Chapter 1

Naminé sighed contentedly. She was lounging in a warm bath, eyes closed, recuperating after a long, exhausting plane ride. It had been especially agonizing because of some random baby on the plane that had been wailing its heart out the entire time. She had been unable to fall asleep and as soon as her family had reached their destination she ran into the bathroom, locked the door, and drawn a bath for herself.

She heard voices going past the door. She opened her eyes. She sighed again, but this time out of relative despair. Naminé was an only child, and her parents had never really been in tune with her feelings. They had decided, her junior year of high school, to go on a year-long tour of the world. For just the two of them and two family friends. Those two family friends were married, and they too had one child. These two sets of parents had been friends for a long time, and so they felt no qualms about sticking their kids together for a year as they traveled the globe.

Unfortunately, the two of them had never met. Naminé had no idea who this kid was, and her parents were too occupied with travel plans to tell her very much. She could remember asking them a couple weeks ago when they announced their plans.

"…So, you want me to live with some random kid I've never seen in my life?" she had asked them, rather incredulously.

Her mother had simply laughed. "You've met him before. When you were very young."

Naminé had raised her eyebrows. "It's a boy?"

Her father looked up from the pamphlets he had been reading. "He's your age. I'm sure you two will get along fine."

Naminé had paused. She really didn't want to stay with a boy. For a year. "Why can't I go with you?"

Her father had looked sternly at her over the rim of his glasses. "We're done with our education. You, on the other hand, are not."

"Why couldn't you have gone when I was in college? When I wasn't living with you?!" She was usually very composed, but this was something big. "Why couldn't you have done this for a week, not a year?"

"Naminé." Her mother also looked sternly at her. What was with adults and stern looks? "Don't whine. It's not becoming."

Silence had ensued, and the conversation had ended rather abruptly. Naminé had fumed in her room for a couple hours before calling her friends and telling them that she would not be going to school with them next year. Apparently this kid lived far away, so she would basically have to rebuild her entire life.

The weeks had flown by and the family had traveled to Naminé's new "home." By then she had resigned herself to her unfortunate fate – her parents were very firm, and what they said was what happened.

Naminé had been stewing in the bath for forty-five minutes now. There were two bathrooms in the apartment she was to stay in, but with four other people (the kid was out somewhere with friends and the four parents didn't have to leave for their flight to Australia for another half an hour or so) in the premises, she was sure that one bathroom probably didn't serve them well.

She stepped out of the bath, grabbed a towel, and wrapped it around her body. She could tell that the parents were in the kitchen, laughing. Her things were in the room a door down from the bathroom, and she had been planning on quickly stealing into her room to change. So, she hadn't brought any clothes with her into the bathroom.

She was standing in front of the tub, watching the water drain away when she heard the bathroom door open behind her. She whipped around to see a boy (she assumed it was the kid) standing there, eyes wide. Her mouth dropped open as her eyes flitted from the unlocked door to the boy. Her first reaction was to scream.

"Get out!" She ran for the door, slammed it, and firmly locked it. She couldn't believe it. A boy had just walked in on her in the bathroom! Alright, she had a towel on, but it was only a towel! Breathing heavily, she pressed her ear to the door.

She heard pounding footsteps run towards the kitchen. "Dad! Since when was there – " He must have seen her parents. "Um. Hello." There was an awkward silence.

"Roxas, dear! I haven't seen you in such a long time!" Her mother was the speaker. "You've grown so much."

Naminé sighed in relief. Now they were in conversation for at least thirty more seconds. She had time to run to her new room. She quietly unlocked the door, looked around cautiously, and bolted. Once safely inside her room, she changed in a matter of minutes and then walked, still fuming, into the kitchen.

She saw the boy – Roxas, his name was? – sitting sheepishly at the table as his parents talked about him. "Naminé!" Her father stood up. "This is Roxas."

She paused and fixed her eyes on the blond boy, who was deliberating avoiding her gaze. "Yes. I know."

"Naminé…" her father looked at her warningly. She wasn't being polite, was she?

She plastered on a smile. If Roxas was smart, he would be able to tell it was fake. "Hello, Roxas. I'm Naminé. It's very nice to meet you." She stuck her hand out for him to shake.

He still didn't meet her eyes. "Nice to meet you too." He shook her hand and quickly dropped it.

"So!" Roxas' mother stood up from the table. She looked at her watch. "We really should be going now." There was a scuffle of movement as all the parents got up from their chairs and went into the front room to get their things.

Roxas and Naminé followed, keeping the distance between them. As they were leaving, Roxas' mother turned around. "You know our phone numbers and the hotel numbers, right, Roxas? I left them all by the phone in the kitchen. It has our entire trip plan there. If you need anything, don't hesitate to call."

His father also turned around. "Just don't call in the middle of the night. Try to be aware of the time zones!" And they left without another word.

An awkward silence settled upon the two teenagers as they stood rather stoically in front of the door. Naminé was feeling distinctly uncomfortable – she didn't want the whole year to be as awkward as this, but the boy had walked in on her in the bathroom…!

There was a cough. Roxas had pivoted on his heel and was walking towards the kitchen. Naminé watched him leave, and then walked into her room. She didn't bother locking the door. She pulled out her laptop from one of the boxes she had sent over and turned it on. She decided to play The Sims and inserted the CD.

A real-time hour and four burned-down stoves later, Naminé grew bored. The silence in the apartment was uncanny and unnerving. She decided to go into the kitchen, where she assumed Roxas would be. Boys and food usually went well together… but unfortunately, no one was there. She wanted to apologize for screaming at him.

She heard a door slam. "He must have gone out again," she sighed, talking to no one in particular. She wandered around the kitchen aimlessly for a couple minutes, and then decided that she needed to use the bathroom. She walked down the surprisingly long hallway and pushed open the door.

Naminé hadn't been expecting anything of the bathroom – it was just a bathroom, after all – but she had not been expecting Roxas to be in there. He was mostly undressed, except for his boxers, and was clearly preparing to take a shower. So he hadn't been going out after all.

Her hand was still on the doorknob when she saw him. "Uhh…" was the most coherent response she could give. Thankfully, Roxas seemed to be somewhat more composed than her. He didn't even look at her. "Damn, what is wrong with the lock on this door?!" He grabbed the knob on the other side of the door and slammed it closed.

There was a moment's silence, and then –

"Um, I'm going to make dinner now." Naminé ventured. She paused before gingerly making her way into the kitchen.

While she was walking, Roxas' voice wafted out of the bathroom. "Okay." She heard the water turn on.

Well, at least he didn't seem that mad.

She had just finished making pasta when Roxas emerged, fully clothed, from the bathroom. His hair was still wet but it had already reformed the usual spikes. He hung around Naminé as she finished stirring; then, he got out two bowls and handed them to her. "Oh, thanks…" she said, rather uncertainly, as she spooned macaroni and cheese into the bowls.

They seated themselves in silence and began to eat. Naminé was mid-bite when she finally decided to say something. "Roxas – I'm so sorry about that. Back there."

He did not look up from his bowl.

Now she was afraid that he was angry. "…Roxas?"

Roxas still refused to look up, but he did say something. "It's okay, really. I… I walked in on you too, so I guess we're even." He half-mumbled this.

Annoyance passed over Naminé's face (Roxas, obviously, did not see). "Roxas." She looked straight at his hair, where his eyes should have been if he hadn't been staring down his food. "Roxas, look at me."

He looked up. Rather reluctantly. While still chewing.

She had had something to say, but she hadn't expected him to look up. That surprised her. "Um." What was she going to say?! "I – I really don't want this to be – to be more awkward than it already is. So would you please – " she emphasized the word, " – please talk to me?"

There was silence. He swallowed. "What do you want me to say?"

Naminé stirred her macaroni nervously. "I don't know. Something about yourself? I don't really know you…" she trailed off feebly.

Roxas raised his eyebrows, and then leaned back in his chair. "Well, I'm Roxas, as you seem to know, seeing as you've said it a lot in the past minute." He continued to talk about himself – so much, in fact, that Naminé felt as if she knew everything about him.

He was just about to tell her about all of his friends at school when she interrupted him. "Why are you telling me all of this? I'm sure I don't need to know all of this."

He looked at her as if she was retarded. "School starts tomorrow. There's a strange girl" – Namine was affronted – "Well, you're new around here. Anyways, there's a new girl living with me. It's just the two of us. I've told all my friends that we're cousins." He gestured to her. "And that won't be hard to believe, since we do have some physical resemblances." Naminé assumed he was referring to the fact that both were blond and had blue eyes (they were a little different, but if his friends were that dim-witted…).

"That doesn't mean I have to know everything about you!" Naminé had grown irritated over Roxas' monologue.

Roxas chuckled and leaned over the table towards her. "You see, I'm generally very close to my extended family members. You," he waved his spoon at her, "are no exception."

She waved her spoon back at him. "Then you should know something about me." She paused, thinking of what to say, and then realized something – "And you should start referring to me by my name, if we're cousins."

"Right… uh… ?" He seemed to have forgotten her name.

"Naminé." She glared at him.

"I'm only kidding. Right, Naminé." He smirked.

"Of course."

"No, seriously, go on. Tell me about yourself."

She cast him an irritated glance. He raised his eyebrows. "Go on, dear Naminé."

"We might pretend to be related, but never, never put 'dear' in front of my name again."

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The next day dawned bright and crisp, and Naminé was waiting for Roxas to lead her to school. The former had spent fifteen minutes putting on his uniform while Naminé waited patiently for him in the sitting room, dressed, watching the morning news.

Roxas ran out of his room, looking rather frazzled. "Sorry," he told her, adjusting his tie. "They decided to change uniforms this year and I accidentally lost part of it." He pulled on the navy blazer that completed the outfit.

Naminé stood up from her comfortable seat on the sofa. "What did the old uniform look like?" she asked, as the two walked out of the apartment. She pushed the down button for the elevator.

Roxas was still pulling at his tie. "Umm… basically, it was just the dress shirt and tie." He paused. "Oh, and the pants. Or skirt, in your case. They changed some of the colors this year."

Naminé looked down. Generally, she was pleased with the uniform. It consisted of a white shirt, red tie, a bizarrely colored sweatervest, the navy blazer, and a gray skirt (gray pants for Roxas). "Well, I like this one…"

Roxas sighed. "I don't, really. Much more trouble than it's worth." The elevator was descending. There was silence as the doors opened and they walked out. Even after their talk, there was still awkwardness between the two. It had only been one day – what else was Naminé expecting?

Roxas walked the short distance to the school, Naminé trailing a small distance behind him, taking in her surroundings. When they finally got there, Roxas ran to talk to some boy – someone she assumed to be his best friend, Sora. They were talking animatedly. She walked past them, still looking around, when Roxas turned to her. "And this," he grabbed Naminé's sleeve, "is my cousin, Naminé, the one I told you about last week, remember?"

Sora smiled. She could tell, instantly, that he was beyond nice. "Hi, Naminé! I'm Sora." He stuck out his hand for her to shake.

Naminé returned the smile. "Nice to meet you, Sora." She shook his hand.

Sora looked down at his watch. "Ah, sorry, Roxas, Naminé – " he gave a polite nod in her direction, " – I have to go, meet Kairi, you know…"

Roxas and Naminé waved him off. Roxas, who was taller than Naminé, bent down to whisper in her ear. "Kairi's his girlfriend – I don't think I mentioned her. Anyways, I forgot to tell you about this one girl, her name is – "

There came an earsplitting squeal from behind Naminé. It was loud enough to make her scream (she used all her self-restraint to keep from doing so), but not loud enough so that the entire school could hear. "Roxas!"

Roxas jumped two feet away from Naminé. "Ah, damn…" Roxas muttered, grimacing, before turning around to brightly smile at the owner of the voice. "Hi, Olette…"

This Olette girl, it seemed to Naminé, radiated hyperactivity and energy. "How was your summer?"

Roxas shrugged. "Fine, I guess." There was a pause, and he seemed to have suddenly remembered Naminé. "Oh, Olette, this is my cousin, Naminé. She's going to be staying with me for a year, since our parents are gone."

Olette nodded. "Nice to meet you, Naminé!" She waved lightly. Naminé inclined her head politely and smiled. "I've got to be off, Roxas, I'm late for a student council meeting…"

Roxas waved. "See you later, Olette."

When she was out of sight, Roxas turned back to Naminé. "Sorry about that. Olette…" he stopped to think. "Olette likes me. A lot. And if you weren't my cousin and she knew that we lived together, she might come kill you."

Naminé looked affronted. "But I'm not related to you."

Roxas looked around nervously. "Which is why you can't let anyone know. Gossip here spreads like wildfire, and if anyone even gets a hint that you're not my cousin…" He drew his finger along his neck.

Naminé got the message.

Author's Note:
This story isn't that unrealistic, I hope. Not to me, at least – one of my friends' parents will be doing this in a year or so. "This" being abandoning their kids and traveling around the world :D And I half can't believe I'm writing Kingdom Hearts right now, especially in the wake of Deathly Hallows, which was, by the way, spectacular (five hours of reading).

I really have nothing against Olette. I think she's a fantastic character in-game but because I'm also not too keen on making an OC and because I need another female character outside of Naminé and Kairi, Olette's my guinea pig :) I hope you enjoyed this new story.

Thanks to those of you who read this story! I am eternally grateful.