Greetings!

Summary: AU. "I might be a fool, but this fool is in love with you." Roxas/Naminé

Disclaimer: I do not own Kingdom Hearts.

Oo T H E F O O L oO

"Mr. Strife."

No answer.

"Do you hear me, Mr. Strife?"

Naminé looked at the blond haired boy sympathetically as their Literature teacher walked from her table to where the boy sat. He was still dazing off even when the teacher had already stood in front of him.

"Do you listen to what I've said, Mr. Strife?" Miss Gainsborough's voice grew a little impatient. She crossed her arms over her chest and her beautiful emerald eyes blazed with anger.

At that point, the Mr. Strife, or Roxas, as his friend called, had finally awakened from his daze. He blinked his eyes as he saw Miss Gainsborough glaring at him. Never did he saw his teacher could be this angry.

"D-did you just called me, Miss Gainsborough?" Roxas said nervously, scratching the back of his head.

Aerith Gainsborough sighed and shook her head. Her brown hair that was braided nicely swayed as she did so. "May I hear your comment at Miss Haust's presentation?" she said, pointing to the flaxen-haired girl in front of the class.

Roxas glanced at Naminé, who was smiling back at him. He then shifted his attention to his teacher and grinned sheepishly. "I'm sorry, but I didn't hear it."

The hopeful glint in Naminé's eyes faltered when she saw the boy shook his head. Aerith shook her head again, now walking to the girl's direction. "You might consider yourself lucky because I didn't send you to the office for daydreaming in my class, Mr. Strife," she said to Roxas before shifting her attention to Naminé. "And for you, Miss Haust, your presentation was nicely done. You can sit back."

Naminé smiled at her teacher and walked back to her seat. Aerith then continued their lesson.

After giving one glance at Naminé's direction, Roxas had the urge to bang his head onto the table.

-

"Roxas," Naminé called out, as she saw a familiar blond boy with spiky hair on the hallway. "Axel wants me to tell yo–"

In a blink of eyes, Roxas already disappeared from Naminé's sight, leaving the girl a little puzzled. Selphie Tilmitt decided to approach Naminé when she saw her alone in the hallway. "Naminé? What are you doing here alone?"

"I think I saw Roxas here just a second ago…," Naminé's voice trailed off.

"Roxas?" the brunette repeated, quite oblivious to the situation. "I saw him running that way," she pointed to the hallway on her right. "And his face is all red. Did he get a fever or something? Because if he did, he should've known that the nurse office is on the other hallway."

-

"So, you ran away again?" Demyx asked when he saw Roxas slumped on the seat next to him as he arrived at the cafeteria. "Man, Roxas, if you keep acting like that, she might think that you hate her."

The younger boy sighed, letting his head fall onto the table with a small thud; he groaned. "I don't know, Demyx, it's just… everytime I tried to talk to her, my throat went dry and I can't think of anything to say, even if I had already prepared myself. I'm sure she thinks I'm crazy."

"Maybe you should ask for her brother's help sometime," the sitarist suggested with a grin, earning another groan from Roxas. "He's our best friend after all."

"You do realize how protective he could be when it comes to Naminé," Roxas said and shuddered, remembering the deadly look Naminé's brother gave to every boy who were trying to hit on Naminé.

"Well, it's not like she has Seifer or Leon or Cloud as her brother," Demyx countered. "That would be pretty bad."

Roxas held his chin thoughtfully. "I would prefer she has Cloud as her brother," he said, mentioning his own brother. "I mean, he's stupid; stupid enough for not realizing that his best friend is in love with him. Not to tell that he is a coward as well, for not asking her out."

"You know, Cloud might be crying right now if he heard that," Demyx pointed out. "And I think you shared a similar trait with him, hmm, maybe on the coward part?"

Roxas elbowed Demyx hard and that made the poor sitarist winced. "So, do you want to ask him or not?"

"Don't you remember? He said, if he found someone act like a total jerk and make his sister cry, he will burn their body into ashes; best friend or not."

Demyx patted Roxas' shoulder and said wisely, "Well, good luck for not being a jerk then."

-

Roxas walked out casually from his last class. He was rather lucky to have Mr. Xigbar's class since the eye-patched man always dismissed his class earlier than any other classes.

"I finally found you," Naminé said from behind Roxas, making him jump a little. In a swift motion, he already faced the flaxen-haired girl. He could feel his heartbeat quickened and blood rushed to his face.

"N-Naminé?" he stuttered and that made Naminé giggled.

"You looked a little jumpy, Roxas. Are you okay?" she asked worriedly and Roxas quickly shook his head.

"I'm perfectly fine," he answered, trying to hide the blush that began to form on his handsome face. "And, you're looking for me?"

Naminé casted a worried expression at Roxas, before shrugging it off. "Oh yes, I actually want to tell this to you at lunch but you kinda run away from me," Naminé trailed off and continued, "Anyway, Axel wants me to tell you that he invites you to our house today. Yesterday, he won the skateboarding championship in Radiant Garden and he wants to have a small celebration. He said he phoned you last night, but your brother said that both you and Ven were already asleep. So," the flaxen-haired girl stopped when he saw a blank expression on Roxas' face.

She waved her hand in front of Roxas. "Do you hear me, Roxas?"

"Oh, uh… yeah, I hear you. Go on," he said, a little embarrassed.

"Are you sure?" she asked again, earning a shy nod from Roxas. "Since Axel didn't go to school today, he asked me to tell you that. Can you come today? I already asked Ven, Demyx, and Larxene and they said they'll come but they'll be late."

Roxas ran his fingers through his golden locks. "I think I can. Now?"

Naminé peeked inside the nearby class and looked at the clock that hung on its wall. "You have an hour if you want to go home first."

"Nah, I'll go straight to your house."

"Great! We can go together," Naminé smiled gleefully and took Roxas' hand in hers. Roxas blushed harder. "Your face is red, Roxas. Are you sick?"

-

He needed to tell Axel or else he would be crazy by tomorrow.

Roxas gulped as he faced Axel in front of him. Axel crossed his arms and quirked an eyebrow at the younger boy. "So, you said you want to tell me something?"

He nodded awkwardly and Axel laughed. "What's wrong with you, Rox? You didn't like yourself."

"I–" Roxas began. "Axel, IthinkIlikeyoursister," he finished in one breath.

Blink.

Blink.

"Huh? What did you say? I didn't quite catch it," the red head said, a smirk formed on his lips.

"You heard me."

"No," Axel cut short.

Roxas sighed. It seemed that fate won't let him pass this ordeal easily. "I said, I think I like your sister."

Axel raised one of his red eyebrows. "Think?"

Another sigh escaped Roxas' lips. "I like your sister."

"Like?"

Roxas let out a desperate groan and messed his already messy hair. "I love your sister! Happy now!?"

"Very much," the smirk on Axel's face couldn't get any bigger from now. He suddenly pointed a finger to Roxas' face. "You make her sad once, I'll make sure you won't live to see tomorrow, got it memorized?"

"Yes, Sir!"

-

He couldn't do it.

Everytime he opened his mouth to confess his feeling to Naminé, the usual nervousness came to him; his voice wouldn't come out and his whole body became stiff.

Naminé, being Naminé, always looked at him in concern and placed one hand on Roxas' forehead whenever his face turning red. And Roxas, being Roxas, always pulled away quickly and ran as fast as he could.

And it had become a habit for both of them in this past week.

Roxas was riding on his skateboard when he saw a familiar flaxen-haired girl on the side of the road, walking alone. She had her crème-colored sketchbook on her hand and her eyes were focused onto the sky.

This was a now or never situation for Roxas. He promised he wouldn't forgive himself if he messed up this confession.

He heaved a sigh and decided to call Naminé, while also trying to stop his skateboard. "Naminé, Naminé!"

The said girl changed her attention to the voice that was calling her. She cringed a little when she heard a loud thud coming from Roxas.

Roxas rubbed the back of his head before looking at his skateboard. "Thank goodness, it's not broken."

"You're worried about your skateboard more than your own life?" Naminé asked with a chuckle, bending down next to Roxas. "Roxas, you just fell from your skateboard!"

He grinned sheepishly at her before answering, "Well, if my skateboard broken, Cloud and Ven wouldn't let me borrow their money to fix this. They're stingy."

"You can be such a fool sometimes, you know that?" she said, smiling.

"I–" he hesitated. "I might be a fool, but this fool is in love with you," he said quickly, before looking away. His face flushed.

Naminé looked at the boy in front of him with wide eyes while Roxas waited for Naminé to respond.

"Wha– is that– Roxas?"

"I love you, Naminé," Roxas said, now looking straight into her blue eyes. "I don't know why it took me so long to tell you that."

The flaxen-haired girl smiled. "That sounds just like you."

He stood up before helping Naminé to stand on her feet. "So?"

"Do you always this impatient?" she asked playfully, dusting her skirt before looking at the boy dearly. "I love you too, Roxas."

"Really?"

She giggled. "You didn't believe me?"

Roxas shook his head and put his hand on her cheek. He slowly shortened the distance between them and…

"I wouldn't do that if I were you, kid," Axel said, leaning on his house's doorframe. The couple pulled away as quickly as they can; Naminé silently glared at her brother and Roxas lifted his skateboard up.

"Why? Do you hate me?" the red head asked with a knowing smirk. "I was just worried since I arrived earlier than Naminé."

Naminé glanced at Roxas and gave him a sympathetic smile. "Do you want to come in, Roxas? We still have some sea-salt ice creams in the freezer."

Roxas nodded slightly and sighed. He failed to get a kiss from Naminé, but he was sure he would get it very soon.

As he followed Naminé back to her house, he didn't fail to notice a menacing glare came from Axel's direction.

On the second thought, he might get the kiss sometime later.

…end.

AN: It's actually nice to write Axel as Naminé's brother.

A review would be very much appreciated. Thanks for reading. :)