Upon finding no Kairine that I liked (and seeing that there were only four pages of it) I decided to take matters into my own hands.
Dedicated to my darling BriKyo, who plants rainbows in my mind.
Why Is It So Dark In Here?
Chapter 1: Hey, Look! A Towel!
Larxene and I aren't friends. We just aren't. I'm more like her gopher, her puppy dog, her whatever she wants me to be right that second. So that's why, when Larxene wants to go gawk (there's no nicer way to put it) at the school's latest student, I am forced along. It's just how I'm forced.
As we descend the stairs, Larxene sneers at something. "Did you hear those queers want a club?"
"What?" More confused, less incredulous.
"Yeah. Riku and Sora and those queero bastards. Sick, right?"
I actually don't care. I really don't. It's none of my business what gay people do on their own time. It really isn't. But Larxene is just so hateful that I'm terrified of what she'll do if the faculty lets this club go through.
Larxene's friends (Not my friends. I don't have friends, really.) wave her over to their side of the cafeteria, but she's looking for a new body in a lunch room of 600 or so familiar faces. Instead of a new body, I see neon colors and hair glue. That's the table she drags me toward.
The table isn't really a clique. It's half a clique. And their not really a clique, because anyone who's gay is probably here. So, it's more of a posse or something. I recognize everyone there. Riku was in my homeroom during junior high, Tidus was my Chem partner last year, Sora is in my art class this year.
"Hey," Larxene addresses someone across the table, completely ignoring Sora and everyone else. "You must be the new girl."
"Yeah," says a girl with hair like Cherry Cola and eyes like a waterfall. "I'm Kairi." She extends her hand and she and Larxene shake in the middle.
"I'm Larxene. This is Namine."
"Nice to meet you. Hi, Namine." I smile. My name sounds good in her voice.
Larxene plops down, which indicates for me to do the same. The way we've stationed ourselves, Larxene next to a very irritated Riku and Kairi's messenger bag is touching my leg. While Larxene makes nice with Kairi about how different Hollow Bastion must be, Riku glares smoking holes in the table and Sora beams at how everyone's getting along, I'm dying to get out my sketch book.
Truth: Sketching is the one thing I'm good at. I'm not athletic, I can't sing and I'm not a genius, but I'm very good at capturing form on paper. I've drawn everyone at this table at least once. Except Kairi. Now I want to sketch her, but it would look so awkward if I just yank out my book and pencils and say, "Could you tilt your head a bit?"
Kairi tilts her head in the exact direction I wanted and I feel my hand snaking down to my backpack, but she's only leaning over me to hear what Larxene whispers into her ear. Kairi's face slackens, and then looks very amused.
"Yeah, I already knew."
"Really? But he's so very… discreet about it." Kairi gets a look similar to what Riku got when Larxene initially sat down. I pale. Tell me that Larxene didn't just make an enemy out of her! Tell me that Larxene didn't just do that! "You know, I think I need to go. I'll leave Namine here though. Poor thing has no friends her own age."
With a heavy clamp on my shoulder, Larxene leaves me with a table of people who must hate me. I feel an anxiety attack coming on but my butt is glued to the table. Rather than lynch me, the whole table seems to relax.
"God, she's mean." Kairi sits back and sips on a vanilla bean Coolatta. She looks at me. "You two aren't really friends, are you?" She says it like a question, but it's not an interrogative question so much as a shocked comment.
My first instinct is to protect Larxene and lie. I don't like Larxene, but she is the closest thing I have to a friend. My second instinct reminds me that Larxene basically is a playground bully. Tell the truth.
"Not really."
"I didn't think so," Kairi says, laying a hand on my back. "You're too nice for her." A bit more experimentally, Kairi's fingers probe my back. "You're really tense. Want a massage?"
Sora encourages me. "Kairi could massage a zombie and he'd be a person again. Let her."
Well, God, what else can I do? I lay my head on the table and Kairi gets up behind me, kneading the tense muscles in my back. She talks to Sora while making me (figuratively) drool in pleasure.
"You're still putting that club together, right? The GSA?"
What's a GSA? Sora seems to know. "No, not a GSA. Take out the 'S.'"
Kairi whistles. "That's pretty bold, but it could happen. Our old school had a regular old GSA, but if you want to reach for the stars."
"Really?" Riku leans forward.
They go off, talking about faculty and didn't this person get mad and, eventually, Kairi taps my shoulder. "Namine?" My name still sounds good there. "You're going to be late for class."
Oh God! I heave my bag onto my shoulders and dash off. "See you in Art!" Art? Oh yeah, Sora takes Art class with me. Funny how that works.
