Destiny Islands."

"What?" Her words echoed into Namine's mind. "How could that…"

Flashback

Clock Tower

"Let me know if you're planning on visiting him." (Roxas)

"Eh?" She stood up to take the piece of paper from him, "Just wondering, but why?"

He shrugged, "I want to come with you when you visit him that's all, he's my cousin."

White Mansion

She sighed as she sat beside him, "I've sent him e-mails, but he hasn't replied to any of them, he's probably busy."

"Doubt it, that guy's been hanging out with his-" he quickly stopped himself from blurting out the truth. (Roxas)

End Flashback

She paused. It was 'that' moment, the part when he nearly said something else, but said friends instead. She turned to look back at Xion who gave her a blank look, "Is that true? All this time he-"

Flashback

"Sora's a dork like that," Roxas replied, pulling her into a warm hug, "he's forgetful at times because his brain is full of cotton thoughts. He may not have replied back, but I don't doubt that he's happy whenever he reads your e-mails. It just…" he paused, "takes time…besides aren't you the girl who would know him best?"

End Flashback

Crash! Thud!

"Ah!" Namine blushed as she bent down to pick up the fallen photo albums she was previously holding, "S-Sorry…it slipped…"

"It's okay…" Xion murmured softly, kneeling down to help her gather any fallen photos on the floor. She looked up at the blond girl, "I was wondering, do you think you know Sora as well as you think you do?"

Namine froze, "W-What?"

"I just wanted to know how…" the dark haired girl thought of how to word her sentence, "well you think you really know him."

"I've known him since fourth grade up to high school, I'm pretty sure that-" she realized what Xion's point was. Even if she had known him for that long, did she know him well enough to understand his feelings? His dreams? What truly made him happy?

"The four of us…" Xion began, "are linked by our childhood memories, we've grown up on this island together and our friendship is a bond that no one else has." She placed the album on the table, "But with you here, I don't understand what's going on."

Namine paused, "What do you mean?"

"I mean," Xion hesitated, "if you don't know why Sora is here, then," she glared at her and spat, "why are you here? Who were you really here to see?"

Her change of tone was unexpected for the blond girl as she struggled to find an answer. That's right, she was here to find Sora and tell him how she truly felt, so why is she here instead hanging out with Roxas? She let out a light laugh, "I-I'm sorry, I g-guess I should have l-left a-" she found herself choking on her words and bolted out the door.

"Namine!" Too late, the girl had already ran out and Xion was in no condition to run after her. She sighed in exhaustion and fell onto the floor, scolding herself for letting her emotions get in the way. She hadn't meant to sound harsh, but it was irritating for her to watch and stand by doing nothing.

"The reason why I asked her how well she knew Sora wasn't to make her feel bad," Xion turned the pages to near the back of the photo album, and stopped at the last photo. "In fact, I know it doesn't matter how long you've known someone to say they have to automatically fall in love with you, but…"

In that last photo was a picture much different from the others, because this one had Roxas and Namine smiling in their school uniforms. Xion resisted the urge to let her eyes water at the sight of it. If Namine didn't know Sora as well as she thought, then that would mean she, Xion didn't know her childhood friend Roxas as well as she thought either.

"Sorry it took a while, she was preparing snacks for us in the kitchen if you want some," Roxas said as he walked back into the living room, startled to see only Xion, "where's Namine?"

Xion looked away, "Sora." Was all she muttered.

Roxas stood where he was, confused at her one word response. The first thought suddenly came to mind "No…she couldn't be…" he blinked, and in an instant he ran out of the house to go find her.

Destiny Islands - the Pier

Namine's pace began to lessen as she wept tearfully. Though they were only going through old memories of their pictures from the past, she couldn't help, but feel unwanted and left out. "Keep it together Namine! Crying easily over something like this…" her mind scolded her.

"Namine?"

"That voice." The blond glanced up. It couldn't be. "S-Sora?" she gasped, hoping he didn't notice the state she was in. She was so nervous and unprepared to talk to him, why now of all times? "H-Hi, I was going to visit you," she stuttered, "but I d-didn't think now, I guess we just h-happened to run into each other-"

Her babbling immediately stopped the moment his fingers began to reach out to her, gently wiping the tears off her face. She saw the look in his eyes, "Have…you been crying?"

Namine froze, not knowing what to say. She blinked and smiled half-heartedly, "I-I'm alright! Don't worry, I was…" She paused, here was Sora right in front of her, the person she had been searching for, the friend she wanted to tell everything to, her special…

Someone… The dangling pink star charm hooked onto one of the sides of his pants pocket suddenly caught her attention. She fell silent in slight shock, "No joke about it, that familiar star charm…"

Flashback

"Wait!" Namine picked up something else from the ground that wasn't hers. "Is this yours?"

Her eyes widened in surprise and quickly ran back over to the blond, "Thanks, you don't know how much I'd be freaking out if I lost this."

She smiled slowly handing back the…"Is this a charm? It looks like a…star or sakura flower?" She wasn't saying that this girl had an odd taste in art - a charm of five shells put together, a crown in the middle with a face on the front, it was cute and unique.

Kairi laughed, "It's a star shaped charm. I made this out of thalassa seashells, it's good luck for travelers you know, I was planning on giving this to…"her cheeks became pink, "someone special to me, but I don't know if he'll accept it."

End Flashback

"So…that special someone for her was…" If it were possible, she could feel herself breaking, her heart on the verge of falling apart as she gazed at the brown haired boy, "Sora…"

"Namine, you alright?" Sora pressed a hand against her forehead just to make sure she wasn't sick or by chance getting a fever.

Suddenly, the missing pieces were starting to take place in the puzzle. As much as her mind didn't want to absorb it, Sora left Twilight Town for Kairi and Roxas came to Twilight Town for the sake of Xion at the time she was being hospitalized.

At that moment when she felt a tear slowly escape, her vision blurred once again as more tears fell. She glanced down in realization. Now that they were all back on the islands, there was no doubt they would permanently be staying here from now on. She didn't need answers, they were right in front of her all along.

She turned away from Sora, "I'm sorry, I have to go-"

"Namine!" He held her by the wrist firmly, his once calm expression had become serious, full of concern, "Please don't run off… what happened?"

"Sora…" she gave him a soft gaze as she tried to put on a happy smile for him, she didn't want to ruin this, "it's okay. This is just…allergies…I'm not used to this weather." She could tell that he didn't sound convinced, "I'm fine, really." She tried to pull her hand away.

"I don't believe you."

"Sora," she stared at him, "I wasn't crying, because I was sad…in fact I was happy…" The tone of her voice quivered as she tried saying these words, "I came here to visit to see if your life here was happy and I can tell it is," She smiled, "tell Kairi I said hello, okay?"

He was taken aback by her words. In seeing his reaction, she took the opportunity to pull away from his grasp and run off, away from him, away from this island.

"Namine!"

Once she realized that she lost sight of Sora, she slowed her pace while sobbing to herself. She had been an idiot not to foresee any of this. If only she wasn't in denial or stubborn to believe her first love was the one, her happily ever after, all was-

"Namine?" she felt a soft hand tap her shoulder.

She looked back in total relief that it was none other than, "Olette?" she gasped, "W-What are you doing here?"

Olette gave her a small smile, "You didn't call and I wanted to know how things with Sora turned out…" but her friend's tear stained face had revealed everything, "but I can see now…"

"She came all the way over here to see how I was doing?" Instantly, the blond girl hugged her friend as her expression returned to its former sob fest state. Tears began to fall onto Olette's shirt, a soft murmur only the brunette could hear added, "I just want to go home."

Olette merely closed her eyes, comforting her silently.

Twilight Academy

"Are you sure you should be going to school?" Olette had been pestering her since morning, "Our next class is P.E. you should take a break."

Namine sighed, shaking her head, "I'm bound to face him either way." Even if she did want to avoid him, she was sure fate would find some way to get them to coincidentally run into each other. She wouldn't be surprised if he got mad at her for leaving without a word. "I guess that was the end of everything. Sora, Roxas, everyone I met from Destiny Islands." That was a painful thought to remember, but hopefully-

"Hey! Namine watch out!"

Olette gasped, a basketball hit the back of her head painfully, as she nearly fell over, "Which one of you boys threw it?" the brunette glared, pointing at Hayner's group.

"Sorry!" Namine blinked at the sound of his voice. A blush crept on her face, fate just had the worst timing.

"Namine, are you okay?" She felt his hand on her shoulder, expecting her to give him a good answer.

"Oh, man, it really hit her…" Hayner was speechless.

"What were you guys doing anyways? Aiming for her head?" Olette had gone from sweet to scary, as she glared at Hayner and Pence.

"Sorry, I was the one who didn't catch it," Roxas confessed, Namine had refused to look at him, "I'm really sorry, Namine. Do you want to go to the nurse's-"

Namine stood up, "I'm fine."

"Eh?" Olette was sure she was injured enough to go to the infirmary, "Are you sure you're okay? You should go get it checked by the nurs-"

"I'm fine, it's all right." Namine brushed past them as if getting hit in the head was nothing. Liar. Her hand began to rub her forehead, "Well I'm actually feeling a little dizzy…" With all that's happened recently, this was too much for her to handle.

"Maybe that's because I couldn't sleep much last night…" She felt herself feeling faint that her body suddenly fell back, into the arms of the all too familiar blond boy.

"Nurse's office." Roxas firmly told her, as he lifted her in his arms so that she couldn't refuse. It didn't matter anyways, she was too weak to fight back and she knew that with the sound of his voice, she wouldn't dare try to argue.

"You don't need to carry me…" she murmured softly, as they left the gym, but he wasn't listening to her.

"I did nothing, but stand and watch as you got hurt," Roxas said quietly, both knowing it wasn't just the P.E. incident moments ago he was talking about, "even if you tell me you can walk through this alone, at least let me carry you when you feel like you can't. I'm right here."

"Right…here…" she repeated as he held her close. She closed her eyes and gave in as she let herself be carried off in his arms and leaned onto his shoulder, tears beginning to fall softly.

A/N: I finally...finally forced myself into finishing this chapter. I can't believe it took me months to do so, I'm sorry for the long await. Today, I just woke up and thought, "I'm going to finish the chapter!" Oh, and I was presumed dead, I would not be surprised. If I was dead, I'm bound to come back and finish the story anyways. :)

This is probably the most complex chapter I've written for this story. I had a hard time tying everything and the characters together. I kept revising and editing for hours, because I got inspired to write up various scenarios for them, but I had to stick to a limited amount, don't want to put too much... I enjoyed watching Roxas and Namine becoming closer, we didn't see much of them like that in the past chapters. I'm pretty sure you guys were thinking, hurry and put these two together and give them a happy ending. :P I'm getting there...

Thanks for your patience everyone, I'm so sorry I couldn't update much, much earlier. I'm a part of four music groups at my school and music just takes up all my time. Seriously, but I shouldn't use that as an excuse for not writing. For anyone who cares, I play the oboe - symphonic band, the trombone - jazz band, lead drum - steel drum band, bass drum - drumline. :)

For the first time, I'm going to ask you guys a question: "What instrument do you play? Or if you don't play a musical instrument, what's your favorite song/album/artist that you would recommend to anyone?"

I want to thank my chapter 3 reviewers: nerdasaurus: I feel bad for Namine too, why must I put her in this position? Yeah, I love reading stories that can relate to my life too. I'm glad you love this story, (and think it's awesome) it makes me happy :) Handwritten: I definitely feel the same, some girls can get crazy (a little too crazy) around guys, haha, I always want the characters to confess too. At least in this chapter, we're finally getting some answers. I apologize, for an even longer wait for chappie 4, but to make up for it, I think I put in an eventful of scenarios for my fellow friends. Oh, and yes, it will be explained how Xion got into a coma in the next chapter :) Automatic Code Red 123: Yes, I think there are many people out there who can relate to this scenario. Boys...who would've thought the most cheerful guy (Sora) could cause the most drama? Everyone is getting mixed signals in this story. :) Ramen and Chopsticks: Hahahaha! I certainly enjoyed that rap while it lasted :D Yes, yes, who would've thought that Cloud could fall weak under the hands of the common cold :) Pokkin Choco: We'll discover more of Xion's background story in the next chapter, so for now, enjoy this one with some Namine and Roxas fluff (tiny fluff). :) First Day High: Sorry, she would've walked into my story whether I would've liked it or not haha. Yes, love...it's so complicated, and don't cry! Smile! I updated! :D Gogglelicious: Sigh, if you find if necessary, be my guest :D Hahaha, your comment made me laugh. C'mon Xion isn't that bad, she'll have a happy ending too Pandapple: You're welcome! Everytime I don't update the chapter as months pass by, the longer the chapter :) At least we sorta see these people sort their feelings out this time U.W.A.H Squad: Yep, Xion's story will be revealed in chappie 5. Hahaha, more stew in the soup...I like that :) Kiome-Yasha: I have been revived from the dead. Hahaha, but I wouldn't be any more surprised if you thought I was this time. It's been months. Yep, I've been caught onto the Xion faze where stories have her as part of the love triangle between Namine and Roxas. She will have her happy ending. Gasp! She did make that promise! Eek...what now? I agree, I don't like too much character bashing, I tend to have reasons why my characters act the way they are. We'll find more about Xion's story in chappie 5. Yeah, I wanted to do something different where it's not always Kairi is Namine's best friend vice versa. I think Olette would be sweet to have as a buddy! ^^ I hoped you enjoyed this chapter, thanks for a wonderful review! :D Kingdom~Sky: Thank you for welcoming me back! I'm afraid I took an even longer disappearance than usual, so I apologize for the long wait. Yes, there's always gotta be that one character who gets in the way of two people. Sigh! Glad you enjoyed the chapter. :) Lebrezie: How observant of you! Haha, you knew what was going to happen, ah that and it was obvious it was bound to happen. Namixas forever :) Drew: Ah Drew, your review was one I couldn't help be reread constantly every time I haven't updated the next chapter. You're one of the reviews that got me inspired to finish it. Finally! Right? :) nyaa-x3: I try not to make it too complex, so hopefully this one wasn't too confusing :X I tend to have the habit of having too many things happen at once. Gasp! You predicted Xion's future! Haha, but that won't be until the end. In fact, you have accurate theories, but we'll see what happens next, ne? Thank you for reviewing, it meant a lot to me, hope to see you again! :)

Oh and for everyone's sake, I DO READ every review I recieve, but I don't usually get the time to reply back or update my stories as soon as I would've liked, so sorry for those wondering out there. Haha, whenever I'm in school, sometimes I'll be writing notes like how should Roxas and Namine get together? Or how will Sora and Namine meet in this one? If only I had more free time like I used to. Sigh...I apologize again for a LONG wait. I usually don't take this much time to update a chapter, but if I do again, just know that patience is everything. Oh and the longer it takes for me to update, the longer the chapter, yay! Win, win for everyone! (Except for the fact I'm sleep deprived! :D)

Adventures next in Chappie 5: Love heals in the infirmary, but that still doesn't take care of everything. Xion's background story is yet to be revealed along with another secret between Sora and Roxas that wasn't supposed to be revealed to Namine. And who is the mysterious girl Roxas used to like in the past? Well that's already obvious if you got the hint in this chapter. Gasp! Sora comes to visit Twilight Town!